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Hunger and Kumuyi’s advocacy on tithes, by Clem Oluwole
I have never been a fan of the mathematician-turned pastor, William Kumuyi, ever since he emerged on the scene with the Pentecostal version of the body of Christ in the late 70s, wielding the Deeper Life Bible Church as a weapon of evangelism until lately. His partner in the church business was the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa who founded the Church of God Mission.
The duo of Kumuyi and Idahosa propagated the born-again mantra to the chagrin of old generation churches like the Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, and ECWA denominations. The craze soon swept across the Christendom and the young ones found a platform and freedom not only to dress freely but also to dance to gospel music tinged with worldly hue without any let or hindrance.
Kumuyi, in particular, preached holiness. He handed down a dress code that distinguished DeeperLifers from other born-again Christians. They were forbidden from adorning their bodies with jewelry, except wristwatches, no perming of hair or jerry curls.
A typical DeeperLifer’s signature is poor dressing… a visa to enter Heaven. The primordial Kingdom, located beyond the clouds, is not for the rich. The Bible teaches that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Havenly Abode. Kumuyi also banned the use of electronic gadgets like radio and television sets in members’ homes, ab initio. They were regarded as infernal machines made in hell!
But Pastor Kumuyi is now born again and has since given his life to the forbidden devices through which he propagates his ministry to the rest of the world. And DeeperLifers no longer dress to glorify poverty, even though you cannot show up in any branch of the church appearing like someone set for the disco hall. Their women, illiterate and educated, do not go about with antennae on their heads as they had to plait their hair with rubber threads.
Last week, the revered man of God stirred the hornet’s nest when he called on Christians to be their brothers and sisters’ keeper by giving their offerings and tithes to their neighbours who are currently facing pervasive hunger and starvation instead of taking them to the church, at least until the situation abates. That advocacy went viral on the social media, leaving many in shock… coming from a high-profile Pentecostal pastor.
The Pentecostal system is regarded as the money-making arm of the church where tithing is its life wire, oxygen or Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Pastor Kumuyi’s plea reminds me of a similar campaign launched some years back by a Jos-based new generation pastor named Joshua Egbagbe. He launched a one-man crusade against tithing and backed his position with scriptures, arguing that there was nowhere in the New Testament that Christ decreed tithing throughout His divine assignment on earth. And, of course, all hell was let loose.
The Plateau state chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) ganged up against Pastor Egbagbe. They harried him until the “renegade” pastor ran out of town under the cover of darkness.
Before Egbagbe’s flight, one mild, isolated tithe drama had taken place at the Jos branch of the Church of God Mission located at Alheri along Zaria Road. Iconic gospel singer, Panam Percy Paul, was invited to a Sunday service of the church as a guest preacher. After treating the congregation with some of his melodious tunes, he capped the outing with a sermon on the kind of tithe God expected from Christians, which he said was 10 per cent of our time praising Him. Tithing was of the Old Testament religion. God, he argued, does not need our money. In other words, if God is in need of our money, why then do we turn to Him praying for money? God is so rich that collecting money under the guise of tithes was tantamount to pouring water into the Atlantic Ocean! That is the scenario Panam painted on that day.
The senior pastor who invited the gospel singer to the church fidgeted throughout the time Panam was spewing up what he considered a heresy. As soon as the guest preacher was done, the host pastor collected the mic from him and rubbished his weird theology. It was Panam’s turn to fidget. The pastor could not even wait until another Sunday to counter the message. He did not want the seed to germinate in the hearts of his members even for one hour.
Many churchgoers have been brainwashed about the blessings that come with tithing and the repercussions of eating tithes. Since there was no obligation to pay tithes in the New Testament, I have refused to be dragged into the Old Testament religion when tithing was obligatory.
READ ALSO: A time to pray and a time to work, by Clem Oluwole
Some years ago, a relation who was a faithful tither was robbed along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway along with other passengers. After the horrific robbery incident that spared her life, the first thing that came out of her mouth was: “But I pay my tithes regularly. So, where did these devourers come from?”
If she had asked me, I would have asked her to ask her pastor! Devourers come in different forms. Another dyed-in-the-wool tither friend in Jos was involved in an accident which punched holes into his purse.
When I published my book, Saturday Commentary, an amalgam of my sports commentaries, released during the COJA in 2003, I presented a copy or two to him. As an ex-footballer, I expected him to support the project by buying the book but he bluntly refused, suggesting to me that he had a tithe to pay from the profit he made from a contract he had just executed. In other words, I should perish the thought of expecting his patronage from the profit he made. I was shocked because I never knew him to be a tithe slave, even though we had been close buddies for more than two decades.
About six months after the tithing, he had an unusual accident.
He was returning to Jos after a Lagos business trip in a luxurious bus. Sitting by the window of the bus, he rested his arm on it with his elbow slightly protruding outside. It was getting late in the evening. Another luxurious bus coming from the opposite direction cannoned off the body of the bus he was travelling in. Apparently because the portion of the road was narrow, the bus brushed his elbow and fractured it. He spent so much on treatment at various orthopedic hospitals interspersing with local bone setters.
I never gloated over his misfortune. I wondered why tithing could not fend off the devourers, manifesting in the treatment bills.
Expectedly, Pastor Kumuyi’s advocacy has not gone down well with his fellow new generation pastors that see his position as a direct assault on their ministries or business centres. Many of them have built mega auditoriums, a proof that the church business is booming there. The message, week in and week out, is centred around the nation’s economic meltdown which did not begin today. In the church, naïve congregants are told to invest their resources in heaven’s economy which can never slip into depression. What a fallacy!
What we are waiting to see is how the feuding pastors would succeed in running a colossus like Pastor Kumuyi out of business the way the Lilliputian Pastor Egbagbe was harassed out of the Tin City.
These gods of men masquerading as men of God should find something else doing to support their ministries rather living off their struggling members of their churches. The great Apostle Paul was into tent making and not a parasite to anyone while preaching the gospel. Why not restrict church activities to Sundays like in the days of yore so that Christians can devote more time to eek income from Mondays to Saturdays. By so doing, they will improve their economic life and contribute to the (economic) development of the nation rather slaving in the church for these parasites.
Parting shot: Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, will confirm to you that no such thing is practised in heaven.
We should stop being fooled.
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