A clergyman, Oscar Amaechina, says the prosperity gospel encourages love of money rather than building morality, contributing to the country’s insecurity.

Mr Amaechina, the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network (AMEN), said this in Abuja on Saturday at a book launch.

“The danger of the prosperity gospel is that it does not bring morality through what people are doing, so I strongly believe that insecurity and the way we live our lives recklessly are results of not knowing God,” said Mr Amaechina.

He advised pastors to stick to the true biblical doctrine and teaching for their members and discourage their congregation from covetousness.

The clergyman said pastors should desist from emphasising the love of money to their congregation but encourage them to remain content with what they have.

“Those who are kidnappers have religious groups where they belong. Some of them are in the churches; they give money to their pastors, pay tithe, and give offerings.

“Some of them can even build churches, yet they still go and kidnap and collect money from people because some of them just believe that the essence of why we exist in life is because God wants us to prosper,” he said.

The clergy stressed that Christianity had faced different challenges as most pastors were now defining God based on the brand of their Christianity.

According to him, Christians see God in many dimensions and also many have failed to preach morality but rather focus on a frivolous lifestyle.

Adamson Uokhag, the Abuja chapter coordinator of AMEN, called for the revival of a reading culture that would spur Nigerians into knowing the truth about God.

(NAN)