{"id":17359,"date":"2020-06-01T10:53:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T10:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17359"},"modified":"2020-06-01T10:53:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T10:53:07","slug":"okotie-to-can-social-distancing-in-church-tantamount-to-blasphemous-infidelity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17359","title":{"rendered":"OKOTIE TO CAN: Social distancing in Church \u2018tantamount to blasphemous infidelity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Pastor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has faulted the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)<\/a> for reopening of churches in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okotie, who was reacting to a 10-point directive by CAN which was presented to the federal government for approval, proposing that churches should strictly observe social distancing during services, said that the proposed directive was \u201cunbiblical\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clergy in a statement issued on Sunday said that it was an abomination to allow the idol of coronavirus to determine the scope of congregational worship in the house of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, \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

\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 read in part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAN had on Wednesday said it is hopeful that churches in the country may be reopened to worshipers in the first week of June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Places of worship, including mosques have been under lock and key for weeks after the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> spread into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev Samson Ayokunle, the president of the association gave the indication in a statement on Wednesday, adding that CAN had been consulting with the Federal Government on the modalities to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, if the government did not entertain any fear in opening markets and banks, there would not be any basis to hesitate in opening churches considering the fact that they are more organised than markets and banks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has faulted the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for reopening of churches in the country. Okotie, who was reacting to a 10-point directive by CAN which was presented to the federal government for approval, proposing that churches should strictly observe social […]<\/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":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOKOTIE TO CAN: Social distancing in Church \u2018tantamount to blasphemous infidelity\u2019 » 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=17359\" \/>\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=17359#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Religion\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=7\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"OKOTIE TO CAN: Social distancing in Church \u2018tantamount to blasphemous infidelity\u2019\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OKOTIE TO CAN: Social distancing in Church \u2018tantamount to blasphemous infidelity\u2019 » 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=17359","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=17359#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religion","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=7"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OKOTIE TO CAN: Social distancing in Church \u2018tantamount to blasphemous infidelity\u2019"}]}]}},"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=7\" rel=\"category\">Religion<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, has faulted the guidelines proposed by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for reopening of churches in the country. Okotie, who was reacting to a 10-point directive by CAN which was presented to the federal government for approval, proposing that churches should strictly observe social…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17359"}],"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=17359"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}