Anthony Cardinal Okogie who turns 70 on 17 June spoke on materialism and its effects, especially among new age pastors.

Some church pastors have been linked with huge business deals, while others are busy acquiring properties in exclusive areas in major Nigerian towns. What exactly is responsible for this kind of attitude?

“By their fruits, we shall know them." That is what the scripture says. Now, what would you call such pastors and their churches? You claim to be a pastor looking after souls; I know you cannot look after the soul without the body, but why would a pastor give 90 per cent of his time to the body and give only 10 per cent of the soul?

I wonder what kind of pastors they are. That shows really that they are not shepherds of the flock. They have been skinning the flock, taking out of the milk of the flock. They give Greek gifts to their members. They would say. “ I will give you job,” without really meaning it.

Of course you must give tithe, not only on your salary but even outside it. They would tell you that you cannot deceive God. They would also calculate your salary for you and tell you that you still have to pay tithe on any other extra income that comes your way.

These are the people who try to give a bad name to God, but you can't cheat God. Just look at their history. As you are talking about Pentecostal churches, we Catholics are also worried. People are always talking about money, but money is not every thing.

Man is a composite being made up of body, Soul and Spirit. We pay much attention to the body but how much attention do we pay to the spirit that keeps the body alive? And many a time, we commit all kinds of crime because we want to satisfy our ego. But we should be reminded that nobody eats his cake and still have it. At least not with God. He has been giving each and every one of us a long rope. I read some of those things in the papers and I always say, God forgive us our sins.

So many people have been misled today. Look at Nigeria. Look at the number of churches that we have today. The government also has its corporate Affairs Commission, CAC. If you want to start a church you just go and register and it is nothing but a business enterprise. Am saying so. Then they ask people to come and register their protest if they have any reason not to register the church.

Because of the economic problem in the country all the warehouses have been turned to churches overnight and they are all thriving. All of them claim to be miracle workers while others just stage those miracles. So many things are happening. There are conferences I attend and I find it extremely difficult to believe what they are saying. Religious men could really be saying this? All emphasis is on money, money, money and money! If you spend an hour there, hardly would they spend 10 minutes on God, except they want to sue God to make money.

And they know those verses in the scriptures that tell you about money. That is what they have in their heads. I am telling you that is really a terrible problem it is not fair. You see some of them at the age of 40, they already look 70 because their mind is not in what they are supposed to be doing, that is if really they are called. A good number of them are not called.

Culled from TheNews