“Can you imagine anyone bringing a coronavirus patient to me and I won’t lay hands on him? Will I wear gloves to lay hands on them? I will lay hands on them; breathe into them; embrace them. What you carry is eternal life, it’s not human life. You should know that,” Bishop Oyedepo, Winners Chapel
This quote reminds me of what my grandmother told me years ago in the village. I was just made a prefect in secondary school, and suddenly was vested with power to “punish” junior students. But as I was rejoicing at this new power which my school had vested in me, I met a group of young men who had gone on a revenge mission. Someone had gone into our local stream, and killed the fish therein. I asked her, “the elders have said that these fishes must not be killed because they belong to the gods. Why must it be humans that would fight for these gods after someone who became a born again Christian was testing the potency of these gods?”
First thing, she asked to see my notebooks to be sure I was doing well in school (she was not literate to read but she could decipher progress by looking at “goods” and “bads”). Then the education:
The gods do not own the fishes and there are really no gods in Tantuta (the local stream). What happens is this: the stream is shallow and does not flow very well. If you allow people to fish on it, you will destroy the main source of drinking water for families in this village. By adding “gods”, elders scare people from attempting to destroy the water ecosystem. The tradition is clear: if people cannot be drowned in the water body, no one can fish on it because it does not have capacity to clean itself for family use after perturbations necessitated during fishing.
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Simply, it is not everything that we need to test: if someone has Covid-19, do not go close without a mask. Yes, there is no reason to find out why not! I know you are not a bishop!
Comment on LinkedIn Feed
Comment: At least 100 evangelical pastors have died in Bolivia because of the Covid-19, also a popular Cameroon pastor, Frankline Ndifor, died of COVID-19 following his prayers that hundreds of his supporters cured of the coronavirus, the funny aspect was that after his death, hundreds of his followers believed that the pastor is not dead, but he is rather on a spiritual retreat with God and will return soon, in which they started singing and praying for his resurrection until Cameroon police used force to gain access to his residence. We shouldn’t get brainwashed by any religious leader either imaams or pastors even traditionalists we should always apply wisdom to whatever they say.
My Response: Actually, I wrote in parables. My point is not on the pastors and imans. Of course, I respect pastors because I am a teacher of the Gospel, a Scripture Union kid, brother Area pastor in RCCG, mother a preacher in Methodist, etc. Like I explained (in the blog), the man who wanted to kill the fish in the village stream might have confused a sermon. Here, Bishop can do this, and be fine. The challenge is that someone can actually try it because he heard it from Bishop. That is my concern. It is not every info that leaders can share with followers because some are unprepared to use them!
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There are over twenty million confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world today, just imagine if our men of God (or god of men) could lay hand in ten million of them and they become free of the virus. By now all our dollar challenges would have disappeared, naira could be vying to become the strong currency, and Nigeria would have emerged as the tourism capital of the world. We will have to expand our airports quickly, to be able to handle the air traffic.
I am only interested in the wealth the laying of hand could bring here, so if there’s a way to even make it realistic, the person will have my full support.
Until then, do not try this at home.
I am very mindful of unconscious bias, but I will lay it out as respectfully as I can. The proliferation of religious houses and denominations has led Africans to become sheep led by questionable shepherds.
There are people who have used salt to bath to prevent Ebola infection. At some point we have to invite common sense to take control, while we are still healthy.
The WHO and health authorities are the Bishops concerning Covid 19 and other health matters. You give your cars to experts mechanics, why will you play Russian roulette with your health?