The Pastor Who Got Stuck In Shrine While Trying To Destroy It!!!

There is this story in the Punch Newspaper today about a "Pastor" that got stucked somewhere in a shrine belonging to Africa Traditional Religion (A.T.R) worshipers in Ogun state when he attempted to destroy the shrine. 

Some concluded he is "fake pastor", which may largely be false. He might be a "True pastor" who just went on an errand God didn't send him.

Its very unfortunate that in Nigeria, we have come to associate SHRINE with A.T.R but the Catholic Church also has shrines too.

You see what we call "Grottos" in Catholic Churches in Nigeria, is actually SHRINE... MARIAN SHRINE........that's what its called in the Vatican.

There're also shrine belonging to "saints" where devotees go to offer prayers. Even the Pope
visits those shrines and when he does, the Vatican magazine am subscribed to reads "Pope Francis visits the shrine of st or blessed ****"

Are these shrine different from those of A.T.R? You answer it.

Other denominations accuses the Catholic Church of idolatry because of the "worship of Mary" and "praying to stature" but have never heard of any Pentecostal pastor attempting to destroy any MARIAN SHINE. That will amount to a declaration of anarchy.

I have never come across any place in the Bible where Jesus Christ destroyed any temple used for pagan worship neither did i read Apostle Paul doing same despite the fact that there were lots of Pagan temples in their time.

When a person is possessed by an evil spirit, you cast the demon out.......why then are we acting like the British in the Dark Age?

The sculptures and objects you find in A.T.R shrines are just material representations of their spiritual reality and ideology. They are powerless and harmless. They don't possess any physical danger to anyone neither do they disturb the peace of the land. When you "cast out whatver spirit or demon residing there", they become what they actually are.............

Art and Artifacts...a cultural heritage of a people/community that should be preserved for generations yet unborn.

If Satan cant harm you, how much more a piece of carved wood or Metal.

We are destroying our history and heritage in Ignorance.

Take a moment and imagine what the Cultural Heritage of the Kingdom of Benin would have been if the Idia Mask(FESTAC head) was destroyed.

Then you would understand the gravity of what we are doing.

I am certain, those Artifacts stolen from our shrines and palaces by the colonialist would have been destroyed by pastors. Sometimes i find myself being grateful they was stolen by the whitemen and kept in their museums unless we would have destroyed all of them and have nothing to show to future generations.

Today the Idia mask is a Global icon worth millions of dollars simply because it was preserved. 

How many billions of dollars have we destroyed? How many more are we going to destroy?

They can serve as a tourist sites. Temples dedicated to pagan worship are tourist attractions in the West but here in Nigeria, its all destroyed.

When are we going to wake up and realize we are committing a terrible blunder of irreparable magnitude in sheer ignorance?

Festivals of Arts and cultures are being cancelled because one influential pastor declares it an attempt to bring the devil to rule over the affairs of the state as if the devil is a blind crippled entity needing human help to locate geographical regions.

culled facebook