The adage ‘practice what you preach’ must be one of the truest axioms ever coined by a human. All it asks is that as a person who always espouses a certain philosophy, must live by it as well.
It’s the best way to show the effectiveness or otherwise of whatever world view you’re espousing, and by being a great example of your principles, you stand the greatest chance of getting people over to your side of things.
It is why I always have such a big issue with Christians, because they are nothing like the Christ they purport to adore so much. Maybe they resemble their God a little, because he has in the past been proven to exhibit some not so savoury characteristics.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, PhD, is the founder and head pastor of the Believers’ LoveWorld Inc, and is one of the most famous, powerful, and influential men of God in the world today.
Now as one of the biggest men of God around certainly Pastor Chris should be a paragon of virtue, an example for all to follow. Of course as human as he is, you must expect a few flaws, but nothing on the level to invalidate a big part of what he has been teaching his entire ‘career’.
Yet his wife has filed for divorce against him in a London court, claiming ‘adultery’ and ‘unreasonable behaviour’. The details cannot be published for legal reasons, but the pair of charges certainly makes for interesting reading.
Considering the Bible’s positions on adultery and divorce, Pastor Chris is heading towards a double header that would certainly not end well for him, either on this earth or with his maker.
Pastor Chris and his wife, Anita, have been married a long time, and together have built a very powerful empire. So you can be sure this is not a marriage either would throw away lightly- and indeed the rumours have been swirling for a while now, there has just been a lot of internal damage control to keep this volcano from erupting.
But it finally has, so there must be a damn good reason for that. Predictably, church members cannot see any flaws in their leader, so there is going to be a lot of ganging up on the lady, calling her all sorts of names. It’s nothing new, and when you take on a demigod you must be prepared to face the consequences.
What this illustrates though is that it’s two different things to espouse some values and to live by them. Pastor Chris is not the first pastor to face such allegations, and he certainly would not be the last.
These people go up there and act all high and mighty, so you certainly expect them to live up to those lofty standards. They keep failing to do so, but their flock cannot see them for the walking contradictions these men are.
However, this problem lies not only with the high and mighty pastors, but is symptomatic of Christians themselves, regardless of stature. If you go around pretending to be this paragon of virtue, you should not be upset when someone calls you on your bullsh*t.
For now we keep an eye on where this story is heading, and I honestly do not see any serious consequences emanating from this for Pastor Chris. But it should not stop us from individually assessing the situation, and trying to decide whether these men deserve the blind devotion they get, or that when a situation like this arises its worth assessing it dispassionately-so that we can call a spade a spade, and not a large spoon; as we are so fond of doing down here in Africa.
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