Between honour and hero worship

The first, and probably the most fundamental, area of confusion has to do with the principles of believers’ relationship at two levels- with God, and with fellow believers. We conceive, and rightly so, of God as sovereign in power, “glorious in his holiness and fearful in praises, doing wonders” (Exodus 15:11). It is right that when we contemplate God in his perfect holiness we conceive ourselves as unworthy of his presence and favour, but the cornerstone of the Christian Gospel is that God, through his grace in Christ has made us worthy of his presence and his fellowship. If you think about this deeply enough, the new relationship with God is revolutionary, fundamentally changing the old order of things.

For the old order of things is that we have a different category of humans- priests and prophets- who acted as intermediaries between God and man. In that scheme of things, abuse was palpable and inevitable. Even without conscious intention to do so, the prophets and priests of the past, drew attention to themselves, elevated as they were to a higher realm of being that the rest of the people considered impossible to attain. In this state of things, the temptation to abuse the position is high, and there are many examples in Scripture of prophets and priests who led the people astray, with tragic consequences.

The Gospel of Christ changes all of this in its fundamental premise, to wit: you do not need any intermediary to initiate and grow in your relationship with God. Come straight in, God says. Now, the idea of “Daddy Pastors” seek to take us back to the dark dispensation of prophets and priests, by creating another order- a higher category- of Christian believers. It negates the cardinal principle of God’s grace in Christ, which simply declared that we all worthy, all equally worthy, as sons and daughters of God.

Now, of course, the Bible also speaks about respect and honour for leaders who serve among us. Not priests, but leaders. That distinction bears repeating. The idea of priests, in the Old Testament sense, runs contrary to the fundamental doctrine of the Christian Gospel. We have leaders though, and we are encouraged to honour and respect them. However, the leaders are not portrayed as another species of believers, of some peculiarly higher order, to be glorified or worshiped. The problem, as outlined in the first series, is that our default position as humans is to worship those who are specially gifted or placed in position of authority. Unless we know better, that is. What the new waves of “Daddy Pastors” have sought to exploit is this ignorance of what sort of relationship we should have with fellow believers and fellow humans, including leaders.

Humility, or mere subservience?

The confusion also extends to the conception of humility. Curiously, a constant refrain of self-aggrandising “Daddy Pastors” is “humility”. Predictably, they harangue their parishioners on the need to humble themselves by doing obeisance to their “Daddy Pastors”. Those who do not question authority, and are subservient to the leader, are held up as the best model of true humility. Those will so much as dare to think for themselves, or hold contrary views, are denounced as rebels and harbingers of disunity.

A fear of label

This fear of labels- of being branded as rebellious and arrogant- is one of the main reasons why many who should know better opted to play along. The denunciations fuel doubts and exacerbate uncertainty, making some to feel that they are probably in the wrong to raise questions or have different opinions on issues that are not even matters of biblical doctrines. It may even make some to start entertaining the idea that they may be opposing God by merely thinking for themselves and asking questions. It takes more than intellectual certitude to overcome this fear; you need spiritual maturity and emotional strength to be able to stand strong in your conviction and in your position, when a “Daddy Pastor” is going as far as threatening you with hell fire, and he has, say, the backing of majority in the congregation. The best your intellectual awareness alone can achieve in that circumstance is lead you out of the faith altogether. Even for the most intellectually sophisticated, without spiritual maturity, it is a big struggle to be, in effect, a social outcast in the midst of the believers.

Social sanction

This social sanction is arguably the biggest power at the command of “Daddy Pastors”, and they have used it with great effect to bend people to their will. With all your knowledge of Scripture, and your discernment of what is right and what is wrong, it is a difficult situation when you are cast as a heretic by fellow parishioners. Some will be afraid to as much as speak with you, for fear of retribution from the “Daddy Pastors”, who have reduced the rest of the congregation to the status of little children who are not allowed to think again for themselves. A lady has recounted how she was effectively banned from attending Ladies meeting in a church because she would not call the pastor’s wife “Mummy Pastor”. Ultimately, she had to leave the church. It is that tough.

I am aware that some of my good pastor friends will not be very pleased with this series. The “Daddy Pastors” among them are probably livid. But we have crossed the Rubicon on matters of Scriptural truth, and we are not done yet on this topic. Please watch out for the third instalment in this series. Thank you.

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was quick to point out that, while he had the responsibility as a leader of the church to correct and rebuke erring believers, and encourage church discipline, he was still but a “fellow-worker”. It is not, he said, “that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand” (2 Cor. 1:24, emphasis is mine).

Here was a man who had practically traveled the civilised world of his day, preaching the gospel, and seeing many turn to the faith. If ever a man would be tempted to lord it over others, it should be Paul. On the contrary, he recognised, perhaps more than any of his contemporaries that authentic faith could not be dependent on, or attached to, some towering personality. Indeed, later on in this epistle, he expressed his bewilderment that some believers of his day, as are many today, seem to have a curious affinity and preference for “false apostles” who manipulate, exploit and lord over them: “you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face.” For good measure, in that masochistic attitude and behaviour those Corinthians actually considered themselves wise.

Father in the Lord

We are on the topic of “Daddy Pastors”. This phenomenon has gained increasing popularity in Nigeria, but certainly exists in other forms elsewhere. It began with the more benign- at least on the surface- idea of “Father in the Lord”, several decades ago. This in itself is based loosely around a few scriptural passages in which, for example, someone like Apostle Paul refers to Timothy as his “son in the Lord”. It is also true that the Apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians told the Corinthians that: “even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” (1Cor. 4:15).

Now, more diligent students of the Bible will recognise that Paul was here using a metaphor to describe a relationship, and a responsibility, that exists between a mentor and a mentee. Indeed, these are the contexts in which he used the description, either in the individual instance of Timothy, or in the collective example of the Corinthian church. There is no sense at all in any of the passages that he intended this to be understood or conveyed as a title, with all the attendant ostentation and air of superiority. To be sure, there is nowhere in Scripture where Apostle Paul was referred to as “father”. More crucially, the Lord himself warned against arrogating, or allocating, the title of “father”: “do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.”(Matthew 23:9).

The psychology of idolatry

Why was Christ so explicit and emphatic in the instruction not to “call anyone on earth ‘father’? First, of course, he was not referring to biological fathers. In order to understand the basis for this instruction, you need to understand the fundamental psychology of idolatry, and how the Christian Gospel in a corrective to that. Throughout history, people have shown the propensity to elevate what they consider spectacular to the realm of gods, either in terms of things in nature, or with respect to specially gifted and accomplished people. This mindset can be observed in all the mythologies of the ancients. In modern times, this tendency manifests in the form of personality cults. Many of the Greek gods, for example, were once humans subsequently elevated to the level of gods on account of their spectacular feats. In Yoruba mythology, Sango was once a mortal king- Alaafin- of old Oyo kingdom, subsequently elevated to a god, following his death. He was reportedly acclaimed for having the powers to spit fire out of his mouth, and to bring thunder.

The Christian gospel is a corrective to the psychology and practice of idolatry. In short, it says you do not need any human intermediary in order to have a direct relationship with God, because God himself had come in Christ to break down the “middle wall of separation”(Ephesians 2:14), so that “you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”(Ephesians 2:19).

Penchant for domination

Yet the propensity to idolatry in some has, throughout history, been aggravated by the penchant for domination in a few. It is a case of finding a willing victim for a ready criminal. The attraction is almost irresistible, and is akin to a sadist finding a masochist.

The evidence is, of course, not far-fetched. There is a constant temptation inherent in human beings to set themselves as superior to other human beings, and from that position to control and dominate. We can find many theories to explain this tendency, but not one to deny its existence. We will subsequently examine how this tendency is aggravated by fear, ignorance and culture, but now it suffices to say that religion has, throughout history, been abused by self-styled leaders to assert and maintain control over millions. Why does this phenomenon persist in this day and age? What effect does it have on society? And what can be done to stem the tides? Join me in the next installment of this series.