The Church And Social Services

The government of Imo State recently, denied plans to impose taxes on churches and other places of worship in view of the increasing commercial grandstanding and lavish lifestyle of some of their leaders and overseers.

Even so, government views as very disappointing the proliferation of churches and their ominous slant towards prosperity and materialism, without a commensurate attempt to address pressing socio-economic needs of the society, and challenged them to emulate the contributions of early missionaries, by partnering with government to invest in education, charity, health, social welfare, community development initiatives and moral re-orientation.

Speaking through the Special Assistant to the Governor on Inter-religious Affairs, Chief Kennedy Zanders, the Imo government said it would soon convoke a conference with the theme, “The Clergy As Agent of Development”, to discuss ways churches could assist the public.

While declaring its preparedness to tax churches only if such a suggestion were to emanate from the churches themselves, Chief Zanders held that the churches were being mobilised and sensitised to engage in humanitarian and social services for which they had been known in the past.

These views have inadvertently re-opened a long-dragging debate over whether or not, churches and other places of worship should be taxed, in view of their recent appeal to commerce, trade and industry.

The Tide considers this fresh debate unnecessary because churches are purely charity organizations, set up mainly to administer to the spiritual needs of society.  As agents of moral re-orientation, churches are depended upon to preach exemplary filial living; love, endurance, forgiveness of sins, piety, long-suffering, righteousness, faith, family and selfless sacrifice.  Also, the Church of Christ and indeed all places of worship are relied upon to preach repentance as a way of furthering reconciliation between man and his Maker.

With these services in mind, the church has over the years proved itself as a dependable partner with government; and as agents of morality, integrity and patience, many churches have even invested in education, health and other community-based services by establishing schools, hospitals, markets, scholarship endowment funds, and built civic centres.

In fact, like the early missionaries some churches have not only continued to preach the gospel of love, but have also built schools that are exemplary, successful and commendable.

However, The Tide is tempted to agree with the Imo State government that some churches have indeed become everything that a place of worship should not be.  In such churches, the sermon has truly changed drastically from love, repentance, forgiveness of sins, restitution, righteousness, selfless service and how to make heaven; to how to make money.

This, without doubt, explains the frequent warnings by foremost Pentecostal preacher and TV evangelist in Rivers State, Apostle G.D. Numbere, “here we do not teach people how to make money, we teach them how to make heaven”, in veiled reference to the now prevalent prosperity preachings among supposed men of God.

Frankly, the flamboyance daily exhibited by some church leaders and the excessive preference for materialistic pursuits like choice cars, personal jets, palatial personal homes and investments in stocks and shares, are capable of confusing their gullible followers who might be tempted to deviate from worshiping their Maker, in spirit and in truth and instead scamper desperately in vain pursuit of wealth instead of forgiveness of sins and salvation.

It is indeed, for examples of this kind, and with little or no visible investment into societal welfare and well-being that the debate over whether or not churches should continue to enjoy tax immunity have been reawakened.

This is why The Tide considers it most instructive to remind churches of their primary duty to society: which include attending to the spiritual needs of the citizenry, promoting charity and helping to infuse in their flock and indeed society the virtues of patience, faith, love, selfless sacrifice and above all being moral soldiers of Christ.

They will achieve these by making meaningful contributions out of the abundance of the blessings that daily grace their places of worship, to setting up schools, awarding scholarships for the indigent, building homes for the aged and abandoned children and even maternities. These, we believe are some ways of justifying the tax immunity churches, like other charities, have enjoyed over the years.