Response to Pastor Adebayo’s false claim

Pastor Adeboye and his car

SIR: Though not entitled to give an opinion because it is a news report, at the very end of
her article (The Guardian, December 30, 2008), Lisa Miller subtlely gives us grounds to
laugh at Pastor Adeboye and his Pentecostal ideology. In his masterpiece, '100 years of
Solitude,' Gabriel Marquez tells us of a primitive village where the people find it
perfectly believable that Remedios the Beauty ascended to heaven alive, lifted by angels
but they viewed with horror and repulsion the advancement of products of scientific and
technological thinking into their village.
At the first sight of a spook train with its carriages, a woman fled with horror, 'It is
coming!' she cried. 'Something frightful, like a kitchen dragging a village behind it.'
Adeboye and Pentecostalism outperform Marquez in this sense of the ridiculous. Imagine
travelling over 200 miles - like Lagos to Ilesha - with his car without petrol. Even when
Lisa Miller tried to suggest maybe his fuel gauge could be faulty, he advertisement
promptly dismissed that saying it was just God's intervention. He should have submitted
the miraculous engine for scientific analysis so that the blood of Jesus that accomplished
that feat could be produced for everyone instead of using petrol that pollute the
environment and inflict climate change.
I have said it before, the problem called pentecostalism is not in the uncontraceptive
spread of churches, it is in how they corrupt the roots of our thinking and return us
gradually to the primitive age; that is why pupils take their biros and pencils for blessings
so that they can pass examinations, that is why some dip their passports into anointing oil
with faith so that they can get visas, that is why many accept prayer and fasting in place
of good medicare, that is why many give 10 per cent of their earnings to the churches so
that this madness would have no way of stopping.
Adeboye says of his ambition: 'we want churches to be within five minutes' walk of every
person.' On my street in Ojota, Lagos, there are two churches in every 30 seconds walk.
What if instead of churches we have a functional library, a musuem or a theatre, imagine
what the country would be in 10 years! Dr. Ebenezer Obadare once reported in a journal
that Adeboye 'tops the list of a select theocratic class with a "direct line" to the corridors
of state power.' What a defining link between those who corrupt the country and those
who corrupt our thinking.
Damola

i really find the write up you sent interesting though it won't go well in many quarters in
the christian faith; damola has raised an interesting issue. really many of the things we
see in the christian faith is appauling, i really wish changes will be done.

however, i have this against his write up; he singled out an individual instead of write
from a non biased angle. except he is an athiest, there is no church presently (may be
pastor tunde bakare can be exempted) that don't have a dealing with the government.
there relationship may be constructive to some measure because it's the people that they
relate with that can really tell us how they were positively influenced by them. not all
men of God can be volatile like pastor tunde bakare; yet i don't believe that all of the ones
that have a form of dealing with the government are sychophants. like the former
president said to his advisers, their duty is just to advise. the duty of this men is the same;
prayerfully believing that the Lord will touch their hearts.

i really don't like the involvement of this men of God with the government because it
always end up bomaranging on them; but it's better to have this men around, than let the
occult take charge of them and their decision.

on the aspect of the miracle of the petrol; damola could be right that the gauge was bad (i
have two cars of my own) and that it was possible for some fuel to be left. so scientically
he may be right; however, if you have driven for quite a while, you'll know that
when there is insufficient fuel in the car because of the kind of response you will get from
it. was what was recorded a miracle? scientifically it's not, just as scientifically it's
impossible for the red sea to be parted (i think, that is more impossible to believe than a
mere fuel finishing in a car which yet took them to their destination). it's scientifically
impossible to believe that the sun stood still when joshua prayed; it's scientifically
impossible to prove that peter walked on water; it's scientifically impossible that a man
died and rose again on the 3rd day; it's scientifically impossible to believe that the
experience on the day of pentecost were people spoke other dialets really happened.
yet as a christian i believe that they did happen; though its not scientifical and logical. i
have respect for pastor adeboye; if he said he had an experience like that, i will believe in
the God that has done more than that in the past.

i agree that lots of crazy things are done all in the name of miracles; yet i blame only the
people who don't know their right from the left and who are not willing to develop
relationship with their God. a blind leader leading the blind will get them both in a ditch.
we all have access to the Bible and the Holy Spirit; if the people call christian don't play
their part then who is to blame when they fall into the hand of a player.

on the issue of building libraries, musuem and theatres; who is to blame that they are not
there... the church or the government? if you have a people in government whose children
school abroad, will they have regard for the educating their own people. the fear of
people in power is that the more you know the more you will demand for what is your
right. i really don't feel the church should be compelled to do the duties of the
government, though they should be encouraged to do community development. the
challenge i have with your right up is that you singled out a church; daystar christian
center, pastor tony rapu's church, covenant christian center etc are contributing a lot
to improve on the lot of nigerians.

i know one thing from my christian faith; we will all stand before God and be judged by
the way we live here on earth. all men of God will stand before Him to be judged by the
way they lead or mislead His people; i have choosen not to allow any man mislead me.

stay bless

pfemi
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