Oyedepo disagrees with Adeboye, says Christians are poor because they don’t use their brains
General Overseer of Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, said poverty is widespread in Africa because black men refuse to use a wonderful gift God gave them.
“Human beings are created with equal capacity,” Oyedepo told the audience at the third convocation of Landmark University.
“They are created with equal brain cells and body system for men and women, equal destiny and equal opportunities,” he said.
Oyedepo who founded the Kwara-based Landmark and Ogun-based Covenant universities then added that black men are poor because they fail to use this great gift.
The clergyman’s comment stands in sharp contrast to statements credited to Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
“Let me tell you the truth, the only reason we still take offerings is to get you out of poverty,” Adeboye told his church last December.
In May this year, Adeboye said God would in the midst of the current global hardship abandon those who do not pay tithe and offerings to starve and die.
He urged those who had been giving monies to RCCG to go “withdraw (funds) from your account with God”.
Also, in a New Year video posted to Facebook by a pro-RCCG user, Adeboye said Christians risk losing out on heavenly goodies if they didn’t “bring people to church”.
Adeboye’s comments, like those made by DayStar’s founding pastor Sam Adeyemi, don’t seem to rhyme with Oyedepo’s.
“Disobedience to God creates poverty for a Christian and for a Christian family,” Adeyemi told his congregation during a teaching aired in May.
Despite seeming disparities in their views to “prosperity”, Oyedepo, Adeboye and Adeyemi run religious organisations that thrive on members’ donations.
Most of these donations are collected via church offerings, tithes, “sacrificial offerings”, pledges, and so on. Members are usually promised being part of the fundraising schemes would attract God’s blessings while abstinence could lead to poverty.
Nigerian Christian leaders also “pally” with the high and mighty. During the last election cycle, Adeboye apparently threw his weight behind Muhammadu Buhari who picked top RCCG pastor Yemi Osinbajo as running mate.
Oyedepo’s support for former President Goodluck Jonathan was also well reported..
