This week, two major Pastors were out-ed in public making statements about tithing that are very, very easily disproved by anyone who reads the Bible simply, many who have spent years reading the Bible, and millions who testify of having the Holy Spirit.
The statements grieved my spirit. They grieved my spirit deeply, not least because these are people that many have good reason to respect. I even among those faithful.
But I got over my anger quickly, because anger clouds judgement. However the danger of what their statements represent requires considered response, especially from people of faith. People of elaborate faith.
It is important to remember that for many of us who grew up religion, in a very religious nation, many of our religion/spiritual leaders aren’t respected because of their spiritual or theological insights or wisdom.
Make that simple: Many Nigerians don’t really respect their Pastors because of their deep spirituality. They respect their pastors because their pastors are commercially (financially) successfully.
In our space, our biggest pastors are respected the ways those in many other societies respect entrepreneurial giants. America’s Jobs is some Nigerian’s Oyedepo. Britain’s Branson is some Nigerian’s Idahosa.
And that’s not meant as a value judgement. Just as a statement of observable fact. People derive ‘wisdom’ from the role models in their environment. So if someone wants to be rich, he often takes his cue from those who have become rich in his environment.
And for many Nigerians, those who have become very rich, very fmaous, very powerful, and who they can see and observe from directly are Pastors. Specifically, Pentecostal Pastors.
So for a Daddy Adeboye, when you see a man who has achieved the pinnacles of earthly success - fame, influence, etc - and also has qualities that are in fact worth emulating - public and righteous humility, a deeply innovative mindset. People respect that.
They want to be like him. And they assume that to be like him, what he says about Reality, including about God is the truth. All of it. To be like him, you have to believe everything he says, do everything he says. Literally model your life after him.
So, I have always deeply admired Rev Funke Adejumo. And TBH, I still do. And I realize it’s not because I have ever sat under her ministration, or found myself deeply convicted by any of her messages.
For me, it’s because she is a very powerful symbol. In a country with very few female role models, she was (and is) a powerful symbol of what a woman can do. Especially in religion, where powerful female images are very rare.
There are so many powerful reasons to admire ‘Mummy Adejumo’. Including her marriage. In a patriarchal society, a woman who works with she husband in unity, as far as we see, even when transparently ‘outshining’ him. She is a symbol of possibilities.
Many of our pastors, because they are some of our most famous people, and the ones we hear from the most, are symbols of possibilities. The one from Ekpoma who becomes a global symbol. The ‘illiterate’ whom presidents pay homage to etc.
So because we want to have their lives, many of us do whatever it is they do. Act however they dictate. They sat tithes made them the successes they are, so we do same. They say ‘night vigils’ gave them their power, so we do same. Etc etc.
(Of course, I have been a church boy all my life, so I know for a fact that there are many people who practice these ‘rituals’ for whom nothing changes. For a number of reasons, top of which is the fact that contexts are different.)
But this feedback loop leads to a major, major problem: what I call ‘the tyranny of personal experience’.
‘The tyranny of personal experience’ is when a person insists that for you to succeed, you MUST do what the person did. You MUST trust the person’s total wisdom. If you don’t do what that person says, you are bad and you will.
‘The tyranny of personal experience’ is when a person insists that because this is the way I succeeded, this is the ONLY way to succeed, and if you don’t do as I do, or do as I say, you are a fool, and worthy of condemnation.
It’s a tyranny that assumes that because I did this and it worked, I must be a genius who has discovered the secret of all life and all reality. I have uncovered the key of life, and all must listen or be damned.
The tyranny of personal experience ignores the place of luck, of context, of first mover advantage, of opportunity, of inequality, of everything, pricing narrow personal experience above all else
There is nothing worse than when the tyranny of personal experience is turbo-charged by the perspective of divine authority. What ensures is often oppression, coercion, threats.
And that is how we arrived at the apogee of this tyranny of personal experience when a MAN/WOMAN (a creation just like you) tells us that if we do not pay our tithes, we will NOT go to heaven.
We reach the apogee of the tyranny of personal experience when a MAN/WOMAN tells you that if you don’t pay your tithe you are a FOOL. Because he/she paid tithe, paying tithe correlates with success, and so he or she is now so convinced.
Of course this persons often ignore the majority of church goers (the vast majority, I dare say over 90%) who go to church regularly, do everything they are asked, pay tithes, and still fail.
Because of X prophesy that led to successful political appointment, Y advise that led to a successful marriage for another person, and Z prayer that led to placebo-correlated remission for yet another person.
This ignored the very, very, very, very vast majority of others for whom those same prayers, that same advise, that same prescription did not work. The person wielding advise is fully convinced of his or her infallibility.
In this case, this tyranny knows that Bill Gates pays no tithes and succeeds financially, Dangote pays no tithe and continues to triumph, Chinese billionaires are atheists and now rule the world. So the only recourse for enforcing tithe doctrine is threat of divine punishment.
This week should be a wake up call to all people of faith, as organized Christianity continues its inevitable evolution from a place where the Pastor’s word is final, to one where we all claim the (always-been-there) direct relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Drop your fear behind. Think with faith, and confidence in God# love. Even if this doctrine of tithes were true. The hate, the venom, the utter lack of love, the intimidation with which our ‘fathers in the Lord’ have approached being challenged is deplorable.
I am deeply ashamed of their public conduct, deeply grieved that this is the theology of fear that has held many of us hostage over decades. And one has to be ask, respectfully, that they repent. Doubling down on error wil win the body of Christ no respect. We need them to repent
As a Christian, spend some time in prayerful reflection and think about the videos we have seen over the past few months. Is this what Christianity is? Ask in your heart of hearts. Is this the way people should teach others? Is this the way they should confront naysayers?
My spirit bears witness, that if we go beyond the fear of ‘Ah, I can’t argue with a man of God o’, or ‘He was the one who preached and I found God’ or ‘An old Person must be right’, we know that this is not right. We know that this is not lovely, or good conduct.
What is happening now goes beyond tithe. Those who spend enough time in reflection may already know this. This is about a shaking of the table of religious dogma. Something is happening in Nigerian (and then West African) Christianity.
The heavens themselves are calling for us to reconsider a faith of blind following. Treating men like Gods even if they are ‘Men of God’. And turning churches into fan-filled cults. This moment is asking for Christians to spit at fear based theology and embrace love and faith .
To look beyond men. To read that bible for yourself. To ask bold questions of it, and refuse to shut down your mind or intuition because someone else says so. To ask for God of yourself, to find him of yourself. To build a relationship.
Pay attention, very closely, Fellow Christian, Fellow traveler, to what this deep, transmogrification, significant moment is saying to you. There is a still small voice saying to all of us, quietly, gently: Re-consider. Re-consider. Re-consider.
May God’s love give us the faith and power to be the best that he has called us to be. Amen.
