{"id":17081,"date":"2020-06-01T08:44:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081"},"modified":"2020-06-01T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T08:44:08","slug":"covid-19-pastor-chris-okotie-fires-back-at-can-over-social-distancing-in-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: Pastor Chris Okotie fires back at CAN over social distancing in churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailypost.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Rev-Chris-Okotie.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has kicked against the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for reopening of churches, calling them \u201cunbiblical\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Religious gatherings have been banned in several states in Nigeria for weeks, as part of measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Thursday, CAN released a 10-point directive, to be presented to the federal government for approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CAN president, Samson Ayokunle, in the statement proposed that churches should strictly observe social distancing during services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okotie, however, kicked against the proposal, saying, \u201cSocial distancing in the Church of Jesus Christ is tantamount to blasphemous infidelity and an impeachment of the integrity of the word of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHealing is fundamental to the redemptive work of Jesus. To allow the idol of coronavirus to determine the scope of congregational worship in the house of God is an abomination of gargantuan proportions,\u201d Okotie\u2019s statement on Sunday, read in part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has kicked against the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for reopening of churches, calling them \u201cunbiblical\u201d. Religious gatherings have been banned in several states in Nigeria for weeks, as part of measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[27,7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>COVID-19: Pastor Chris Okotie fires back at CAN over social distancing in churches &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"COVID-19\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=27\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"COVID-19: Pastor Chris Okotie fires back at CAN over social distancing in churches\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"COVID-19: Pastor Chris Okotie fires back at CAN over social distancing in churches &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17081#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"COVID-19","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=27"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"COVID-19: Pastor Chris Okotie fires back at CAN over social distancing in churches"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=27\" rel=\"category\">COVID-19<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=7\" rel=\"category\">Religion<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has kicked against the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for reopening of churches, calling them \u201cunbiblical\u201d. Religious gatherings have been banned in several states in Nigeria for weeks, as part of measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Last&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17081"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}