The District Superintendent of Christ Ascension Church Nigeria, Aba, Abia State, Bishop Simeon Nwachukwu, bares his mind on national issues in a chat with Sunny Nwankwo
What is the stand of your church on same sex marriage?
The stand of my church is very clear because the Bible says that God created them male and female. After this, God said, “it is not good that a man should live alone. I will create him a helpmate; a helper that is suitable for him.”
So the Bible said that a deep sleep fell upon Adam and the Lord took one of his ribs and closed the place thereof. And of that rib, God formed a woman.
He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” So, I do not know how a man and his fellow man or a woman and a fellow woman shall be fruitful and replenish the earth.
Christ Ascension Church in particular will never speak for gay or same sex marriage in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.
Won’t that be an infringement on the right of people to freedom of worship?
I do not think so. The Bible does not support it (same sex). It is an aberration of African cultures and traditions. It also does not have any backing by the present constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
How serious is the problem of corruption that you mentioned?
Corruption has eaten deep into almost all the sectors of our economy. There is no sector that is free from corruption. In Nigeria, if you steal more, you will get lesser penalties and when you steal less, they will give you a heavier penalty. It is like governments at both the federal and state levels are paying lip service to the fight against corruption.
Corruption is done with impunity. People no longer fear the consequences of their actions as it was the case in the past when civil servants were regarded as the most honest people. People have sold out their consciences.
Majority of corrupt individuals are proudly walking freely on our streets today after they must have bought their freedom with part of the money they stole while in office.
The unfortunate thing is that, after these individuals had committed all kinds of atrocities while in office, various religious institutions, communities and different society groups’ end up giving them special recognition(s). Maybe such people donated part of the money they stole to them or they want to share part of the ‘national cake’ with them.
It has come to a point where Ministers of God and other religious leaders should question their members’ source of wealth. We see so many fraudsters, ritualists, armed robbers, etc coming to give huge donations in the church. It is not biblical for the church of God to be built with blood money.
How do you react to the flamboyant lifestyles among some preachers in Nigeria?
Well, my reaction is that some of those preachers who buy jets, establish universities where students pay N400, 000 to N1 million per session are not helping their parishioners.
For instance, schools built by these churches were money made from donations, offerings and tithes members of the church donated for the progress of God’s work. Some of the members gave their “widow’s mite”. Some went as much as borrowing to help the church complete their projects.
Building of schools by churches should be a social service the church will render for indigent members. I am not conversant with aviation laws in Nigeria but I understand that the parking space for jets is N10, 000 per day. It means that an average preacher that has a jet pays N3, 650, 000 in a year. I am sure that if you go round those churches, there are still thousands of widows, widowers and orphans who struggle to eat 3 square meals in a day.
If God has given us money, let us use it to better the lots of those rural dwellers who live under a very terrible condition of poverty and penury.
I still believe that those money that were used in the acquisition of jets and living flamboyantly can still be used in opening worship centres where people can come and find Christ and also find rest. That is what I can say about that.
How can Nigeria overcome restiveness and insurgency?
The answer is very simple. Let the federal and state governments encourage private individuals to open up more industries. They should provide job opportunities for our teeming youths to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
It is said that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. It takes someone who is godly to stay a year or seven years without a job. If the person is not consciously engaged in doing something, he may be corruptly engaged in pipeline vandalism, cultism, kidnapping, ritualism and all that.
Over a million admission seekers wrote JAMB some weeks ago and in the next five years, they will be off loaded into the saturated labour market, thereby increasing the number of job seekers.
It is unfortunate that most youth empowerment schemes floated by the federal and state government have been hijacked by corrupt individuals.
So, let federal and state government in all sincerity of purpose, do something to address the issue of unemployment in Nigeria. That will go a long way to curb youth restiveness in Nigeria.
What is the stand of your church on same sex marriage?
The stand of my church is very clear because the Bible says that God created them male and female. After this, God said, “it is not good that a man should live alone. I will create him a helpmate; a helper that is suitable for him.”
So the Bible said that a deep sleep fell upon Adam and the Lord took one of his ribs and closed the place thereof. And of that rib, God formed a woman.
He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” So, I do not know how a man and his fellow man or a woman and a fellow woman shall be fruitful and replenish the earth.
Christ Ascension Church in particular will never speak for gay or same sex marriage in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.
Won’t that be an infringement on the right of people to freedom of worship?
I do not think so. The Bible does not support it (same sex). It is an aberration of African cultures and traditions. It also does not have any backing by the present constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
How serious is the problem of corruption that you mentioned?
Corruption has eaten deep into almost all the sectors of our economy. There is no sector that is free from corruption. In Nigeria, if you steal more, you will get lesser penalties and when you steal less, they will give you a heavier penalty. It is like governments at both the federal and state levels are paying lip service to the fight against corruption.
Corruption is done with impunity. People no longer fear the consequences of their actions as it was the case in the past when civil servants were regarded as the most honest people. People have sold out their consciences.
Majority of corrupt individuals are proudly walking freely on our streets today after they must have bought their freedom with part of the money they stole while in office.
The unfortunate thing is that, after these individuals had committed all kinds of atrocities while in office, various religious institutions, communities and different society groups’ end up giving them special recognition(s). Maybe such people donated part of the money they stole to them or they want to share part of the ‘national cake’ with them.
It has come to a point where Ministers of God and other religious leaders should question their members’ source of wealth. We see so many fraudsters, ritualists, armed robbers, etc coming to give huge donations in the church. It is not biblical for the church of God to be built with blood money.
How do you react to the flamboyant lifestyles among some preachers in Nigeria?
Well, my reaction is that some of those preachers who buy jets, establish universities where students pay N400, 000 to N1 million per session are not helping their parishioners.
For instance, schools built by these churches were money made from donations, offerings and tithes members of the church donated for the progress of God’s work. Some of the members gave their “widow’s mite”. Some went as much as borrowing to help the church complete their projects.
Building of schools by churches should be a social service the church will render for indigent members. I am not conversant with aviation laws in Nigeria but I understand that the parking space for jets is N10, 000 per day. It means that an average preacher that has a jet pays N3, 650, 000 in a year. I am sure that if you go round those churches, there are still thousands of widows, widowers and orphans who struggle to eat 3 square meals in a day.
If God has given us money, let us use it to better the lots of those rural dwellers who live under a very terrible condition of poverty and penury.
I still believe that those money that were used in the acquisition of jets and living flamboyantly can still be used in opening worship centres where people can come and find Christ and also find rest. That is what I can say about that.
How can Nigeria overcome restiveness and insurgency?
The answer is very simple. Let the federal and state governments encourage private individuals to open up more industries. They should provide job opportunities for our teeming youths to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
It is said that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. It takes someone who is godly to stay a year or seven years without a job. If the person is not consciously engaged in doing something, he may be corruptly engaged in pipeline vandalism, cultism, kidnapping, ritualism and all that.
Over a million admission seekers wrote JAMB some weeks ago and in the next five years, they will be off loaded into the saturated labour market, thereby increasing the number of job seekers.
It is unfortunate that most youth empowerment schemes floated by the federal and state government have been hijacked by corrupt individuals.
So, let federal and state government in all sincerity of purpose, do something to address the issue of unemployment in Nigeria. That will go a long way to curb youth restiveness in Nigeria.
No comments:
Post a Comment