Latest articles from ChristianAggression.org http://www.christianaggression.org 2010-06-30T14:21:19+01:00 text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1277922079 Source: Nigerian Compass, June 28, 2010 Prophet Ojo Akhigbe Agge, is the President and Founder, City Gate Ministry and City Gate Homes Foundation, Benin, a ministry involved in soul winning, charity and community development. In this interview with PATRICK OKOHUE, Ojo speaks on his mission in ministry, the greed of some men of God and why even some native doctors will enter heaven and some men of God will not. We hear of so many Christian ministries nowadays, what is your own all about? It is all about evangelism and charity. We are so much into charity that we have an arm of the ministry called City Gate Homes Foundation. The Foundation is into a lot of jobs; we are into community development, health care, support for the aged, widows and children. In all these, we have made our name, we have done a lot of work and solely by the ministry without subvention from anybody. As a ministry that is still very young, how has it been able to sponsor all of these? Well, I want to believe that when God gives you an assignment what is expected of you is to be committed, to be ready. If you are ready to take up any assignment God gives to you, you will accomplish it. So, it doesn’t matter how long or how much time you have. The most important thing is commitment, when you are committed, even in a second, you will accomplish what God has given to you. In Edo State we have sunk over eight boreholes, we even sank a bore hole for a Catholic Church. We also have about 30 aged persons that are not less than 70 years old in our support department. We support them monthly. We have also given scholarships. We have the data of those we have given scholarships. We have graded roads in some areas and have given 5000 books to some children of government schools. Are you collaborating with other churches to see how they can help carry this vision, since you obviously cannot do it alone? This is very important, but I am sure you are aware that there are a lot of Christian organizations. You are also aware that there are a lot of pastors who fly private jets today and drive the best of cars. You may also be aware that the association which is the body that governs them don’t even have a jet, the association which governs them don’t even have a befitting secretariat. You see churches with massive structures, but no such secretariat for the body that governs them. We have over ten thousand churches in a body, a church is able to build a very massive structure, but the association put together don’t have a massive structure from where it operates. Most of these associations have rented structures where they operated from, but some of them are on a massive, 250 thousand by 100 thousand plot of land. So you can see that religious leaders including myself are already biased. A lot of us are so selfish that if you bring a vision that can benefit the community, the other leader will be looking at why did it not come from him. Instead of him to complement that effort, he will go and start it on his own. It then becomes a divided interest, and that is the area the government need to look into. Religious leaders are not working together, they are working on their own. If anybody must go and see President Goodluck Jonathan today and it is discussed, one religious leader will find a way to see that he see him alone and then you will see him in the papers saying I was with the President yesterday. So, most religious leaders are doing their own. They are not doing Christ’s own, it is a very sensitive issue. For example I have been speaking with people that we should do this thing together, but they don’t believe in ‘let us work together’. If they won’t get anything out of it immediately they won’t work with you. What do you mean by getting something out of it? I had a crusade where I brought eight Americans in April and I called a lot of religious leaders, all they were asking is why don’t these Americans bring money. They were expecting that the Americans will bring money to do the work that belongs to Nigeria. The work belongs to Nigeria because the souls that will be won are those of Nigerians, everything that will be done belongs to Nigeria. But they expected them to bring money, but because they realized that they did not bring money, a lot of them backed out. So, a lot of pastors, bishops, prophets will not do anything where instant money will not come out from, where they will not benefit from. Without instant benefits they will not put their hands in it. If a foreigner is coming out to do a crusade, evangelism or even charity work, we don’t want to be part of it. A lot of us have resigned to be beggars, we have settled for beggarly positions. That is, if they must do anything for us we will stand as beggars. So, we are beggars because they have to give us money so that we will do the work. From there we are able to buy a jeep, we are able to buy a car, even without doing the work we are told to do. So, a lot us pastors no matter the wealth that you see with us, we are beggars, because those monies that we are spending are not our money and are not given to us to spend on ourselves but for the community. We look for one lie to tell, they give us the money, then we take 85 or 95 percent of it and spend it for self and then five percent of it to take photographs of what we did and put it on video so that they are able to see that we are doing the job and bring more money. It is sensitive. A lot of men of God are not ready to work with somebody with good vision. This seems to suggest that there is a high level of jealousy in ministry work, is it so? Well, the Bible says that the day of judgement shall be worse than the day of Sodom and Gomorrah. It said woe betide that woman that will be putting to bed, or that baby that will be sucking the mothers breast. On the day of judgement some native doctors will inherit the kingdom of God while bishops and other men of God with titles will perish. Why do I say this, a lot of churches today have hospitals and schools and you discover that it is these schools that are even more expensive than government schools. Church hospitals are more expensive than government hospitals, and if somebody happens to be an emergency patient and gets to the hospital, the hospital will not look at that person with the eye of God, with Christ interest, but they will look at that person with worldly interest. That is, money first. And if the person is not able to provide it they send him/her away. If it happens that as the patient is going he meets a native doctor on the way and he decides to give the patient what he went to look for in a religious place and the trumpet of the end time sounded at that time and we are called to judgement, who will inherit the kingdom? It is that native doctor, instantly. That was exactly what happened when Christ was crucified; a criminal, an armed robber, was so clever that he stole salvation and entered the kingdom of God. So it is not just jealousy, a lot of these people with big titles, like pastors, bishops, prophets are not called. If they are called, the first thing they will show is love. Love knows no enemy, love knows no jealousy, love knows no envy, love does not know strife, love does not know hatred, love does not know religion, love does not know self. As a man you go out there, meet a woman who is not of your family and you marry her, what will make you to live with her under the same roof is just the simple thing, love. If religious leaders have love and they are called they won’t say it is not my ministry, they will love the other ministry irrespective of the name. A lot of them have forgotten that the business they are in is Christ’s, it is not their business. No man can own a ministry, the ministry belongs to Christ, they are only there to display on the stage and disappear. So, any man of God who has jealousy or envy in his mind is not called of God, any man of God who cannot love a Muslim, a pagan or even a Christian is not a man of God. Any man of God who cannot do anything for love is not a man of God. Let me ask, how many men of God, including myself will willingly enter cell for a member, for whatever minor offence? If that man of God is so powerful and he is able to call the commissioner of police but is not able to reach him, the next thing will be ‘well, just manage till tomorrow, I have not been ale to reach the Commissioner’. In those days women died for their husbands. My father’s wife who is over 80 years old now is still carrying an injury she sustained because of my father during the civil war. When they wanted to shoot my father during the civil war, she ran to the front and said kill me instead of my husband, so that my husband can take care of the children. How many men of God can do that? How many men of God will be ready to sacrifice the school fees of their children for the school fees of members’ children if they were not given from outside. Some men of God today give you N10,000, you should know that that money was given to them for that project and they only gave you a little out of it. They are not ready to sacrifice their personal money for anything. The only thing that can make men of God interested in your project is love. How many men of God have come behind the pulpit of the church to say God has revealed to me that there are three poor men, they are suffering and they have no food to eat, please come out and receive healing. What better healing does that man need? It is not healing of headache, not of stomach pain, but money. The man of God will drive to the church, take the offering of the poorest man, drive back home while the man keeps walking on the street. The man of God will not come out to say ‘this poor man, enter man car, let me drop you’. He will only blow siren and go, leaving the poor man trekking along the street. Look there are a lot of people in the church who are sick, maybe with malaria or fever, but that is not their sickness, their sickness is money. If a seed of N50,000 is sown into their lives, they will receive instant healing. So, a lot of men of God are wealthy but they are not interested in their members’ affairs, because there is no love. You speak with so much passion, are you doing all these to gain government attention? I am a prophet, I am called as a prophet, and in the days of old, before the death of Jesus Christ, it was prophets and kings that rule the nation. Even after the death of Jesus Christ, the duties of the prophet were not ruled out because Christ himself came as a prophet and because of what I see by vision, I am moved to speak for the community. A prophet cannot be self. In the history of the Bible, every prophet that tried to be self had a very bad end. Gehazi was to inherit that power from Elisha, after Elijah we had Elisha, after Elisha we were to have Gehazi, but Gehazi became self and he died. So, we have many of these examples in the Bible, Prophet cannot be self, if you see a prophet turning out to becoming self, watch and see how he ends. A prophet must first of all speak for his people; that is the duty of a prophet. Prophets must work for the community and the people. A prophet is not called to be on the pulpit and be preaching and be making money, a prophet is called to move from door to door to speak to the people. The prophet like myself is called to speak to President Goodluck Jonathan about the people and about the nation he governs, that is the calling of the prophet. A prophet is the mouth piece of God to speak to the king, the prophet is called not to be afraid, but to say the truth. Prophet is not called to say to the people ‘thus says the lord, begin to bring seed’, that is not the word of the prophet. Prophet is a mediator between the people and the king. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1277315616 By Nancy Northup president, Center for Reproductive Rights Opinion pages of U.S. newspapers lambasted a decision by St. Joseph's Hospital, a Catholic institution in Phoenix, over the excommunication and demotion of a nun. Sister Margaret McBride was a head administrator at St. Joseph's Hospital who compassionately granted a critically ill young woman permission to have an abortion because continuing the pregnancy posed an immediate and grave risk to her life. While many focused on the Church's "automatic excommunication" of McBride, an action squarely within the Church's religious purview, only a few addressed the secular punishment - her demotion from head administrator. In that action, the St. Joseph's Hospital was acting as a provider to the public of essential health care. As such, it should not be able to penalize an employee who acted within legal boundaries to deliver life-saving medical care, nor should it be permitted to withhold needed care for those who find themselves in its hospital wings. Indeed, a decision to let the young woman die instead would have been medical negligence as well as a grave violation of her legal and human rights. The St. Joseph's story is, sadly, unsurprising. As human rights lawyers who work around the globe, we repeatedly confront the tragic consequences of the Catholic Church's sustained hostility to reproductive health services when it imposes its theology on public policy and the provision of health services to the public. In countries where the Church wields considerable power, the repercussions for women's lives are palpable. In Kenya, for example, Catholic leaders are currently threatening to scuttle the adoption of a new constitution-widely seen as critical to ending political bloodshed there-because it contains a clause on abortion. The provision in fact would forbid abortion except in emergencies or when a woman's life or health is in danger. But the Church would prefer to preserve the narrower exceptions on the books today, which criminalize abortion except to save the woman's life. Poverty, a dearth of sexuality education, and sexual violence all fuel an epidemic of unintended pregnancy. Ultimately, Kenyan women ingest bleach, detergent, or other dangerous liquids, insert sharp objects or resort to back-alley abortions . Every year, tens of thousands die or suffer debilitating damage to their health. In Europe, the Catholic hierarchy has become especially effective in some former Eastern Bloc countries, resulting in backsliding on access to reproductive health services. In 2008, when a Catholic priest in a Polish town found out that a 14-year-old girl was seeking an abortion (for grounds legal under Polish law), he unleashed a campaign of harassment against her and her mother. They were besieged by protests, phone calls, and text messages. The priest cornered the girl alone in her hospital room in an attempt to convince her to continue her pregnancy. He then helped persuade authorities to take her away from her parents and place her in a state-run juvenile center. The girl and her mother are now suing Poland in the European Court of Human Rights. It's the fourth abortion-related case against Poland in the court that we've been involved in over the last six years. The Philippines, where the government is closely tied to the Catholic hierarchy, provides another example. Not only is abortion is criminalized with no clear exceptions, but due to the Church's influence, the government strongly discourages contraception. In Manila, an order by the mayor pulled every birth control pill and condom off the shelves of public health facilities, and forbade even sterilization. For the population in Manila, most who live below the poverty line, the policy banning modern methods of contraception causes irreparable damage. It's not uncommon to see families with six or more severely malnourished children, living in one-room shacks surrounded by garbage and streams of sewage, and facing very few prospects for relief. Understandably, without access to affordable contraception, over half-a-million Filipino women in desperate circumstances turn to unsafe abortion each year. As in Kenya, the methods are crude and painful, and the subsequent deaths and complications suffered by women can only be described as a public health crisis. This year at home, we saw the U.S. government give the Conference on Catholic Bishops veto power over the health-care reform bill, and in the end, millions of American women were left with a policy that restricts insurance coverage for abortion services even for those who pay for their insurance with their own hard-earned dollars. The Catholic Church promises to serve the interests of the poor and marginalized, but its position on reproductive health is deeply at odds with those laudable goals. Societies thrive when women thrive - when they are able to finish their education, decide the number and spacing of their children, and live in dignity and equality. Depriving women of the ability to control their reproductive health and fertility does not create a moral and just world. It only further traps women, their families, and their communities in poverty and despair. The Catholic Church, like any religion, is sovereign in the realm of its theology, liturgy, practice, and requirements of membership. But when it chooses to provide health services to the public as in the case of Saint Joseph's Hospital, or enters the realm of public policy debates in Kenya, the Philippines, Poland or the U.S., the governing standard must be the basic human rights of women to control their health and lives. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1277145368 Anyone who thinks that he/she has some kind of corner on religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, and believes he/she can take another person to task for exposing the falsehood of an only pathway to God are welcome to do so. I am prepared to defend the legitimacy of all religions as I research and understand them better, especially when God and religion are purely for the transformation of the human heart to the higher state of the divine. I have been doing studies ever since I joined the membership of the Trinidad & Tobago Online Community, when it was once fashionable to deride, derogate, defame and characterize Hinduism as being outside the frame of legitimate religions. Many try to mislead others by diverting the intent of some discussions on religion, either by not understanding or pretending not to understand what they read. They may even, by deliberate intent, try to detract from the intent of any of the truths of some religious threads and posts, and try to take them in another direction with a red herring approach, ignoring the gist and point of the article or post. I choose to deal with such tactics in my own way which is sometimes only intuited as doing what is right. No one pretending to lay claims to the truth about an only pathway to God, especially by historical debasing of other religions as false religions or one as devil worship or demonic will go unchallenged, as long as I am still a member in good standing of the Trinidad & Tobago Online Community. Yes, I painstakingly do the research to learn more about all religions in my free time and for my own spiritual enrichment. It is also my way of serving some others in the Hindu and other communities who may feel a need for more information as aggressive proselytizers approach them. In my own little way, I believe I am providing a service to the Hindu and perhaps some other communities with my postings, some of which are posted widely on the Internet. I strive to gather information, knowledge and understanding at a higher level of awareness of both Hinduism and other religions. Everyday I uncover growing evidences of a misunderstanding or propaganda from the use of the single passage of an only pathway to salvation which has been the bone of contention for many when many Christians present themselves as the only ones with a legitimate religion. The task I assigned to myself is to debunk the assertion held by some Christians that Jesus said He was the only way to salvation which I consider to be a false interpretation for a deliberate hold on many. Furthermore, as I continue my research, I cannot but help see all the connections between the base philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism in just about all religions. Yes, it is historically true that Sanathana Dharma or Dharam, (eternal truth) better know as Hinduism is a way of life, and was given the status of a great religion only a few hundred years ago by the British, sometime after they arrived in India. Yet, these are the same people who later tried to show that the source of Hinduism, the Vedas, was the writings of childlike saints and sages, and that Hinduism was a false religion. They at first ridiculed the Vedas openly and went so far as to pay enormous sums of money to Max Muller who never set foot on Indian soil. The only purpose, as documented, was to research and prove that the writings of the Vedas, were false teachings, and not worthy as religious beliefs and philosophies which he confirmed at first, but later had to change as his conscience would not permit it. Sanathana Dharma, like Islam, is truly a way of life, with religious and spiritual practices governing every aspect of life, from birth to death and beyond. The Hindus had no need to change their spiritual practices and call Sanathana Dharma a religion, but the British wanted to bring it into the fold of the great religions of the world, and so it is today the common practice to refer to Hinduism as a religion and also a way of life. Who can object to that, other than some Christians, claiming to belong only to the true religion of the world, as they try to destroy all non-Christian religions? But again, look at how God works in mysterious ways, bringing the truth to the surface. Now these are the same people who are now beginning to question the truth of an only pathway to God, and may now believe that all religions are legitimate pathways to God. The next thing they will admit to is that Idol worship is not an abomination unto God to contradict what is described in their scriptures about Idol worship. The Jews now say to Hindus that Idol worship by Hindus is ok. The Jewish Rabbinate of Israel learned from Hindu leaders that Hindus internalize all concepts and Idols of God as consciousness into the Atman which is Brahman or God in the hearts of all beings. They then relented to a new understanding of Idol worship, and now believe that Hindus are not Idol worshippers, since God in the heart of man cannot constitute Idol worship. So the question is why Christianity, a child of Judaism, can't do the same? What can be more debasing, deriding, derogating, humiliating, dehumanizing, etc., than to criticize or reject someone's belief in God that he knows to be right for himself in worshipping, and having a loving relationship with his concept and understanding of God as the ultimate reality? One who sincerely believes in his favorite form of God and experiences God will be hard pressed to give up his religion, and would not want the same for another, isn't it? Why should one understanding of God negate another? His ways of worshipping God and reaping the benefits of his religious and spiritual practices become sacred to him, and it is morally wrong to interfere with them or chastise them for their beliefs in the same God of all. Each one understands the concept of God in his own unique ways. To say that there is only one way to follow and love God or to have a relationship with God, and gain salvation is as demonic as it gets. To say that any other way, but the Christian way, characterized as the wrong way or a demonic way is as debasing and deriding as one can get? That and more is the language of usage by the proselytizers. We heard it all, and hear and see the aggression of the proselytizers every day at our doorsteps and when they break our temples, desecrate out sacred images and altars, and uproot our prayer flags. These are facts, not propaganda, as some will have us believe. They are well know to all Hindus and Christians alike in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere. When some persons enumerate these religious crimes and crimes of humanity or bring them to the attention of the same proselytizers to show them the extent of their own hypocrisies, the favorite words of the same hypocrites, it becomes someone else's hypocrisy, the debasing of another religion and presentations of one religion as better than or superior to another. Who among all religions, more than the Hindus, have always believed and promoted that all spiritual and religious pathways are legitimate pathways to God, and preached the philosophy of Vasudeva Kutumbakam - the world is one family of nations which can share the earth peacefully with all others in spite of religious differences? But when Hindus protect themselves from consistent daily attacks or are prepared to defend themselves against those who see Hinduism as a threat to their only pathway to God, they are called the aggressors who are seeking confirmation of their own truths about their religion. This is in spite of a background of about eighty million in the Hindu holocaust over a thousand years of foreign rule in India. Not a single instance of continuing discord can be found between the Jews who fled to India because of persecution and their Hindu brothers and sisters. But what about the more recent millions in the Hindu holocaust of Bangladesh, Pakistan and elsewhere where Hindus and others are killed everyday, and not allowed to practice their religion publicly for just being a member of a minority religion or group? The true Hindu will never be satisfied to allow the proselytizers to get away with defaming and derogating his religion as long as he is the object of any proselytizing zealotry. And when he does become offended by the proselytizing zeal, guess who becomes more offended? How odd it is that the Christian proselytizers become the ones most offended when confronted with all their own atrocities that went with proselytizing for two thousand plus years and are still going on today. Current proselytizing and recorded history of proselytizing show the full extent of the debasing and derogating of all other religions by mostly Christians, only on the basis that Jesus is the only way to salvation. This is not something new, anything just made up, or something that is done in secret. It is openly confessed by Christians, themselves, that they have the right to bring others under the Christian umbrella at any cost or means. The Jews and Muslims know the Christian arrogance of being the only true religion too well, for they, too, and others vehemently deny Jesus as God, but only a messenger of God. Hindus do not go that far, because they understand the concept of God with more openness, clarity and richness than any other prevailing concepts of God held by non-Hindus. Man and God, for Hindus, are One, and Godhead and salvation is available to all in any one lifetime, in the same way Jesus realized his divinity and arrived at Godhead at age twenty five. Go out and preach the good news became go out and make them Christians by hook or crook, no matter how they resist and how long it takes. And so Christians did it in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia where the indigenous peoples can hardly be recognized any more. Their rich religion, culture, language and rich down-to-earth way of life are mostly destroyed. Goa, in India is where recorded history shows the worst inquisitions ever took place under the supervision of the holy man, Saint Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic. The last Pope who visited India, said that India and Asia were now new grounds for Christian proselytizing or expansionism or some such ridiculous statement. Is it because of a dwindling membership of the Church or for new sources of income from declining Church membership in Europe and America? But is it only Christianization that is promoted? No one has any objection to free choice of religions, but the coercion, aggression, false promises, extortion, bribery, spread of fear, false healing, trickery, planting the seeds of discord among families that already have a religion, pitting child against parent, one member against another, hate, political destabilization, undermining of patriotism, etc., being propagated by these same proselytizers in the name of saving souls for Jesus. No Hindu has any quarrels with Jesus, for he was a good, compassionate, holy and loving man who attained Godhead in the same manner described in Hinduism for attaining Godhead. The general problem is with aggressive Christians who deliberately distort the teachings of Jesus, the same teachings which His disciples never understood, in the first place, because Jesus taught in the style of intellectual, Gnostic traditions of the Essenes, a Jewish group to which he belonged. The spread of the fear of a Devil and the trauma propagated by a hell of fire and brimstone is perhaps the worst of all Christian crimes and persecutions, especially when a child is taught to fear an imaginary hell of fire and brimstone as punishment for sins. Yet, these same people invite those without sins to throw the first stone. So we ask who is it that are going to heaven and why it is so important for all to be saved when no one is without sin? Members of converting families who care deeply for their siblings and cousins who are non-Christians go through that same imaginary hell of fire and brimstone, worrying unnecessarily about hell for their non-Christian siblings and relatives. Some new Christians are now beginning to understand the Devil as a personification of all wrongs and misdeeds. What is most objectionable, though, is that these same Christians do not even adhere to their own God-given ten commandments, but they want others to join them in a one way to salvation movement which cannot be achieved with the same sin when they invite others to throw the first stone when morality is mentioned as a problem. Yet they often will admit that they do not observe all the ten commandments, but want others to follow them. But how many versions of the ten commandments are there? And they openly challenge you to show you that they are right to commit their crimes of religious passion, because you are not a saint either and are a sinner. So they ask who is without sin as their philosophy of defense when questioned about their right and wrong and their morality? Let him who is without sin throw the first stone is their slogan in defense of the horrors they commit in their proselytizing zeal. How absurd it is that one wrong is a good reason for justifying and committing others. What is most objectionable, though, about some of these proselytizing zealots is their brain-washing tactics used on simple people who already have rich religions and cultures and even languages and ways of life that go back for centuries and are being destroyed. This should be a grave concern for everyone. Bloody religious proselytizing did not happen for one year, ten years or a hundred years, but has been going on, non-stop, for two thousand plus years. How many innocent, God-loving people lost their lives only because they understood God in a variety of rich ways, and worshipped God differently from some standard practices that continue to reinforce the flow of the blood of Jesus just for salvation, as if they themselves experienced salvation before, when they do not even believe in reincarnation and believe only in one lifetime. Innocent non-Christians see Christians in the spirit of the sister/brotherhood of woman/man and the fatherhood of God. The are fully prepared to live in peace and harmony with people of all religions. Little do they know or are prepared for the day when they will be targets of Christian persecution and even elimination as individuals or who knows, an entire race. Besides, the only way doctrine was misunderstood from the beginning. It is now believed by some of the more enlightened and renowned Christians of today that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. But this is after two thousand years of incorrigible aggression, based on a false belief or a false doctrine, by misinterpretation, perpetrated on innocent people. But who can doubt that it is better late than never? While the damage is already done, not a single apology is forth coming from the leaders who promoted such a belief as an only way to salvation. Christian proselytizers not only object to other forms of worship, but they gave themselves the right to destroy them, under the guise of saving souls, something that no one can ever prove or even measure. How many received salvation by accepting Jesus in their hearts is un provable. What a quick fix, and nothing more, being sold as Gospel truth to the innocent, most trusting peoples of the earth! With whips on their backs, the slaves held by Christians for hundreds of years were given promises of a paradise in heaven, in exchange for their back-breaking labor on earth. When they resisted, it was more whips on their backs. But no, these atrocities must be forgotten even when they never seem to go away, as described today by some of the peoples of Asia, Africa and elsewhere. Christians gave themselves the full right, for two thousand years, to hound down non-Christians and convert them to Christianity. They debased and derogated other religions and forms of worship, humiliated them, derided other religions, forcefully converted or eliminated them with the worst inquisitions know to man, removed and destroyed objects of reverence from their places of worship, burnt down and destroyed their places of worship, etc., only because they did not not conform to Christian practices and believed in Jesus as the only form of God that ever existed. What can be greater and more debasing to anyone who understands God in a variety of rich ways than rejecting their religion as another legitimate pathway to God? It is the same as denying that one's spiritual needs cannot be met in other ways, but only by the Christian way. To preach that God has only taken one form, ever, as Jesus, and that Jesus is the only way, that all other forms of the same God are false, and that worship of all other forms of God constitute devil worship is as debasing and humiliating as it gets? How much more debasing and derogating can one religion be, when it does not even know the true origins of its own religion? Is it only because some Christians feel that they have the money, the might and the right to eliminate other religions on such flimsy grounds as an only one way to salvation? Thank God for the Internet and much new researches that are developed and readily available every day without much effort. They provide us with the connections between all religions and peoples. The abundance of information about the shifting of the tectonic plates also help us to understand our differences that grew markedly over time, and our variety of rich culture and religions flourished, starting from nature and reverence for the power of nature which is still practiced around the globe today. But no, some would rather have non-Christians believe that all the religions before the advent of Jesus were false. They refuse to believe that Jesus was another Avatar with many others prior to Him. They are the same ones who say that other religions existed long before the dawn of Christianity, but go on to advocate that there is only one true religion with the advent of Jesus. And so, they removed all earlier concepts of God and sterilized their own concept of God, and hide God in a heaven/paradise, so much so that not even if you wanted to see and experience God in the environment in your own lifetime, you will still have to wait after death to see him in heaven if you are not already consigned to hell for sins common to all as they say with their slogan of throwing the first stone. Who can doubt the proofs of the genetic origins of a people who grew to populate the rest of the world with similar nature-based spirituality, religions and beliefs, a variety of cultures indigenous to the regions, and related languages? Some present themselves as upstarts who now tell us that they just discovered genetic research, and they go about challenging others as if they themselves discovered it. That same truth can be found in Hindu scriptures. It becomes very clear, visually, only if you take the time to watch and study the forty two, three hours long CDs, entitled "Om Namah Shivay" produced by Zuby Kochhar and directed by Dheeraj Kumar, and based on Hindu scriptures. Without a sound background in Hinduism, most likely, the gist of the stories of the evolution of man, religion, culture and languages in the video series will be missed or misunderstood. It shows how the demonic or power dominating people once tried to conquer the devas or god-centered, loving people, and how the battles ensued over the stealing of what rightfully belonged to others. It further shows how after the shifting of the tectonic plates, the demonic forces moved out of India where the Nile/Indus valleys once nurtured the origins of civilization from which religions, culture, languages, etc., emerged. As disasters occurred people of the Nile/Indus Valley civilization moved out and populated the rest of the world. The battles between the gods or devas did not end in the Nile/Indus valley civilization. They took with them many aspects of Indian religions and culture to other parts of the world, and which got modified over time to produce new religions, with mostly the original religious stories and philosophies of the Vedas, modified as we can see in the original Vedic/Hindu story of two birds on a tree. It got modified to the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Similarly, is the story of Noah and the flood, the birth of Lord Krishna, and many more historical events that can be found in Hindu scriptures and modified to look diferently in the Bible. Hindu scriptures clearly explain the origins of the demonic or non-dharmic people, and how they populated the rest of the world with remnants of the origins of the Hindu religion. Everything done in darkness must come to light is the old adage which are the fears of these marauding, aggressive proselytizers who disguise money-making ventures as religion, under the guise of saving souls for Jesus. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1276094874 In the words of Ashoka, whoever praises his own religion and condemns others only harms his cause The small American town where I grew up was dominated by evangelical and pentecostal Christians. And every Sunday these good people would pack the town's churches, where they were called to go forth and bring more souls to Jesus. The problem was that everyone in the community already was Christian, or if they weren't they kept quiet about it. So folks went to work converting each other. It was as common as rain to be confronted by a Bible-waving neighbor asking, "Have you found Jesus?" And only the brave (or drunk) dared respond, "No! Where did you lose him?" The call to bring others to the true teachings, whatever they are, is a common feature of many religions. This is true of Buddhism, which may have been the first missionary religion. Nearly 23 centuries ago the Emperor Ashoka, a great patron of Buddhism, sent monks to the far reaches of his kingdom – which included part of present-day Afghanistan – to build monasteries and teach the dharma. However, Ashoka also issued an edict calling for respect for all religions. Whoever praises his own religion and condemns others only harms his own religion, Ashoka said. Unfortunately, the zealous remain blind to the truth of this. Stories of forced conversions by Muslims and Christians have made religious conversion a hot issue in Asia, Sri Lanka in particular. Christian evangelicals in Sri Lanka have been accused of offering food, medicine and money to the poor only if they convert to Christianity first. The converted, it is said, are compelled to spit upon or smash statues of the Buddha in exchange for aid. I cannot say personally if these stories are true. The Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka is unusually nationalistic and intolerant, and it is possible they overstate the case. However, I understand some Sri Lankan Catholic priests have spoken out against the evangelicals also. And whether the coerced conversions are real or imagined, the backlash against them threatens to compromise all Christian charitable work in Sri Lanka. Let me point out there have been Christian missions in Asia – and pretty much everywhere else in the world – for centuries, and in Asia these there are many long-established Christian churches with native-born clergy. Why is a backlash building now? It's not hard to imagine that Asian religious establishments feel their authority slipping away and their traditions endangered by an encroaching "other". However, I don't dismiss the stories of coerced conversion out of hand, either. I've seen plenty of belligerently aggressive evangelism with my own eyes. Religious missions can be conducted through charitable work and non-coercive teaching. But I think the urge to convert often is driven by impulses other than pure faith. The more zealous the missionary, the more likely the mission becomes a means to act out aggression and to eliminate the other through assimilation. Spreading faith by assuming tribal dominance can be a losing strategy for a religion, however, because aggressive proselytising surely angers more people than it converts. Some recent surveys have shown that the Christian share of the US population is shrinking, and it appears some of this shrinking is a backlash against overbearing Christian hegemony. It seems to me that if proselytisers had genuine faith – I'm using faith in the sense of "trust" or "confidence" as well as "belief" – they would at least tone down the proselytism. Surely the God they believe in has the power, hypothetically speaking, to move the hearts of unbelievers without their having to be argued, bribed, or bludgeoned into doctrinal submission first. I would ask religious institutions to adopt a code of ahimsa, not harming, in their mission work. Don't go where you aren't welcome; don't stay if your presence is causing conflict. And don't risk harming your own religion in your eagerness to sell it to other. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1275038442 Kigali — This church's lack of courage and humility made it develop what philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his book "The Conquest of Happiness" termed "persecution mania" which he says is "a recognised form of insanity." The fall of the former genocidal regime was not good news for some in the Rwandan church. Out of solidarity with and nostalgia for their defeated ideological allies, they were at a loss. They were incapable of overcoming their shame and guilt and recognizing their responsibility for the suffering of the Tutsi, which they identified with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), or to get used to the new reality of a non-racist Rwanda. At the beginning of the war of liberation in October 1990, there was a virulent propaganda by missionary circles, particularly the White Fathers, against the RPF. They resented the RPF and sought to portray it a communist organisation, "inevitably" aimed at "persecution of the Church." This was a skilful ploy to tarnish the image of the movement. It inspired fears among other missionaries and influenced public opinion, especially in Europe, which easily feels disapproval for anything called "anti-Christian." Above all, it pre-emptively covered up the criminal or doubtful intrigues of certain churchmen, since any sanction by the new Rwandan Government would likely be interpreted negatively by a conditioned public opinion. At every opportunity, after the genocide, the church complained of attacks from the local and foreign press, invoking the false thesis of persecution by the new Rwandan Government. This persecution mania was meant to cover up shame. In November 1994, the vice- president of the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda, Bishop Thaddée Ntihinyurwa, told a delegation of Bishops and Priests from the Eastern and Central Africa "The church should be ready to be persecuted." On January 9, 1995 the Vatican's representative in Kigali wrote to the Minister of Justice to complain that beyond attacks in the press, there were deliberate and systematic acts directed against the Church by the new Government. The letter was signed by Fr. Henryk Hoser and Mgr. Nguyen van Tot, respectively Apostolic Visitor and acting chargé d'affaires. They expressed themselves in the following terms: "The national radio and the press close to the regime accuse, often and openly, the Catholic Church of having participated in the genocide, with the aim of denigrating it, of discrediting it vis-à-vis the people and of preventing it from playing its role in the society." Hoser and van Tot alleged the aim of such accusations was "to make people forget the messages, disseminated for a long time by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Rwanda and elsewhere, in favour of peace and national reconciliation, or else of masking certain crimes committed against the Church hierarchy and staff." On January 5, 1996 Bishop Ntihinyurwa in Kigali told Bishop Paul Schruers, a delegate of the Belgian Episcopal Conference, that "the Catholic Church in Rwanda and its staff have suffered numerous criticisms launched by the national and international press with the aim of discouraging it, discrediting it and reducing its influence internally as much as outside the country". These messages from Rwanda's Episcopal Conference and the office of the Papal nuncio were quite different from the more honest assessments of "The Commission for the Relaunch of Pastoral Activities, of priests of the diocese of Butare" (CRPA). Document N° 5 of early 1995, by the CRPA, said the true causes of the situation in Rwanda were being kept secret. "The word genocide and the sad reality that it describes make everyone feel so uncomfortable that they prefer to keep silent." The authors add that the silence is the fault of "those guilty of it," and those "who should have sounded the alarm and who did not," i.e. "the Church in general (in Rwanda and elsewhere), the missionaries in particular (in this country as well as outside). This country's history bears witness to the effects of a substantial number of missionaries compromising themselves and forming allegiances with the leaders of the time." In the same vein, the "Group of Reflection of the Priests of Kigali" declared their consensus that the Church "should have dissociated itself in a clear manner from the discriminatory policy of the government, but above all from the hate propaganda disseminated towards the end of the former regime." This group also said that "the church had lacked apostolic courage to play its prophetic role." This was a hard truth the Church did not wish to hear, and the group was forced "to die" as one of its members told me. In the opinion of a Dominican priest, Bernardin Muzungu, if men and women of the Church "had had the evangelical courage, given their moral authority over a population baptised at more than 50%, they would have efficiently discouraged the racialisation of Rwandan politics." Instead, many influential men of the cloth in this church were deeply involved in the development of a policy of hate and in the dissemination of an ideology of ethnicity, which was discriminatory and the harbinger of genocide. Yet, the Papacy has nothing to say about them, though it has much to say about condoms, and is now feeling obliged to talk about paedophile priests. Does the Vatican consider genocide to be an offence? So far not! The "G"-word has found no place, in a line or paragraph in the books of the Canon Law. It is a bridge too far, unlike the issues of abortion or euthanasia in which the Church does get involved. The institution does it with such intractable language and measures. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1274296714 (Please check the source URL for the complete article which contains photos and videos) (Readers may also check http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1089&Itemid=57 Vishal Arora - In Conclusion Vishal Arora has gone to great extents to package and present himself and his writings as unbiased and neutral. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Vishal Arora is a Christian convert, his wife and brother are conservative, fundamentalist and evangelical Christians and his official domain (vishalarora.co.in) was purchased and registered for him by the USA conservative, fundamentalist and evangelical Christian group NOBTS (New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary), which believes: “It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations.”...“The heathen, then, are under condemnation just as well as those who hear and reject the gospel, for they are sinners by both nature and practice.”...“We believe that the Christian life begins with conversion.” (Refs: 01 - 02) Vishal Arora is also affiliated with the Christian organization “Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life” and the Christian news agency “Compass Direct News”. Therefore, Vishal Arora’s writings and views about “Hindu Nationalists”, “Hindu Extremists” and “Right Wing Hindus” are biased, self-serving and written with ulterior motives. Vishal Arora and Tehmina Arora have a Christian agenda that specifically targets “Right-Wing Hindus” (which can actually refer to any Hindu who does not denounce Hinduism and accept Christianity) and anyone they perceive as having affiliations with “Right-Wing Hindus”. Vishal Arora, Tehmina Arora, Vivek Arora and NOBTS are “Right-Wing Christians” who feel it is their religious duty and moral imperative to convert Hindus to their Christian faith. So when Vishal Arora “innocently” takes aim at popular gurus and spiritual teachers in India (who have large Hindu followings) and attempts to associate them with “Right-Wing Hindus”, make no mistake about it: Vishal Arora is on a Christian crusade for his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1273777214 "India, especially Calcutta, is seen as the main beneficiary of Mother Teresa's legendary 'good work' for the poor that made her the most famous Catholic of our times, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a living saint. Evaluating what she has actually done here, I think, India has no reason to be grateful to her", said Sanal Edamaruku, Secretary General of the Indian Rationalist Association and President of Rationalist International in a statement on the occasion of her beatification today. The statement continues: Mother Teresa has given a bad name to Calcutta, painting the beautiful, interesting, lively and culturally rich Indian metropolis in the colors of dirt, misery, hopelessness and death. Styled into the big gutter, it became the famous backdrop for her very special charitable work. Her order is only one among more than 200 charitable organizations, which try to help the slum-dwellers of Calcutta to build a better future. It is locally not very visible or active. But tall claims like the absolutely baseless story of her slum school for 5000 children have brought enormous international publicity to her institutions. And enormous donations! Mother Teresa has collected many, many millions (some say: billions) of Dollars in the name of India's paupers (and many, many more in the name of paupers in the other "gutters" of the world). Where did all this money go? It is surely not used to improve the lot of those, for whom it was meant. The nuns would hand out some bowls of soup to them and offer shelter and care to some of the sick and suffering. The richest order in the world is not very generous, as it wants to teach them the charm of poverty. "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," said Mother Teresa. Do we have to be grateful for this lecture of an eccentric billionaire? The legend of her Homes for the Dying has moved the world to tears. Reality, however, is scandalous: In the overcrowded and primitive little homes, many patients have to share a bed with others. Though there are many suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS and other highly infectious illnesses, hygiene is no concern. The patients are treated with good words and insufficient (sometimes outdated) medicines, applied with old needles, washed in lukewarm water. One can hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is "the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ". Once she tried to comfort a screaming sufferer: "You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you!" The man got furious and screamed back: "Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing." When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Price, she used the opportunity of her worldwide telecast speech in Oslo to declare abortion the greatest evil in the world and to launch a fiery call against population control. Her charitable work, she admitted, was only part of her big fight against abortion and population control. This fundamentalist position is a slap in the face of India and other Third World Countries, where population control is one of the main keys for development and progress and social transformation. Do we have to be grateful to Mother Teresa for leading this worldwide propagandist fight against us with the money she collected in our name? Mother Teresa did not serve the poor in Calcutta, she served the rich in the West. She helped them to overcome their bad conscience by taking billions of Dollars from them. Some of her donors were dictators and criminals, who tried to white wash their dirty vests. Mother Teresa revered them for a price. Most of her supporters, however, were honest people with good intentions and a warm heart, who fall for the illusion that the "Saint of the Gutter" was there to wipe away all tears and end all misery and undo all injustice in the world. Those in love with an illusion often refuse to see reality. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1273608388 Can it be true, according to the Bible, that God can only have one human form? The answer is obviously no, because Jesus said he will come again as a thief in the night, meaning that he will not be recognized in his new form, but only by his works they shall know him. It is very clear that Jesus credits God with more than one human form and was fully aware of the principle of other forms of God. He was speaking about another one of his coming as God, consistent with the Hindu principle of the manifestation of God at other points in time for a special purpose at the time. Jesus spoke to a particular group of people who needed assurance of the continuity of their beliefs in God and the continuation of their religion over time in the same vein of Hindu Avataras of God who come with a particular mission at a particular time. It can hardly be a reference to any finality of God and human society in any one point in time, because Jesus also said that many will be called, but few will be chosen. The anticipation of the coming of Jesus as a thief in the night reminds the Hindu of Lord Krishna who was described as a stealer of butter. The significance of Krishna as a stealer of butter is that he stole the hearts of his devotees after making their hearts as soft as butter by their love for him. It stands to reason that Jesus is another form of an earlier form of God as Lord Krishna, the stealer of butter whom Hindus refer to as a Poorna (full by birth) Avatar of God. It did not require anyone to stop worshipping an earlier or different form of God, with the advent of a new Avatar of God, as Jesus. There is no doubt, from reading the Bible, that God may take as many human forms, over time, as he wishes, and so can incarnate in any human form. This is a basic Hindu belief, and one that most Christians also believe, since they, too, believe that nothing is impossible with God. While Hindus speak about many forms of God, most Christians speak only about one form of God as Jesus, the only form of God of which they believe they know and about which they read and are told. It stands to reason that most Christians may be right about one form of God, since time only started for them with the story of Adam and Eve some six thousand or so years ago. Besides, Christianity started formally, as a new religion, some three hundred and twenty five years after the crucifixion of Jesus when the Council of Niceae was formed to launch Christianity as a new religion. One can know much more about other forms of God by reading ancient Hindu scriptures that describe multiple forms of God as Avatars of God much earlier than the advent of Jesus. When emphasis is placed on God, only in one form, as Jesus, it clearly means that most Christians may find it difficult to accept any previous advent of God in human form in much earlier times. Besides, most Christians confuse multiple forms of God with polytheism. They do not understand divinity as the single screen upon which are projected all the illusions or impermanence of the coming and going of all forms of life, like water bubbles on the ocean of love. They further make monotheism exclusive only to the Abrahamic religions without regard to the Absolute Brahman in Hinduism as the divine substratum as God and as everything. The false belief that time started with the story of Adam and Eve makes it difficult for most Christians to believe in any other forms of God, and so they stick to their false belief that Jesus is the only form of God that ever existed. Yet, they know quite well that time started much earlier than is believed in the story of Adam and Eve. The evidence of historical findings and religious symbols left by earlier civilizations and religions are proofs that God and religions existed long before what is described in the Christian Bible. The Avatar of the day, Sathya Sai Baba, re-affirms the Hindu understanding that no one has to give up his favorite form of God to worship another form of God or a new form of God. But that is exactly what most Christians want everyone to do since the advent of Jesus as God. How ridiculous it is that one should be asked to give up one form of God in favor of another when all forms of God come from the same God as One. Our most ancient scriptures tell us that all pathways lead to salvation in the same God of all through love and critical self inquiry or awareness of the self. Love and salvation is the same objective in every religion. Therefore, it makes all religions the same, but with unique cultural and philosophical differences that do not detract from the belief and worship in any form of God. The single objective or goal of salvation, as proclaimed by people of the Abrahamic faiths and all other religions, makes all religions the same and equal. It is simply madness that anyone should go about aggressively competing for souls through only one pathway to God. It certainly comes across as their only means for legitimizing their religion and excluding it from the sameness of other religions that lead to salvation just as well. The reminder of the only one pathway to God is the half empty glass. No matter how full the glass may appear, some look only to the day when the glass will have one drop of water left versus when it will overflow, because it may only be symbolic of their feelings of emptiness left by their false beliefs in a single pathway to God. To see the glass half full makes it much too difficult for them to accept that other religions are legitimate pathways for salvation in the eyes of the God of all and lover of unity in diversity. And so Christianity came up with all kinds of distortions of present and ancient truths. The emptiness of the glass helps some rejoice in the principle of only one form of God, the one form of God of which they only know, as mistakenly understood in their scriptures which are only a couple thousand years old. They are not willing to listen to accounts of other forms of God that are much earlier than the date of their own scriptures. That is too threatening to their claims of only one form of God from the beginning of their time that makes up their religion as exclusively a one way to God religion. Hindus worshipped God as one since ancient times. This is written in Hindu scriptures which are much earlier than the development of Christianity as a multi formed religion in the area of some forty thousand of them and still growing. We are told that most Christians know God only in one form, and are prepared to reject the existence of any other forms of God prior to Christianity. Their only excuse for their lack of knowledge about God in form much earlier than that of Jesus is to gain support for describing other forms of God as false Gods which drive the power of their aggression onto other religions. And so, it gives most Christians some cover for persecuting the followers and believers of other forms of God. It is by far the most overt aggression and destruction ever perpetrated on mankind, only because they fail to understand the truth of multiple forms of God since ancient times. Like the British, most Christians would rather distort and destroy what they do not understand by spreading their only one-way religion for salvation that they do not know is a built-in form of self determination in all the forces of nature. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1273608292 The common saying, 'As poor as a church rat' is fast losing its proverbial essence, given the assets churches and their leaders parade today. To disprove the saying, Opeyemi Adesina, Tayo Salami and Chika Morkah, using additional Internet sources, identify four Nigerian pastors who are not only rich but are setting the pace in the art of wealth creation and business management. They labour in the Lord's vineyard, yet they are stupendously rich. That statement aptly captures the monetary worth of some pastors plying the gospel of Christ in Nigeria today. Not a few people will marvel at the value of the estates and earthly possessions on which they sit and superintend. Although they are many in the wealth circle, four of them clearly stand out, given their carriage, life styles, investments and popularity. Not many will fault the likes of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy, and Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of Synagogue Church of All Nation as the 'Big Four' among several other affluent ministers of God. It may pose a surprise that a few others who are head-to-head, or even heads above these four are not included, it is for no other reason than that their churches are more institutional and non-hereditary as churches of these four are likely to be. It's on that ground that Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, in particular, is not included. Bishop David Oyedepo Based on the parameters earlier listed, the richest pastor in Nigeria can be said to be the President and Founder of the Living Faith World Outreach Ministry, aka Winners Chapel, Bishop David O. Oyedepo. The church has the largest worship centre in the country, a 50,000-seat auditorium located at Canaanland, Ota, Ogun State. Bishop Oyedepo is reported to own two private jets (Gulfstream 1 & Gulfstream 4), a Rolls Royce phantom among other luxury cars, an expensive university (Covenant University), a massive church auditorium, over 1000 branches locally and internationally. He's also reported to be collecting through his church an average tithe income of 30 million Naira per Sunday (excluding offerings and other levies), franchises including literatures, e.t.c. Whenever he or Faith, his wife is going out in the town, either separately or together, they usually go out with a convoy of vehicles and blaring of siren to beat the traffic. The couple like riding in posh jeeps with one or two vehicles in front and a similar number of cars following the one occupied by either of them. Although the Winners' Chapel is one of Africa's fastest-growing Pentecostal churches, Oyedepo is often invited for crusades by other churches. He has a global vision of evangelism and has taken the gospel outside the shores of Nigeria, which have yielded a lot of financial rewards. “Your financial revolution is tied to what you do with your finances on the gospel,” he often tells his congregation. As part of his outreach programmes, Oyedepo acquired a multi-million naira aircraft in 1996 to facilitate his evangelism programmes to countries outside Nigeria. This earned him the appellation “Jet-Age pastor”. He believes he is sent to a generation and not just a denomination to work signs and wonders. He established the Covenant University in Ota, Ogun State, thereby using his wealth for the promotion of tertiary education in Nigeria. Prophet T. B. Joshua Temitope Balogun Joshua, born June 12, 1963 and commonly referred to as T. B. Joshua, is the founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), a Christian organisation headquartered in Ikotun, Lagos State. A Christian pastor, humanitarian and author, Joshua broadcasts Christian televangelism via SCOAN's Christian television station Emmanuel TV, and on the Internet via the Streaming Faith Broadcast Portal. His sprawling church building on Ikotun/Egbe Road is reported to worth billions of naira. Joshua is said to have started a church with just a handful of members, naming it 'The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations'—a name he says God divinely revealed to him. Since then, the church has grown far beyond the shores of Nigeria . More than 15,000 members attend the weekly Sunday service, and visitors from outside Nigeria are accommodated in the church facilities. From the very first service held in 1987 to the present day, the church has been controversial due to reports of miraculous signs and wonders that occur every week. The church currently has branches in Ghana, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Greece. He is also mentoring many evangelists from around the world in the church premises, saying: “The biggest reward God can give to His servant... is to make disciples who will do better than what we are presently doing.”. 'Another Ministry' is the humanitarian arm of SCOAN, with projects catering to the needs of widows, dwarfs, the elderly, physically challenged, orphans and the destitute. The church provides scholarships to orphans and children of the less privileged, with educational support promised from primary to tertiary levels. There is also a rehabilitation programme for armed robbers and prostitutes. Often, the church financially supports them to secure a practical vocation. During his 45th birthday on June 12, 2008, T. B. Joshua made a large donation to the less privileged. Joshua has also provided scholarships for numerous physically challenged students and sponsored many physically challenged athletes. He is known to help people, irrespective of faith or denomination. Joshua recently floated a football club 'My People FC' as part of his efforts to help the youth, the young team already making a mark on the Nigerian football scene. Already, three players have been sponsored abroad to play professional football in Sweden. Two players from My People FC played for Nigeria's Golden Eaglets in the last FIFA U-17 World Cup,were raised at Synagogue. Sani Emmanuel, who was raised in The SCOAN and worked as an altar boy, was Nigeria's top-scorer and the tournament's MVP, winning the Golden Ball and Silver Shoe. Emmanuel and his colleague Ogenyi Onazi have since expressed plans to have a foundation to help other less privileged youths, where 'every proper means will be used to discover the talented'. At a thanksgiving service in The SCOAN held after the cadet World Cup, Golden Eaglet's goalkeeper, Dami Paul, also testified to receiving healing through Joshua's prayers before the tournament's commencement. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome Chris Oyakhilome, Pastor of Believers' LoveWorld Incorporated otherwise called Christ Embassy Church, is not only winning souls but has built an expansive business empire from which he is making huge amount of money. His church headquarters is a magnificent glass building. Its blue and gold colours stand it out in the crowd of old buildings on Oregun Road, Ikeja, Lagos. The building which is a few poles away from the old Suzuki Motorcycle assembly plant glitters like the corporate headquarters of a progressive new generation bank. Chris Oyakhilome, the Edo State-born pastor, runs the branches of the church and his other businesses from there. The church has provided for Oyakhilome a good platform for his other business interests which include banking, publishing, broadcasting, entertainment and the hospitality industries. A normal Sunday service at the headquarters draws not less than 30,000 worshipers. Most of them come from distant parishes of the church and the attraction is Oyakhilome himself who they all want to see live on the pulpit. Oyakhilome belongs to the growing clan of pastors who preach prosperity but he is better known for his miracles which are very controversial. Even then, they have remained the source of his popularity and the huge fortunes that he has made. The church operates like a conglomerate with no fewer than 10 subsidiaries that work with the common goal of oiling the purse of the ministry and its patron. The major money spinning arms of the ministry includes LoveWorld Cyber Ministry, LoveWorld Television, Love World Christian Network, LoveWorld Multimedia Ministry and LoveWorld Publishing Ministry. One business enterprise run by the church is the LoveWorld Records Limited located in Ikeja. It was incorporated in 2008 as a private limited liability company to carry on the business of music, entertainment and gospel merchandise. The Christ Embassy recording studio operates a distribution network that facilitates the selling and marketing of records within and outside Nigeria. His group's investments in the media include Minaj Broadcasting International, MBI; Superscreen television; National Standard, a monthly magazine; National Daily, a weekly newspaper; and a cable television network known as Loveworld Media. The satellite television is based in South Africa and it is a free-to-air-no subscription channel. It was set up primarily for the purpose of the church evangelism. Superscreen television station, owned by Oyakhilome, occupies the seventh floor of Lagemo House at Onipanu area of Lagos. The television which began operation in 2007, boasts of state of the art broadcast equipment. . Majority of staff of the television station are members of Christ Embassy. The television station serves as the media arm of the church, especially because it routinely telecasts church programmes of Christ Embassy. In pursuit of the church's craze for publicity and in spite of huge investments in the broadcast media, Christ Embassy again set up its sole private television station called Loveworld News Media. The studio is located within the church headquarters and is said to operate a 12-hour daily service airing church programmes. National Standard hit the news-stands in July 2004 as a monthly glossy magazine. Its first office was at Plot 2, Ajumobi Street, off ACME Road, Agidingbi, before relocating to 25 Ogunlowo Street, off Adeniyi Jones, where it is at the moment. Today, the publication has gone weekly. Its sister publication, National Daily, which is a weekly tabloid, is located on Emina Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja. Paradigm Communications Limited oversees the publication of the papers for Oyakilome's business empire. The church's investments in these media enterprises alone is put at more than N5 billion. Global Plus printing press is another investment of the pastor. The hi-tech ultra modern press is located along Ikosi Road, Oregun, Ikeja. Monthly financial yields of the printing press which is worth more than two billion Naira is about N10 million. Christ Embassy also owns CFI Pictures, a company that produces Christian movies. Located within the headquarters premises is a digital media store that markets electronic books and a gift card shop. The two are also money spinning channels for the church. The church also has investments in the event and entertainment sector. In 2008, it bought over a warehouse belonging to a shoe making factory along Oregun Road which was converted to an event centre called K and G Event Centre. The event and recreational centre which is located at 8a, Oregun Road, has relaxation spots and other entertainment conveniences for customers. The church also has an eatery called Dicksons. The fast food joint is rapidly expanding its outlets. It is being developed to compete favourably with Mr Biggs and similar outfits in the country. Oyakhilome has also spread his business tentacles to the financial sector. The church owns two microfinance banks one of which is Moneycom Microfinance Bank. Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) has carved a niche for himself in the British Christian community. His church, which attracts 8,000 congregation, is considered one of the richest in Britain. According to Robert Booth of The Guardian (London) reports, Pastor Ashimolowo, with a £100,000 yearly pay, earns more than the Archbishop of Canterbury, the official head of the British church. KICC is reported as one of the richest religious institutions in both Britain and Nigeria. The Kingsway International Christian Centre, in Walthamstow, has filed company accounts which reveal it made a £4.9m profit over a period of 18 months. It also has assets of £22.9m, more than three times the amount held by the foundation which maintains St Paul's Cathedral. His church's wealth, according to reports, stems largely from the donations it encourages from its 8,000-strong largely African and Caribbean congregation. They gave £9.5m in tithes and offerings in the 18 months to April 2008, dwarfing the £33,000 that the average Church of England congregation gave over the same period. Rather than a more traditional plate collection, forms are handed out to worshippers so they can make bank transfers at some services. KICC's wealth is the clearest sign yet of the gathering popularity of evangelical Pentecostalism which is the only growing branch of Christianity in the UK with an estimated 300,000 weekly worshippers. The church's increasing wealth represents a transformation in its fortunes after the discovery in 2005 by Charity Commission investigators of financial irregularities. Ashimolowo was ordered to repay £200,000 after it emerged he used church assets to buy a £13,000 Florida timeshare and £120,000 on his birthday celebrations, including £80,000 on a car. New trustees were appointed and Ashimolowo was removed from his role as chief executive. “The last 18 months have been a period of incredible journey in the life of KICC,” said Ashimolowo in a preface to the accounts. “It has been very exciting to see God move the ministry from one level to another as we witness the increased manifestation of His glory.” Ashimolowo is understood to earn his salary from preaching as well as royalties from sermons published in books and on DVDs through his own company. Ashimolowo Media Ministries made a profit of close to £60,000 in 2003. Four KICC directors earn between £60,000 and £80,000 each. By contrast, a typical Church of England vicar earns around £21,500 and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has responsibility for an active congregation of close to a million people, only earns £68,740 a year. “This is a very well-financed business,” said a tax accountant who examined the accounts for the Guardian. “It holds more than £16m in short term investments. I am the honorary auditor of my local church and they have just £20,000 on deposit.” “The teaching of the church is very much about self-development,” said James McGlashan, a former oil executive who is now KICC's chief operating officer. “If that is preaching wealth then we are preaching wealth. Becoming financially independent, owning a house, getting a degree and a better job is good.” According to the accounts filed with Companies House, KICC finances were boosted by the sale for £10.1m of its Waterden Road home in Hackney to the London Development Agency which needed the site for the 2012 Olympics. It is planning to spend between £50m and £80m on a five-year project to build a complex at a site in Rainham, Essex, with capacity for 8,000 worshippers, classrooms, a TV studio, bookstore and offices. As in Britain, Ashimolowo is fast spreading his church in Nigeria, spending millions of naira to plant branches of his church in every part of the country. His expansive church auditorium in Mende area of Maryland, Lagos speaks volume of his financial muscles. text/html http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1271784041 BERLIN—The sexual-abuse scandal roiling the Roman Catholic Church is threatening one of the pope's core missions, a Christian reawakening in Europe. Pope Benedict XVI has made reversing the decline of Catholic influence in Europe a central goal of his papacy. But as clerical abuse scandals spread across the Continent, they threaten to hasten a growing movement away from the Catholic Church in an increasingly secular Europe. A survey published last week in the German magazine Focus underscores that threat. Some 56% of 613 Germans polled by researchers at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, said they had no confidence in the church; one-quarter of the survey's Catholic respondents said they were mulling leaving the church. "This is a real danger for Benedict," said David Gibson, author of "The Rule of Benedict," a biography of the pope. With alienation hitting the very places that could be the seedbeds for the pope's push, Mr. Gibson said, "his great project could be cut off at the roots." On Monday, Pope Benedict marked the fifth anniversary of his papacy by lunching with cardinals in the frescoed interiors of the papal palace. Also on Monday, the Vatican published a letter from Cardinal Claudio Hummes, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, to priests world-wide noting that the church "is determined to neither hide nor minimize" sexual-abuse. Sexually abusive priests, the cardinal wrote in a letter dated April 12, "must answer for their actions before God and before tribunals, including the civil courts." It was just five years ago this month that a freshly elected Pope Benedict explained before thousands of pilgrims gathered in Rome's St. Peter's Square the inspiration for his papal name: One was Benedict XV, the pontiff who guided the church through the turbulence of World War I. The other was St. Benedict of Norcia, a sixth-century monk who, amid the ashes of the Roman Empire, retreated to the hills south of Rome to found a monastic movement that would become the bedrock of European Christian culture in the centuries to follow. His namesake, the pope declared, "is a powerful call to the irrefutable Christian roots of European culture and civilization." That history has blurred the lines between church and state across much of Europe. Many countries, such as Germany, Austria, Italy and Sweden, collect some form of a church tax that provides the lion's share of Catholic and Protestant churches' finances. Even countries with small Protestant or Catholic church attendance, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, observe Good Friday, Ascension Day and Pentecost as public holidays. Germany and Italy are currently governed by church-friendly center-right coalitions. Yet in daily life, Europe has become increasingly irreligious, a shift rooted in part in its post-war prosperity and the growing chasm between European social mores and the church's moral teachings on issues such as contraceptives, divorce and homosexuality. Even before recent months' clerical abuse allegations, church attendance in Europe was at historical lows. In Spain, a traditional Catholic stronghold, fewer than 20% of Spaniards attend mass regularly, down from more than 30% in the 1980s, according to a 2008 nationwide study. In Germany, fewer than 14% of Catholics attend church regularly, compared with 29% three decades ago. In the U.S., by comparison, some 42% of Catholics and 47% of Protestants say they attend church regularly, according to Gallup Poll data. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of priests in Europe declined about 8%, based on the most recent Vatican figures. The church's aging clergy signals a more precipitous drop ahead: In Ireland, for instance, 36% of its priests are over the age of 65, while only 4% are 34 or younger. The abuse scandals have further undermined the church's influence. In Munich, for example, home to some 540,000 Catholics, city officials say 1,691 people, most of them Catholic, left the church in March alone, more than double last year's monthly average. Lars Frantzen of Cologne, Germany, a 34-year-old computer scientist who was brought up in a conservative Catholic family, says he considers himself religious. But over the years, he says, he found himself increasingly at odds with the church's message and remoteness from the issues of his own life. "There isn't the will to engage people," he said. "It seems more to want to control people." The recent abuse revelations, he said, were the final straw. "What's happened in the church is the opposite of what the church should stand for," said Mr. Frantzen, who left the church in February. Benedict's approach to reinvigorating the church has been less about broadening its appeal among the less ardent multitudes and more focused on cultivating a core of traditional believers in church doctrine. Last fall, the Vatican stepped up its courtship of traditionalist Anglicans uneasy with their church's female priests and openly gay bishops. Some Church observers say the scandals ultimately could lead to reform and renewal within the church, given that surveys consistently show the majority of Europeans say they still identify with Christian messages and values. "But that requires a thorough reflection on the church's part on how it transitions into modernity," said Peter Huenermann, retired professor of theology at the University of Tübingen in Germany, where Pope Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, taught theology during the 1960s. "I don't know if the pontiff has the will to carry out such a change." Others point to the growing popularity of charismatic churches and pilgrimages as evidence of the role religion continues to play in Europe. Thousands of tourists and pilgrims have flocked to northern Italy to see the Shroud of Turin, the ancient piece of linen some believe was Jesus Christ's burial cloth, since it went on display earlier this month. "There's no reason the Catholic Church can't take part in" such a revival, said Grace Davie, professor of sociology at the University of Exeter in the U.K. —Stacy Meichtry contributed to this article. Write to Vanessa Fuhrmans at vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com