Stop preaching miracles, prosperity, Catholic Priest tells religious leaders.

FOR the craze for miracles which had resulted in so many social challenges in Nigeria to be surmounted, religious leaders should urgently drop the habit of preaching about signs, wonders, and prosperity.

The failure to stop these would increase the quest for materialism in Nigeria and frustrate any effort at ensuring that the principles of right and wrong were restored in the country. 

These admonitions, which reflected the current situation in Nigeria where the quest for materialism as evident in the ongoing corruption cases in the country, were noted recently by the Parish Priest of Saint Agnes Catholic Church, Ichida, Rev Fr. Boniface Ezeoke.

 Ezeoke, who highlighted the various means through which Nigerians go astray in the quest to get rich, noted that religious leaders were to blame for the elevation of materialism against patriotism and humility in the country. 

His words: “Our pulpit must stop talking about miracles and breakthroughs because our youths want to hear that through miracles and breakthroughs, people can get something out of nothing. I repeat that you can never get something out of nothing. 

What they are being told is that it is possible to reap what they did not sow. It is impossible. It was Saint Paul, who admonished his admirers in the church at Thessalonika that he who doesn’t work shouldn’t eat. 

The national psyche of Nigerians today is more like “if it is ripe pluck it if it is unripe do the same thing.” Man must labour before he is able to eat. Today the shout of “I claim it’’ is renting the air from our exalted pulpits. 

What are you claiming? Whose labour are you claiming? Let the truth be told from the pulpit to our teaming youths going out of our churches. 

“My dear pastors and priests, our churches have largely contributed to the rot in the society. Our messages of instant gratification have created a generation of people, who only want to see instant results, immediate relief, and a painless profit. This is not the natural course of nature or a normal way of doing things. 

For our youths to change, our messages must also change. For our nation to change, the messages from our pulpit must also change. We must begin to deliver relevant homilies which are relevant and capable of uplifting souls. 

Instead of messages that only promise blessings, miracles, breakthroughs, and wonders, we should replace these messages with preaching on virtues such as hard work, creativity, dedication, commitment, perseverance, diligence, and responsibility.”

The failure to stop these would increase the quest for materialism in Nigeria and frustrate any effort at ensuring that the principles of right and wrong were restored in the country. These admonitions, which reflected the current situation in Nigeria where the quest for materialism as evident in the ongoing corruption cases in the country, were noted recently by the Parish Priest of Saint Agnes Catholic Church, Ichida, Rev Fr. Boniface Ezeoke. Ezeoke, who highlighted the various means through which Nigerians go astray in the quest to get rich, noted that religious leaders were to blame for the elevation of materialism against patriotism and humility in the country. His words: “Our pulpit must stop talking about miracles and breakthroughs because our youths want to hear that through miracles and breakthroughs, people can get something out of nothing. I repeat that you can never get something out of nothing. What they are being told is that it is possible to reap what they did not sow. It is impossible. It was Saint Paul, who admonished his admirers in the church at Thessalonika that he who doesn’t work shouldn’t eat. The national psyche of Nigerians today is more like “if it is ripe pluck it if it is unripe do the same thing.” Man must labour before he is able to eat. Today the shout of “I claim it’’ is renting the air from our exalted pulpits. What are you claiming? Whose labour are you claiming? Let the truth be told from the pulpit to our teaming youths going out of our churches. “My dear pastors and priests, our churches have largely contributed to the rot in the society. Our messages of instant gratification have created a generation of people, who only want to see instant results, immediate relief, and a painless profit. This is not the natural course of nature or a normal way of doing things. For our youths to change, our messages must also change. For our nation to change, the messages from our pulpit must also change. We must begin to deliver relevant homilies which are relevant and capable of uplifting souls. Instead of messages that only promise blessings, miracles, breakthroughs, and wonders, we should replace these messages with preaching on virtues such as hard work, creativity, dedication, commitment, perseverance, diligence, and responsibility.”

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stop-preaching-miracles-prosperity-catholic-priest-tells-religious-leaders/

FOR the craze for miracles which had resulted in so many social challenges in Nigeria to be surmounted, religious leaders should urgently drop the habit of preaching about signs, wonders, and prosperity.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stop-preaching-miracles-prosperity-catholic-priest-tells-religious-leaders/

FOR the craze for miracles which had resulted in so many social challenges in Nigeria to be surmounted, religious leaders should urgently drop the habit of preaching about signs, wonders, and prosperity.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stop-preaching-miracles-prosperity-catholic-priest-tells-religious-leaders/

FOR the craze for miracles which had resulted in so many social challenges in Nigeria to be surmounted, religious leaders should urgently drop the habit of preaching about signs, wonders, and prosperity.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stop-preaching-miracles-prosperity-catholic-priest-tells-religious-leaders/