Activist lawyer, Deji Adeyanju has said nobody forces anyone to pay tithes in churches again.
He was reacting to a message by Becky Enenche, the wife of the founder of Dunamis International gospel Centre, Paul Enenche who warned that any Christian that fails to pay tithe, ”will go back to square one.”
Becky stated this while addressing her congregations about the significance of consistent tithe payment.
The pastor in a now trending video online urged Christians to be consistent in the payment of their tithes, which she refers to as “God’s portion.”
But in a terse statement, Adeyanju said: “Nobody forces anybody to pay tithes or offering in church. You can actually attend a church service without paying tithes and offerings, and nobody will put a gun to your head.
“And the majority of the people crying more than the bereaved, who are always screaming about offering and tithes, are people that don’t even pay tithes.
“So I’ve never seen where people will decide that they want to tell people how to spend their money. If I’m paying tithes, and God does answer my prayer, what is your business with me? With me that pays tithes, when you go to your beer parlour and buy beer, do we police your life? Do we tell you what to do and what not to do? Many of us know that by paying tithes and offerings, this is the only way that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be spread abroad.
“So a lot of people that pay tithes should pay their tithes. You know, and stop trying to police people. What do people do with their money? After all, you don’t pay tithes. The people who are crying more than the bereaved don’t pay tithes and never will.
“So what is this whole idea about evangelizing to make sure that other people don’t pay tithes, offering, or support the work of God?
“Every single thing that Pastor Becky said is the truth. For us who believe in the doctrine of paying tithes, we are happy to pay tithes, and we know that if we stop, we are back to square one. So we don’t want to stop.
“I don’t see why anyone would get angry. And these same people are always afraid to criticize the other side because they know the implications of criticizing the other side. But when it comes to criticizing this side, they are very vocal and loud. So why don’t we just respect each other’s views?
“Respect each other’s religious beliefs. You should be careful the way you attack people and their religious beliefs because we are not attacking your promiscuity, we are not attacking your womanizing, we are not attacking your alcoholism.
“So why are you attacking our religious and doctrinal beliefs? The invisible minimum is that you must respect other people’s right to religion and right to religious freedom and practice.”