RCCG’S NEW MARRIAGE ACT: Christian youths react to Pst Adeboye’s directives

Ripples from the ongoing August Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) stunned spinsters and eligible bachelors of the mega church when the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye read out a riot act, commanding the young folks not to marry outside the church.

Daddy G.O. (as he’s fondly called) also directed the bachelors not to marry a lady who cannot pray for one unbroken hour, a lady who cannot cook, and to his pastors, Pst Adeboye said he doesn’t want to see any of his pastors (with beards) looking like fellows from the training camps of Al Qaeda!

Our team of reporters went to town over the weekend and brought the reactions below from the young ones.

 
Tomi (Legal practitioner)

It is the normal things they preach in churches about relationship anyway, and I feel it is the right thing to watch out for when you plan to get married.

But I don’t totally agree with the one that says a Redeemite must not marry outside the Redeem Church. It shouldn’t really matter, so far as the other person is a born again Christian. If I marry someone who is not a member of my Church, I may attend his church, but I won’t leave my place of worship.

The Church is not just a physical thing but a spiritual fellowship. If I am engaged to someone who is not a Redeemite, would it be proper or even Godly for us to break up our intent on account of difference in place of worship? Didn’t Christ come to make us all one body?
Dami (Student)

Like in Christ Embassy, the directive is that you should marry someone with the same vision as you. Every church has its doctrine, so if a Christ Embassy member marries a Redeemite, the way they pray in Redeem Church is different from the way Christ embassy prays.

But about marrying only someone in Redeem, there is no big deal in leaving your church for his, but that should depend on the intending couple: I think whichever Church one worships should not be a hindrance.

What Baba said about prayer is cool: why would a woman not be able to pray for an hour? You can be praying, speaking in tongues, and doing something at the same time and before she knows it, the hour is over.

Titilayo (Data Consultant)

If you are a lady and you get married to a man, you must follow him to his church, whether Redeem, Mountain of Fire, or any other Church. That is proper and Godly.

As for praying for an hour without resting, it is just a normal thing that anybody can do.

 
Miss Stella (Stylist)

As Christ is the head of the Church, so also the man is the head of the family. If you can get married to a Redeemite, there is nothing wrong in joining your husband in Redeem.

I am a practicing Catholic and would love to marry from my Church, but if I can’t get a husband from my Church, the Church should not say I cannot marry from outside especially if the man is a born again Christian; I should be left to make that choice.

On the cooking aspect, normally, a man should marry a lady that can pray and can cook, but that the lady must become a prayer warrior for one hour, I am not comfortable with that and I don’t support it.

We all don’t have the same spiritual capacity, so we all pray as the spirit leads; you can start from 30 minutes and in due course, the spirit of God will lead you to pray more – even more than an hour.

On laziness, I agree one shouldn’t marry a woman that is lazy, because this is not the time for a woman to be idle and watch the man provide everything for the family.

Oduwole (Lawyer)

A lady shouldn’t mind leaving her Church for her husband’s, but it is quite rare for a man to leave his own Church for the lady’s. It however depends on the understanding between the two.

Personally, I won’t mind leaving my own church for my husband’s, and as for prayer, sure I can pray; for one hour? I have not timed myself but I can if I have to.

Also, I can cook.

Victor (Accounts officer)

Well, for the man to say a Redeemite should marry a Redeemite, he has his reasons for saying that.

Like the last convention, he mentioned that if you are not a believer, you shouldn’t put offering in any Redeem Church. He is the General Overseer, so I think he knows better.

If I ask a girl in redeem out, and she refuses, I will have to let her go, you don’t have to marry because of a particular thing, love is a natural thing.

If I love a Redeem lady and propose to her, and she says, no because G.O. said so, I will have to let her go. The only I want to marry is love, not the Church she attends or the one I attend.

As for cooking and praying, I think cooking should come naturally with a Nigerian lady; praying shouldn’t be a barrier either. We can develop our prayer life as we continue in marriage.

Oluwasegun (Student)

What the man of God said is not wrong, but actually if a woman loves her family, she has to pray even more than one hour.

As for getting married to a Redeemite, I think he is wrong, because the criteria to marry anyone is that he or she should be a believer, and a Christian.

Martins (Undergraduate)

I don’t think God set all those conditions for the man to leave his mother and his father and cleave unto his wife. Men at their best will remain men.

None of those problems cannot be overcome if you love your partner. I can patiently teach my wife to cook better if she is not good enough because there is no lady of African origin that cannot cook. If you are not satisfied with her standard, teach her or send her to a catering school for a crash programme: that is love.

As for prayer, what would you be telling God for a whole hour? The Scriptures advised us to ‘Let our words be few’ because God is in heaven above, and we are on earth below. It is only those who are paranoid that always bind the Devil and perceived enemies in the family or neighbourhood or at their workplace and, before you go round all that chain one hour would definitely be over, but we all don’t have to pray like that.

Put your supplication before God and believe He will answer you; that shouldn’t take even ten minutes; one can praise and worship Him for hours because He is Lord.

As for marrying from the same Church as a rule, pardon me, but I think that is being thoroughly human. It is not Scriptural.