Religious leaders’ love for wealth, cause of insecurity – Fearon

The Bishop of Diocese of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, Bishop Josiah Idowu Fearon, has warned Nigerian political and religious leaders to eschew their greed for wealth and materialism and return to God, if Nigeria is to end the ravaging insurgency in the country, adding that if the problem persists it could lead to genocide that would be unimaginable.

Addressing a sermon delivered at the Saint Michael Cathedral Church in Kaduna yesterday to celebrate the Easter Sunday, Bishop Fearon said that all indications point to the fact that the political and religious leadership in the country have imbibed the doctrine of materialism instead of services to mankind and God.

“We are the major problems of what is happening to us as a nation because we have became so materialist that we sold out our conscience for peanut. Unless we go back to the teaching of Christ that said even Jesus sees himself as nothing and is ready to make sacrifice to save the human race.
“The problem of Nigeria today is not ethnicity but religion we have become too religious at the detriment of the teaching of Christ. Today you find church leaders trying to compete with politicians and traditional ruler in the areas of who drove in the best car, who fly in his own private jet and who have the largest castle in Abuja.

“In trying to gets these materials we have turned our faces off the evil that is being committed in the land, rather than condemning these evils we fraternised with the perpetrators.

“Church leaders today are struggling to get the richest men in town and politicians without questioning their sources of wealth. Any president or governor will be received like an angel in many places of worship in Nigeria today. If you are a regular member of the church and was in the church before the august visitor the ushers may asked you to vacate your seat, forgetting that all are equal before Christ. All this is because of the brown envelope that is expected from the visitor.

“We should stop blaming Boko Haram for the problems in the country we should rather blame ourselves as Christian if we have kept to the ministry of Christ we will not be experiencing the insurgency in the country, but we have created new doctrines that are totally against Christ teaching and that is the major problem of the Christians faith today we don’t read the Bible to understand it rather we wait for somebody to interpret the Bible to us in his own way.” Bishop Fearon said.

Bishop Fearon called on leaders in the country to know that they will be held accountable for their deeds on earth before their creature and indirectly for the evils that their followers committed so they should be careful in what they preach or teach to people.