She is the
winner of Okotie’s Household of God Church’s Karis Award for
the year and she will be honoured on Sunday at the Church in Lagos.
Damning
widespread criticisms continue to hit a statement credited to the controversial
preacher and televangelist, declaring that all “Catholics will go to
hell.” Indeed, this seems to be threatening to take the shine of the annual
Karis Award.
The event
is a brain child of Okotie who established it to honour Nigerians
who have excelled in various fields, but who may not have been recognised by
the larger society.
The pastor
is alleged to have made the remarks while delivering a sermon last Sunday. The
controversial statement partly goes thus, “The Catholic church is a counterfeit church set up by Satan. Catholics
bow to idols and crucify Jesus every Sunday when they eat bread claiming they
are eating Jesus’ body.”
Okotie
tried to justify his claims by adding that his statements are “not out of
disrespect but out of respect for the word of God.”
Apart from
the fact that he has not debunked the claim, a post on his Facebook account on
Tuesday afternoon reinforces the argument. It simply read, “Re-
Catholicism: Truth is bitter. It lacks saccharine delights.”
The
statement has further led to more outrage by his Facebook fans and other aggrieved
persons, just as his Facebook page has been besieged by angry Nigerians
who have failed to see reasons with him.
Not
surprising, most of the comments have been uncomplimentary as the Man of God
has been tagged with unprintable names. The ensuing controversy has also
pitched Okotie and Catholic faithful against one another on Twitter and
Facebook.
A group
called Nigerians Catholics on Facebook have issued a statement to this effect.
The body claimed that Okotie was simply seeking cheap publicity in its
statement.
The
administrator of the page wrote, “The
unguarded utterances of Chris Okotie to fellow Christians who chose to practise
their dogma in their own way shows how irresponsible and ill-mannered he is.
“Antagonising another church with a different principle of
worshiping, but with no difference in faith professed, portrays Christ
Okotie in bad light and casts negative shadows on his purported ministry in
Christendom.
“Chris Okotie should know that if over 1 billion Catholics will go to
hell because of the way they worship their God, he too is not exempted.
“I want to state clearly to Chris Okotie that over 1 billion Catholics
going to hell will only happen in the figment of his imagination.
“In fact, if I am to use what is written in the Bible concerning
marriage and divorce to humanly judge Chris Okotie, then he is already number
one candidate of hell.”
On his
part, Kingsley Williams wrote, “ l
think we all need to pray for Pastor Chris; honestly, before it gets out of
hand.”
Ifeoma Goodluck, only offered prayers for the Catholic church, as
she also posted, “No weapon formed against Catholic Church shall prosper, In
Jesus name. Amen.’’
However, some people came to the defence of the controversial pastor,
with one of them being Wilfa Wilfred, who simply said, “Please, insulting
Chris and calling him names shows a lack of faith by baby Christians. Just pray
to God to forgive him. I am not a catholic but it is only God that knows his
true worshipers.”
Just like
Wilfred, a certain Peter Edaile also stated on Facebook, “It also lacks sugar and honey delights but
contains salt.”
Enough on
the controversial statements, anyway.
Mixed
reactions have also greeted what many members of the the public termed a
decision to hold a beauty pageant in the church this Sunday. But the church has
since taken to its official Facebook to explain the concept behind what is
perceived to be a beauty pageant.
It
explained that the competition tagged Queen Esther pageant competition is
geared towards selecting an ambassador for the church.
“The evening usually features the parade and display of beautiful women
in costumes inspired by popular female bible characters. The contestant with
the most creative costume is then crowned as the Queen Esther and gets a cash
prize of one million naira,” the post read.
Punch
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