Despicable Them

During the ebola virus scare in Nigeria last year, I read this post about Nigeria's very own TB Joshua, of the collapsed building fame. He was called a conman, which is exactly what he is. I really cannot describe what I feel whenever I see hundreds of thousands of desperate (and quite frankly, stupid) people from all over Nigeria, Africa, and elsewhere around the world literally falling over themselves to see this semi-illiterate charlatan, and snake oil salesman.
The situation is not different at the mega premises of his brother 'men of god'. Shiloh, David Oyedepo's Living Faith Church's annual crusade promises financial breakthroughs (you have to "sow a seed" first, of course), jobs, marriage for overdue spinsters and so much more. These promises will only appeal to the desperate. There will always be people with such problems, and more, as listed above, but what they need is most definitely not the false promises of these most callous, and despicable of men.

One cannot help but compare these charlatans and their places of worship to the drug cartels of Mexico. The rise of the Mexican drug cartels is very well documented, but it is their brutality, which cannot even be rivalled by terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al Shabaab, that sets them apart. These cartels are only interested in one thing: money. The novelty of their cruelty, their mercilessness and vindictiveness are all a means to this singular end. It is not different with the Nigerian churches. In fact, it is exactly the same.

Everything the churches do, without exception, are all designed to create a seamless super highway from the pockets and bank accounts of their congregants to the churches' coffers. Like the drug cartels, there is nothing too low for them to do to keep the money flowing in. The video below shows veteran conman televangelist, Pat Robertson, asking a woman in her 80's, who could barely make ends meet, to source for money so she could continue to pay tithe.

We surely have witnessed similar occurences with our very own conmen televangelists. The sad part is that many Nigerian christians continue to pay tithes and give offerings they can barely afford, not to help to 'spread the gospel', but so they can reap the benefits of doing such. Let us also not forget that the need to tithe fuels financial corruption by encouraging christian civil servants and political office holders to misappropriate public funds.