Something happened recently in my neighbourhood in Lagos, which brought back memories of growing up in the village. It was a sight you don’t see often in the urbanised setting but, well, I don’t live in Banana Island or Ikoyi, where you won’t see cocks and hens foraging for food.
I was taking a stroll about 9.00 in the morning, when I saw a mid-size regular native cock giving another mid-size native hen an aggressive, hot chase, fully intent on mating with her. The hen was not exactly in tune with what the cock had in mind, so it did a zigzag Ben Johnson dash, “screaming” all the while as it tried to escape the “attack” from the cock. But Mr. Cock was determined to make a “deposit in the bank” so that some eggs in the hen would be fertilised, form shells and be laid, to continue the cycle of life. After running about for a while, the hen stooped and gave in to Mr. Cock’s unwelcome attention. It all happened in a flash.
As I walked away, my thoughts turned to the increasing incidence of priests (whether in the orthodox and non-orthodox denominations), who are supposedly set apart for a holy vocation and office but are now manifesting the general decay in sexual mores that has beset the society. Theirs has become a case of “If gold should rust, what would iron do?”
These days, people are being swamped on social media with tales of priests getting involved in sex scandals. From Parish priests to General Overseers of Pentecostal denominations. The incidence of the sexual peccadilloes really cut across.
Decades long past, men in cassock were held in awe as saintly beings, a special breed that could not hurt a fly. They were graceful and you could easily trust them, confide and confess your failings to them and get compassionate counsel that would motivate you to sin no more.
This high regard was more prominent in the case of Catholic Reverend Fathers, who were groomed from their youth to embrace a simple lifestyle devoid of ostentation and crowned with celibacy, whereby they sign on to life without sex, which other mortals enjoy and take for granted.
In other words, seminarians in the Catholic Church pass through years long process of chastity to become Reverend Fathers. Literally, they pass through the eye of the needle. It requires them to literally die to the flesh. Other denominations allow their priests or pastors to marry, enjoy sexual intercourse within the bounds of marriage and have children. Now, whether a man is a priest in the Catholic Church or the other denominations, the least expected from such a man is to live a righteous life and be absolutely conscious that no sex scandal must be associated with the person.
Rather, the person must be fully engaged and dedicated to the work of the gospel, preaching the word of God, leading sinners to salvation and counselling and sustaining as they begin grow in their knowledge of God.
Today, one hears appalling stories of ordained priests brushing aside the restraints, which their anointing ought to have placed on them, and then descending into the cesspit, to frolic and engage in wayward conduct and sexual immorality. They either wilfully seduce women or put themselves in situations where they easily fall into the embrace of base women out to seduce them. The social media platforms have often titillated netizens with tales of the sexual escapades of many Pentecostal pastors as well as priests of the Orthodox churches – Catholic, Anglican and Methodists. Their counterparts in the white garment denominations have long been known to keep harems of female members of the congregations. Few years back, some Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria and Britain were in the news following allegations against them by their estranged side-chicks.
It common knowledge that ladies with Delilah spirit purposely come to church, to seduce priests, whether the ordained men are married or not. Deeply offended by this practice, an Adoration priest warned women not to come to the prayer ground or go to any church for that matter dressed in revealing clothes that expose their breasts or allow easy glimpses of the thighs, stressing that they could only do so at home, for their husbands in the secure environment of their marital bedroom. In fact, they are not to even sit anyhow in the sitting room. To do otherwise, he admonished, would amount to exhibiting pornographic tendencies.
The reason for warning was quite obvious: to shield ordained men from sexual sin. If other priests would stridently sound the same warning, immorality and seduction in the vineyard would reduce drastically.
The past, up to the eighties, priests conducted themselves in the most dignified manner; they were pious and great role models, and literally had no blemishes. The same cannot be said about the younger generation of pastors. A rising number of the present end-time generation pastors are filthy in their thoughts, imaginations and character.
Sometime ago, there was report about a Catholic priest in a parish, who fought with a priest-in-training in the same parish because the assistant parish priest and a senior seminarian were both interested in the same lady and member of the parish. This led to the two lover boys having altercations over the lady, until the authorities took a drastic step to end the embarrassment. What about a Pentecostal pastor that groomed three brothers into becoming his homosexual partners. Another “pastor” allegedly kidnapped the teenage daughter of a member of his congregation and held her captive, during which he had marathon sex with her. The case was so agonising for the parents of the victim because the same “pastor” from hell all the while feigned ignorance of whereabouts as he joined the parents of the girl as they tearfully searched for her with tears. What a demonstration of satanic wickedness!
Just as some Christian pastors have fallen short of glory, as the Bible says, Muslim religious leaders have also shown that they are equally infected with the virulent virus of sexual immorality. Take the case an Alfa who was alleged to have been sleeping the female members, claiming that his semen is healing balm.
In another instance, the Police arrested a priest (name and denomination withheld) who engaged in a homosexual act with a guest artiste he had invited for a programme. After the programme, the gay priest sneaked into the room of the artiste and started caressing him. The artiste was surprised when he asked him to strip, for anal sex. That was how the artiste was introduced to homosexuality, which he practised until he got arrested in a different setting. In the course of interrogation, he spilled the beans on the pastor that “initiated” him into homosexuality.
A senior evangelist was invited to a programme, and he went along with a close member who served as his wife, bible reader and singer. But how to disburse the honorarium burst the bubble of their illicit affair. The aggrieved lady said with a loud hiss: “The same mouth he used to eat me up minutes ago, is the mouth he is uses to preach. Nonsense. Mtchheeeew!”
It is no longer shocking that more Catholic priests who swore to the oath celibacy now secretly father children, who they raise, paying school fees for them and discreetly doing other things for them. At the other end of the spectrum, an Anglican priest was hurriedly retired because his illicit affairs with married women in the church had become such a sordid embarrassment. A certain man revealed that a friend’s wife left him when she discovered that a priest was far better than her husband in the Other Room.
In a sign of the times, ordained men in different denominations now a more active vocation of sampling women, especially mature, gullible professional ladies who would not embarrass or expose them. With such women, they are simply treated to the best of the best. A neighbour made the shocking revelation about what Catholic Mass server (the altar boys) confided in him. The altar boy said that during communion, as they hold the little tray under the cheek for communicants, if a lady they admire kneels down to receive the communion, the altar boy would use the tray to tap her jaw romantically and then smile at her. He said they call it holy ghost toasting. Clearly, sordid practices have crept into the church. Which explains why a Reverend Sister fought a parishioner as both met in the bedroom of a priest.
Out of respect, a responsible Sister said ‘Hello, how are you today?’ to a priest, and he responded, ‘Your baby is doing well.’ Priests now bear pet names like ‘Baby’ like an ordinary fellow!
Dear ladies, when an ordained fellow is lusting after you, please do not lead him on. The bible enjoins you to flee (run), not just walk or crawl away. The Almighty God still punishes sin, even in this dispensation of grace.