Another holier than thou so-called man of God recently sent me an inbox message on Facebook about how ONLY PRAYERS and not protest and activism will save Nigeria.
As a deeply biblical and spiritually accomplished Christian myself, I'm highly conversant with the unquestionable enormity of the POWERS OF PRAYERS. There's no denying it. And my tongue is repleted with thanksgiving to God everyday for providing us with a direct link to Him through fasting and prayers.
As a deeply biblical and spiritually accomplished Christian myself, I'm highly conversant with the unquestionable enormity of the POWERS OF PRAYERS. There's no denying it. And my tongue is repleted with thanksgiving to God everyday for providing us with a direct link to Him through fasting and prayers.
But the same God also made it succinctly clear in His scriptures that FAITH without WORKS is DEAD.
So we cannot simply pray and anticipate the manna of civil, political, social justice and freedom to fall down from heaven and make everything alright without us lifting a dutiful finger to do the necessary work.
And I can't help but wonder if the relative freedom black folks in the diaspora enjoys across the world today would have been possible if civil rights leaders like the blessed REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR had resigned his vision of freedom for ALL to the restrictive and defeatist spiritual demeanor of most of these so-called men of God who, if we are to get away from political correctness and call a spade a spade as my brother Kay Kool would say, have actually metamorphosed into self-professed gods of men.
So we cannot simply pray and anticipate the manna of civil, political, social justice and freedom to fall down from heaven and make everything alright without us lifting a dutiful finger to do the necessary work.
And I can't help but wonder if the relative freedom black folks in the diaspora enjoys across the world today would have been possible if civil rights leaders like the blessed REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR had resigned his vision of freedom for ALL to the restrictive and defeatist spiritual demeanor of most of these so-called men of God who, if we are to get away from political correctness and call a spade a spade as my brother Kay Kool would say, have actually metamorphosed into self-professed gods of men.
A few years ago, I had to take a preacher friend of mine from Los Angeles who harbored the same perspective on a stroll down memory lane before he finally came down to earth from his religious cloud of shallowness and agreed that protesting against societal ills is a wonderfully worthy humane and Godly thing to do.
Folks, when this preacher friend of mine's son was wrongfully jailed for a robbery he didn't commit in LA in 93, I joined him and his family in fasting and prayers. But we didn't just stay on our knees all day praying and waiting for a miracle to happen.
Too distraught to drive, I took the wheels driving him from one criminal lawyer to another until we found a good one that was willing to take the case for the little money he could cough up coz he didn't want a court appointed lawyer.
Not only that, we canvassed the neighborhood where the alleged crime took place every day in search of witnesses who may have seen the actual perpetrator in the hope of convincing them to come forth and testify that his son wasn't the one. Our efforts actually somewhat paid off in the end as one witness, although he vehemently refused to snitch on the real criminal, assured my preacher friend that his son for sure didn't do it.
Too distraught to drive, I took the wheels driving him from one criminal lawyer to another until we found a good one that was willing to take the case for the little money he could cough up coz he didn't want a court appointed lawyer.
Not only that, we canvassed the neighborhood where the alleged crime took place every day in search of witnesses who may have seen the actual perpetrator in the hope of convincing them to come forth and testify that his son wasn't the one. Our efforts actually somewhat paid off in the end as one witness, although he vehemently refused to snitch on the real criminal, assured my preacher friend that his son for sure didn't do it.
To cut a long story short, the said witness himself got arrested in a convenient store stick up a couple of months later. And as fate would have it, his family employed the services of the same lawyer representing my preacher friend's son. Armed with the useful info the witness had provided us two months earlier, the lawyer was able to convince him to rat out the real perpetrator in my preacher friend son's case in a plea bargain deal that would drastically reduce the length of time he would have had to spend in jail for his own stick up crime.
A few days later, the real criminal was arrested. He confessed to the crime after much pressure from the detectives, and my preacher friend's son was home free.
A few days later, the real criminal was arrested. He confessed to the crime after much pressure from the detectives, and my preacher friend's son was home free.
The indisputable truth is that, if we had chosen to have only stayed on our knees praying and hoping for a miracle, his son, who already had a couple of priors, would have gotten old in jail.
So one can only imagine how completely flummoxed and agitated I was to hear the same preacher friend telling me in a conversation we had over the phone a few years ago that protesting against government is not part of the will of God for us and that prayer is all we need.
So one can only imagine how completely flummoxed and agitated I was to hear the same preacher friend telling me in a conversation we had over the phone a few years ago that protesting against government is not part of the will of God for us and that prayer is all we need.
Naturally, I was compelled to take him down memory lane and remind him of what we accomplished for his son in 93. I told him in no uncertain terms that it’s hypocritical of him to oppose civil protests that fights for justice and freedom for millions of impoverished people when he left no stone unturned in fighting for justice and freedom for his own son back in 1993. I hammered him so hard that I brought him to tears.
He finally succumbed and realized that the justice and freedom we fought for on behalf of his son is the exact same justice and freedom others are fighting corrupt governments and various constituted authorities for all around the world and that they are only rearing different heads in different cases and in different situations. Nothing could be truer. And I’m thankful that my preacher friend repented of his misguided and deceptive belief system.
He finally succumbed and realized that the justice and freedom we fought for on behalf of his son is the exact same justice and freedom others are fighting corrupt governments and various constituted authorities for all around the world and that they are only rearing different heads in different cases and in different situations. Nothing could be truer. And I’m thankful that my preacher friend repented of his misguided and deceptive belief system.
But I sincerely wonder why it’s so hard for a lot of our so-called preachers and multitudes of their followers to realize that it’s actually SELFISH, IMMORAL, and even EVIL to fight for their own personal freedom, justice, survival, etc, etc, as well as that of their family and then turn around and oppose those that are selflessly fighting for the same things on behalf of others…especially when the same bible we’re all reading from, when the same CHRIST we're all professing, admonishes us to work selflessly on behalf of others. He even set a gloriously unforgettable example of it by laying down his own life for us. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"(John 15:13)
It just sickens me to the bone when many of these shiftless-egoistical-good for nothing so-called preachers cannot get their filthy lucre seeking heads out of their asses and see the truth for what it really is even when there are multiple scriptural references and evidences to back it up. So I’m compelled to ask…..are the likes of these gods of men really worshipping God or the devil?
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