Photo credit: Facebook
A leading African archbishop has said that a historical tendency to regard Christianity as the “white man’s God” and the current rise of a “prosperity Gospel” combining Christianity with material resources represent obs to real evangelization on the continent.
Crux reports that Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City expressed anger that Christianity is still perceived in Africa as “the white man’s God.” He also complained that there are priests who still refuse to baptize children with African names.
“To become Christian, we had to pick Western names that are saints, and our local names were not allowed. It was as if no Nigerian exhausted in heaven before the missionaries came,” he said while referring to the time when foreign missionaries who were deployed to Nigeria gave that impression.
Father Benjamin Achi of Enugu Diocese is one of the other clerics who have voiced similar concerns. He said, “As a matter of fact, during our seminary days, one of my classmates was almost expelled from the seminary by his Diocesan bishop because he said the seminarian was known more by his native name than his baptismal name. He was accused of playing down his Christian name.”
Akubeze wants Africa to leave such mentalities. According to him, “We have moved from the time of the foreign missionaries, where there was little or no understanding of our culture and there was a complete repudiation of our way of life.”
He also criticized the rise in prosperity of Gospel preachers in Nigeria and across Africa while reflecting on Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelli Gaudium, on the Joy of the Gospel.
The Prosperity Gospel is often associated with Pentecostal Christianity. It promises an immediate path to material well-being and claims that God will grant a believer their desires: wealth, a healthy body, a thriving family, and boundless happiness if the believer simply asks with sufficient faith.
The Director of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law—a Catholic-inspired NGO—Emeka Umeagbalsi said the rise and spread of the prosperity Gospel “has taken over evangelization in Africa. The situation has produced fake Christian leaders and fake disciples of Christ.
“I can tell you that the greater number of Christian leaders in Nigeria are fake…It is hurting Christianity. It is hurting the defense of faith and it is hurting evangelization because the end game all over the place now is money. Christian leaders no longer care about societal decency. No matter how evil-minded somebody is, once you can bring money, you are canonized.”
Akubeze called for comprehensive catechesis to deepen evangelization in the West African country. He also underscored the need to build people instead of just structures. He noted that Europe is a perfect example of a place where the focus has been on building structures. While acknowledging the importance of structures, he pointed out that it has ended up with church buildings which serve as “tourist centers rather than places of worship.”
