Olumide Goodness Adeyinka
Ridiculous! Preposterous will also fit.
The life-long battle for superiority of man over man has corrupted every strata of human life and existence. Politicians feel they are superior to the citizens who elected them; the police most times have a sense of entitlement to be above the laws of the land where other citizens dared not to venture. The battle is swift, the arsenals of the war are unimaginable, the weaponry is psychological and so the victims are unsuspecting. Somehow someway, some people must reign over others by force or by crooked means, more annoying is the style and the implications of such self-inflicted therapy of ego on the unassuming masses of our religious bodies, especially the Church.
Papa said it! Mama ordered it!! The word Papa and Mama seems so aptly used in the context of spiritual mien that our culture has so much absorbed it without check. It used to be ‘Daddy and Mummy’, but since that has become a commonplace both in the secular and spiritual parlance it is no longer sufficient to polish the horn of most of these purloining morph of humans who wants others to be obsequious in servitude.
I know many Churches where the senior Pastors are called Daddy and Mummy in the early days until when it became inadequate, improper, lacking, shy and wanting of the size and status of the “spiritual life” of the Pastors. All of a sudden from the blue moon came an order of perfidy calling on the parishioners to befit their “Men of God” with a pseudonym of Papa and Mama. Doesn’t that sound reasonable for a people who labor on the congregants day and night? Isn’t it just an adaptation of Daddy and Mummy too?
I will answer the above question, but for a second let us veer off for a second and see what power is in words and language used within us.
Words are either tools of communication or they are psychological weapons to diminish and enhance at the same time. When words become weapons, it diminishes the addressee and enhanced the addresser for a mapped out end. I am sure everyone reading this will be able to give examples of both usages of words.
When we were growing up within our families, Daddy and Mummy are simply our love objects. They represent a people that bare authority over us, but then with the added responsibility to fend for us and protect us. They provide a roof over our heads and ensure meals are served well at the right time. For as long as we were under their tutelage it was all sharp and sure. The thing with daddy and mummy though is that it does not stop us from being a little disobedient, recalcitrant and stubborn. We had our ways sometimes, and love still kept us home (the religious monarchy doesn’t tolerate recalcitrance or disobedience).
I remember vividly the people we call Papa and Mama then. They are the old helpless, retired and to-be-supported members of our family. They needed us for almost everything because they have successfully served their own time in the industry of raising a generation. We shop for them, supplement their meager income and run errands for these people.
Could that be one reason why in the religious circle, nobody wants to be a daddy and mummy anymore? The responsibilities are enormous and many simply shy away from such. Most people on the pulpit today are there for the money. I have said it before and will say it now. 80% of full-time ministers today will leave the pulpit if we all agreed to stay away from offerings, tithes and vows for a year. Just for a year! I salute with all my heart the true laborers in God’s vineyard. More grace and more successes in your endeavors.
How many of those reading me have any direct access to their Pastors at any time? Think about that for a second. They simply do not want to be bothered except if it is about “seeds”. They aren’t cut out for the role and responsibilities of a daddy and mummy. Not on your life!
Papa and Mama is much more befitting. They need all the support; all the assistance and all the supplement to make the “work of God” run smoothly. So, the average congregant is made to believe they are specially blessed and privileged to be associated with the “holy” M.O.G. I have heard such statements made in my various visitations to Churches. It is no longer about Christ or about the people that He died for; it is totally about Papa and Mama. What comes out of their mouth is more infallible than the Bible.
That is not all.
Within the frail of the war of superiority of man over man, it must be appreciated what other weapons are used and what they are intended to achieve. This is very important in protecting yourself from the missile of denigration. Watch the message you hear and imbibe. Herein is wisdom!
A lot of messages that are preached on pulpits now are centrally focused on the many exploits of Papa and Mama home and abroad. It is a strategy, a scheme and a ground plan to infuse a larger-than-life size of the man and woman into your sub-conscious mind. It is all about them, and nothing about the other believers. Everyone who laggardly serves them directly is made to enforce such. All the other Pastors under them are manipulated and blithely surrender to such drivel.
Papa and Mama are the only ones who have raised the dead in far away country. They everywhere else except no such evidence back home had healed the sick. Simple explanation of “prophets are without honor at home” sells it hook line and sinker. It is all about them. Christ is decreasing but they increase on daily basis. Their self image must always be horned, for only by that will they remain relevant in their game for superiority over you. I wonder why they often travel away? Could it be to have a new testimony of exploit to tell?
Here is the problem. With such messages driven into your sub-conscious mind on regular basis, you have built in you a reservation of absolute trust and servitude for these people. The first thing such messages does is to lower the God value you carry inside. You become less, unqualified, unmeet and inferior within yourself. Now you are vulnerable at every point to other manipulating tendencies. Every spiritual immunity is dropped, your piety and worship of God is deployed to man and you are now a pun on their Chessboard. Most times, God is secretly replaced in your heart.
I saw a picture of a car sticker that reads “I am the son of Bishop …, so devil flee from me”. Isn’t that flattery of abomination against the TRUTH of the Bible? I thought the devil respect the blood of Jesus, but now he also respects a name other than His. Wow!
When I complained about it somewhere, hosts of people fault my argument. I know why though. They have their understanding perverted and their loyalty misplaced in a man who has so sold the regimen of infallibility down their belly.
I refrain in mentioning names because I do not want to glorify a single person as so important to be mentioned. This is a major problem in what we call the Church globally. I am sure you will fit a name somewhere in the lines.
Finally, let everyone be convinced of what he/she believes and let God be the conviction.
Whoever you submit yourself to becomes your master. Watch them who lord over your life.
- Olumide Goodness Adeyinka can be reached at Nigardgroup@yahoo.com