Cleaning the Augean Stables is a figurative expression that means purging a place of corruption, filth, moral decay, and degenerate attitudes. The origin derives from Greek mythology when King Augeas of Elis kept 3,000 Oxen in stables which were not cleaned for thirty years. Hercules, the Greek demi-god cleaned the stables in one day. He directed the famous river Alpheus through the stables and cleaned them spick and span. In contemporary times, cleaning the Augean Stables suggests cleansing human physical and psychological habitation of all forms of putrid, despicable identities. In Nigeria, there is an unpronounced but admitted consensus that our diverse spaces especially – political, corporate, and religious – urgently deserve thorough cleansing of entrenched Augean Stables. We continually direct our critical searchlight on the political Augean Stables in our country because on the shoulders of politics rest the duality of well-being and survival of the masses. However, our corporate and religious taxonomies have not received enough critical inquiries even though they accommodate the same sullied apprehension of the Greek Augean Stables. Today, I am minded to focus on Nigeria’s Christian religious Augean Stables and the attempt by a pastor to cleanse it starting from his church.
Recently, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the president of LoveWorld Incorporated and founder of Christ Embassy, a Pentecostal church with headquarters in Lagos stirred the hornet’s nest by attempting to clean the Augean Stables in his church. In an unexpected move, he tacitly dismissed some gospel singers in the church for mindlessly gravitating towards mundane, secular tendencies that are antithetical to the true service of God. According to the pastor, “The church was turned into a party place, not a prayer place where God’s word was truly celebrated. They were not soul winners; they led praise in church, and when it was time for prayers, they were gone. The music became worldly. They danced for themselves and celebrated themselves—not God”. Recall that in Luke 19:46 the ultimate Master did the same when he walked into the temple and drove out ungodly, mercantile individuals saying “My house shall be a house of prayers but you have made it a den of robbers”. I am not interested in all the undercurrents that led to the exit of some gospel singers from the Christ Embassy; rather, I am fascinated by the opportunity the event has presented to x-ray many churches as irreducible chambers of immorality, double-dealing, and mammon worship disguised through deceitful, liturgical practices.
It is obvious many churches in Nigeria are populated by innately wicked, sinful, pathetic fellows whose aspirations tend towards self-glorification rather than any genuine interest in the service of God. Sadly, the church today is populated by people who do not even understand the meaning of being born again much less, knowing anything about God. Unfortunately, these people always get the opportunity to mount different pulpits and when they do, they pollute the environment from their chaotic, warring, spiritual delirium. I have had the misfortune of listening to half-baked preachers spewing profanities from the unstable depth of their base religious convictions. It is ridiculous to encounter some people who call themselves ‘pastors’ in all their beguiling, sinister capacities. They call prayer points with ease and also speak in tongues. But beyond the façade of piety, just beyond their misleading external demonstration of holiness lies a scheming, desperate persona who, to all intent and purposes, is a devil incarnate. We have them all around us. Millions of people today find the church as an escape route from the harsh realities of our society so inside churches, you find pathological liars, power-hungry, position-seeking desperados whose crass moral hegemony on their unfortunate admirers amuses the devil.
Some people who call themselves “born again” Christians have one responsibility in the service of the devil – to monitor everyone in the church and transmit falsehood to the General Overseer daily. Thus they become agents of discord and fallacious narratives within the church. Such persons are dangerous. They are in regular sensate exchange with Satan and belong to the clan of reprobate minds God has marked for destruction but must first let them stew in their juice for eventual self-immolation. They are part of the Augean Stables that must be cleaned in every church and Christian organization. If you know such people, watch them closely, they hardly make much progress in their lives but are filled with envy and will do everything to pull others down. Unconsciously, they occupy symbolic positions in the kingdom of Satan because they are ready instruments to challenge God’s project in the lives of many people.
If the ultimate Master decides to destroy the world today, he would gladly start from churches. As Pastor Chris Oyakhilome pointed out, some people do not care about the primary responsibility of worshipping God. They are there for pecuniary benefits and glory-seeking accomplishments. Some General Overseers are simply jokers, they prey on the gullibility of their followers to unleash spiritual and emotional harm to the glory of the devil. Of course, there are genuine men of God committed to serving God and promoting His kingdom. We know some of them. Such honest servants of God are also victims of politicking, back-biting, and invidious conspiracies within the church. There is a story of how some elders and pastors of a church went to a witch doctor to procure charms to kill the General Overseer. On their way from the fiendish trip, their vehicle somersaulted and they all died on the spot. One of them was a fire-brand, ‘holy ghost, miracle performing, tongue-speaking’ pastor billed to minister in the church’s crusade the next day. There is also the story of a renowned assistant pastor, a deliverance minister who planned his kidnap to extort the General Overseer. The General Overseer paid fifty million naira to the kidnappers. The police arrested them and the ‘spirit-filled’ pastor was also arrested.
Many General Overseers and church owners are in cahoots with criminal politicians, kidnappers, drug peddlers, ritualists, and all manner of deviant fellows. The religious euphoria in some churches celebrates the devil and promotes the kingdom of perdition. What goes on in many churches constitutes a disgrace to God and all the hosts of heaven. Sexual immorality in churches makes a caricature of professional prostitution. Many sisters are on the loose, prodded by the devil to destroy the lives of many innocent brothers. Some brothers are also agents of Satan, to destroy the lives of honest sisters. Last year, in a church in Nigeria, a brother slaughtered a sister for ritual purposes shortly before their marriage. The prayer meetings, vigils, and sundry church programs hardly promote the churches as spiritual sanctuaries of God. Unfortunately, many people attend some of these churches, betraying an innate lack of spiritual cognition. It is soul-wrenching to imagine that some churches which should ordinarily be rescuing institutions for troubled souls have become extensions of abominable, iniquitous communities. Indeed, the Augean Stables in our churches deserve urgent cleansing.
Surely, there must be a way to halt the rot in our churches and stop the social, vile intrusions by these religious institutions. There is no doubt that the devil and his disciples populate many churches in our land and because we conceive churches as houses of God, we hardly expect the devil to live there. But frankly speaking, the devil and his disciples live in churches more than they live in all the shrines in Nigeria put together. When politicians spill blood, rig elections, and break all the rules in the books, they go to churches to ‘thank God’ and celebrate their Pyrrhic victories. When the drug pusher, the billionaire ritualist, and all manner of never-do-wells succeed in their nefarious escapades, the church is their first point of call. Regrettably, many General Overseers and church owners are aware of these realities but turn a blind eye to them because they are helpless beneficiaries. Surely, many churches are altars of Satan. We must come to a point where we should start asking questions of many churches and those who call themselves ‘born-again’ Christians. The stale submission ‘everyone will answer to God on the last day’ has lost potency but only strengthens the criminal, malicious sensibilities of evildoers who pretend to be Christians.
I do not doubt the ability of God to clean the Augean Stables in His churches. But to continue to outsource our responsibilities to God is a testimony of our defeated consciences with its vile potential for collective spiritual destruction. When we see a spade as Christians, we must call it a spade. Of a truth, Christians seem to be the most docile, rationalizing group of people on earth. They always cling to a portion of the Bible to justify their fainthearted consciences. The phrase “It is well” has become hackneyed among Christians. When faced with a situation where they should take action, they immediately echo “It is well” to assuage and justify their timidity. Therefore, they watch the devil and his disciples saunter in and out of their lives, businesses, homes, and other preoccupations. The Master took action and drove buyers and sellers away from the temple, He did not say “It is well”. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome took action, he did not say “It is well”. The big question is – who will cleanse the Augean Stables in our churches? We all have a role to play, one way or another. Genuine pastors, General Overseers, and honest church owners should look inward and begin to clean the Augean Stables in their churches.
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Image: Ironbull534 Pixabay remixed
