Former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe has berated popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN for describing The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) as a “business centre”.
He advised the popular lawyer to desist from condemning the General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and other men of God, saying it was “unwise and very, very dangerous” to do so.
Okupe said this in a Sunday post on his Facebook page titled, “Femi Falana and the Drunkenness of Public Advocacy”.
He said he read a news report a few days ago in which Falana reportedly said: “Pastor Adeboye, you are building business centres not churches”.
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Okupe said that he waited 72 hours hoping that the highly acclaimed human rights lawyer and public advocate would deny the story but he never this so.
He said that as Falana’s friend, he could have advised him privately but opted to go public because of the public image of the popular lawyer, “who I recognise that he has a large following in the country especially among the youths and the civil society family both in Nigeria and abroad.
“It is imperative to publicly correct his falsehood lest he mislead many who believe in him.”
He said he did not write to defend Pastor Adeboye. “I am by far too inconsequential to take up such a role. I know for a fact that those who defend Pastor Adeboye operate at such a sublime realm that I cannot even comprehend. And there lies the foolishness of Falana’s comments.”
Quoting Mark 16: 15, Okupe said that Pastor Adeboye and the RCCG were obeying the instructions of Jesus Christ who charged his disciples to go into every corner on the surface of the earth and preach the gospel.
“This the RCCG complies with by spreading the gospel through the planting of churches erroneously referred to as “business centres” all over the world by Femi Falana.
“Secondly Christian’s are mandated by the scriptures to give tithes and offerings.
“The more members a church has, the more tithes and offerings it will collect and the richer the churches get.
“Quite frankly also the richer the pastors and heads of the churches also get because they are scripturally allowed to partake in the wealth of the churches. 1 Cor vs 13.
“Those who work in the temple eat from the temple and those who serve at the alter share what is offered at the altar.
“Falana can admonish the church as a Christian to use a greater portion of their wealth to support the poor and the needy in the society, even the scriptures are full of such admonitions,” Okupe wrote.
He advised Falana to stay in the areas of his core competence and not dabble into religion where “obviously he is so uninformed”.
Okupe warned that “casting aspersions on great men of God like Pastor Adeboye is unwise and very, very dangerous.
“These great Generals in the Christendom are certainly not infallible but because of the Lord’s anointing they carry on their heads, even when they go wrong, they can only be judged by God Himself.
“I will enjoin my brother and friend the highly respected silk to repent and ask for forgiveness from God for his reckless statement.”