Would you allow your Pastor to flog you?

“This is the last warning!” Pastor Kelechi thundered. “The next time you repeat such, I will give you six strokes of the cane!” To prove he would make good his threat, if the need actually arrived, the man of God walked backstage, looked behind a couch, and fetched a five-feet long stick. He leaned the object against the pulpit in such a way, even the visually impaired saw it, and fired on with his sermon.
The troublemaker was Deacon Caleb. His offence: sleeping while powerful scriptural truths were being expounded. The 47-year-old father of four was backsliding and needed to be rescued from a descent into hell.
While across the world, nations are abolishing corporal punishment, the practice appears to be gaining acceptance among some religious leaders, who are increasingly finding the Holy Book too weak to produce their definitions of righteousness and propriety. Hence, sermons must be bolstered by an ugly slap in the face, a knock on the head, a kneeling down in the scorching sun, a frog jumping amid pews, and in extreme cases, a sentencing of the theological felon to death.
Proponents of flogging in Christendom, of course, have the Bible to ‘back up’ their claims. The Gospel, according to John (2: 13-17), says: “And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.”
Another argument for the cane philosophy is the injunction in Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
But the Scripture never spoke again about Jesus deploying the whip, and neither did history prove that the Apostles and Church Fathers adopted the practice. Moreover, Jesus did so to fulfil prophecy, as it is recorded: “And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” Also, Jesus never used the whip on his disciples or on their loved ones, as the trend is today.
In churches where the practice holds sway, worshippers are led into believing that resisting the strokes amounts to rebellion against divine authority; a situation that could fetch heaven’s wrath. And so, fathers, mothers and church officials, their ages regardless, are subjected to humiliating situations at the hand of the almighty overseer.
In some places, however, worshippers have expressed satisfaction at the method, even cautioning non-members against interference. ‘We love the way Daddy handles us. It is good. We need a firm hand to control us,” they would say.
But such flimsy arguments only betray depths of indoctrination and slavishness; else, how would a normal individual leave his home for the church with the mindset that he could, in the course of worshipping God, receive a dirty slap in the face.
It must be stated that if a preacher could, bold facedly, look in the Bible and at the meek character of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet go on to appropriate liberty to whip his congregation, such would, in the course of time, seize more liberties, resulting in strange deeds and teachings.
“It is not rebellion or insubordination, if a member refuses to be flogged by a pastor,” says Rev. Victor Akerele of First Baptist Church, Festac Town, Lagos,  “because the pastor himself is wrong. So, a member’s refusal, in my opinion, is justified. There is no Biblical backing that says the pastor should flog his members.
“Had the pastoral ministry not lost its place, pastors are held in high esteem. No matter the age of a member, even if such is 100-years-old, and the pastor is 30-years-old, once the pastor speaks, that member, who is 100-years-old, will listen to the pastor. But because the pastoral ministry has lost its grip, that is why some pastors have resorted to physical means to tame their members.”
Akerele supports his position with a Biblical reference to 2 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” concluding: “The Word of God is sufficient whip to chastise His children. As pastors, we are shepherds. We are to lead the sheep with tender, loving care. When we correct them, it should be in love. It is absurd; it should not be heard that a pastor flogs his members.”
Were you in church today? Did your ‘Daddy’ threaten to flog you? What would you have done had he lashed you?