Editor’s note: Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), sparked a lot of reactions on social media with his comment on the best kind of women/men to marry. Adeboye advised single men not to marry women who cannot cook, that are lazy and cannot pray for at least one hour, while women not to marry men who do not have jobs. Ijabla Raymond in this piece questions pastors who act as marriage counsellors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and financial advisers all at once even they are not appropriately trained for such roles.

Last week was quite interesting on Nigeria’s social media space. It started with a video of Pastor Adeboye telling his followers not to marry a woman that can neither cook nor pray for one straight hour. The question that has been on my mind is: does that mean God is deaf? What parent makes their child beg (for one hour) for something they know the child needs? The truth is that prayers, besides making the believer to feel good about themselves, are an absolute waste of time. They do not grow the economy or an amputated limb. Youth unemployment is at an all time high despite our regular night vigils, prayers and supplications – it is evident that a God who is interested in human welfare does not exist. If He did, malaria and cancers will not kill millions of children whilst He preoccupies Himself with consensual sex between homosexual couples.

In our country, pastors are marriage counsellors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and financial advisers all at once even though they are not appropriately trained for these roles. They tell women to go back to their violent husbands because, according to them, divorce is a sin against God. Many a woman has lost her life because of this advice. People like Adeboye are so influential anything they say is taken as the literal truth. Sadly, his comments portray a man who is out of touch with the realities of modern family life. More and more women are now in employment and some of them are the main providers for their families. Marriage is now regarded as a partnership rather than as a master-servant relationship. Some of the most celebrated chefs in western cultures are men – what is wrong with teaching our boys and young men to cook for themselves? Adeboye has similarly instructed his female followers not to marry men without jobs. But what happens when a man loses his job – should his wife divorce him? I feel sorry for the people who think God speaks through this man or through any man at all. If you want incontrovertible evidence that religion cannot reform the world, then consider the degree of theft and corruption in Nigeria. These problems have become endemic even though practically every Nigerian is a practising Muslim or Christian. Nigerian pastors and luxurious life style Nigerian pastors have acquired a taste for private jets – ostensibly to reach the parts of the world that need the gospel of Jesus, except that they avoid such places as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. Charity begins at home – it is senseless to run off to put out the fire in your neighbour’s house when your own house is up in flames. Nigerians and their country are in dire need of salvation from endemic corruption. It is evident that religion cannot tranform our nation because as our religious devotions have increased, so have our corrupt ways.

  credit link:  www.naij.com/922432-opinion-im-convinced-god-not-speak-pastor-adeboye.html