This is only the first part in a series of articles that I shall be writing over the next few weeks on this subject. Although it may be so interpreted by misinformed Christians, neither the motivation for this article nor its content is meant as an attack on evangelical pastors. That said, anyone who wants or expects me to defend my status as a Christian has another thought coming and would be wasting his/her time. I have neither desire nor interest in joining the ranks of modern-day Pharisees who stand on high mountains of arrogance and deceit to proclaim and show off their professed commitment to Christ while taking upon themselves the role of deciding who is a Christian and who isn’t; who is heaven-bound and who isn’t. It seems to me that such decisions should be left to God who alone sees the inside of the human heart and knows best.
For anyone wondering why this is addressed to evangelical pastors, the reason is simple: pastors of traditional churches have always known that they are not God and they have always been willing to accept their status as fallible beings. They have also always taken the words of Christ to mean exactly what He said. So they avoid judging others just because Christ said not to, and they do not take on the role of choosing who should go to heaven because they actually believe that the Psalmist was right that “…all power belongs to God”.
When a pastor in Nigeria physically assaults a child during a church service because the child denies his accusation that she is a witchcraft adherent, that pastor has obviously assigned to himself the roles of judge, jury and executioner – none of which the Bible assigns to any pastor. When his congregation watches and applauds what the pastor is doing when he does that, they become cheer-leading grave diggers at gallows in a hall that is supposed to be a peaceful solace for healing and deliverance. When another African pastor commands his congregation to eat soil and grass, and they comply, that preacher becomes an oppressive dictator holding court in a house where he is supposed to feed God’s children with the Bread of life. When an American evangelical pastor preaches hate and money over salvation or tells his congregation that he saw God wearing a blue suit, he operates outside the word of God and ascribes to himself the kind of prowess that the Bible neither ascribes to, nor desires of man. When congregations applaud these pastors, they become no better than ignorant sycophants in a jester’s court. The Bible is either right that God is a spirit or the pastor is right that God walks around dressed in suits just like evangelical pastors but I would rather believe the Bible. Spirits do not walk around in blue suits. When pastors ride around in opulence and build universities that are beyond the financial reach of members of their congregations whose sweat and money enriched those pastors to the point that they could build those universities, such pastors are no better than greedy, oppressive users who kick the ladder aside after reaching the top of a building with the ladder’s aid.
Over the last two decades since a new wave of evangelical Christianity kicked into high gear in Africa, the people calling themselves pastors can now be be found at the rate of a dime a dozen. Too many are pastors not because of the associated responsibilities that were customary for that role but because of the financial profitability and the new powers that evangelical pastors can now wield. For example, they can (and do often) change people’s family and given names at will because they know best that the names hitherto borne by those individuals and their families were not Godly. But here is the rub: people do not become better human beings because their names have been changed, nor do they become more progressive even in human terms. Instead, they just become servants to the religious “emperors” who changed their names and fed them a lie that salvation through Jesus Christ is conditional.
It is only a question of time before this and other articles in this series result in me being an object of attacks from some evangelical Christians and their pastors who will convince them that I am (or have been) used by the devil or that I am the anti-Christ. Such a claim would ordinarily be laughable but it shouldn’t be, since it would be consistent with the manipulative modus operandi that is so commonplace with too many evangelical pastors that the time has come for all thinking, well-meaning Christians to stand up and demand truth and righteousness from those who lead the church of Christ. The Church is bigger than a single pastor and no pastor should be allowed to cause the amount of damage that so many evangelical (pentecostal) pastors are causing in today’s world.
Dear evangelical pastor, you are not the church; you are not the foundation of the Church; the Church does not belong to you; you are not the Lord of the Church of Christ. You, dear evangelical pastor, are not God.