IMMORALITY IN CHURCHES: ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD

1.1 Introduction

Morality today, it has been observed, is increasingly on the decay. Ethics as a way of ordered living which propagates ideal communal life and human relationship is speedily waning. There is concern in several quarters that at the rate immorality is making waves in the society; the likely tendency is that there might be serious breakdown of law and order which might lead to anarchy.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

According to the new testament of the Holy Bible, jealousy, killing, lies, adultery, fornication, theft, heresies, pride and several immoral acts are against the will of God. However, the church is guided by the word of God which is against all forms of immorality, but there are still some levels of immorality in churches.

It is said that a lawless and immoral society is prone to chaotic situation and anarchy. An ideal society is that which is devoid of violence, civil disorder, with minimal rate of crime and immoral practices cum unethical standards. This is why sound morals and ethical standard have been the concern of many social institutions in recent years. Hence, many campaigns in the society today are geared towards curbing immorality and other such vices and drama is a major instrument used by various anti-immorality and anti-corruption campaign agencies. In Nigeria, the church has been taking one of the leading roles in the campaign against immorality (Etire, 2002) .

Moral, according to Webster’s Universal Dictionary and Thesaurus, is an adjectival word that is “of or related to character, particularly as regards to right from wrong. Morality has been defined as principles concerning right and wrong, good and bad behaviour. However, morality is to be seen as the right motive on which man is supposed to act, the good which one ought to follow or achieve, the discerning power or conscience with which one determines or knows right from wrong, the laws of mutual living able to yield positive action otherwise known as freedom of will. Ethics in theology, especially when referred to as Christian Ethics, is the same thing as Moral Theology. Manton (2001) thus explains Moral Theology as “the study of how people should act in the sight of God. The term is more frequently in Roman Catholic

They are coined in the literature as sex abuse, sex offences, sexual misconduct, immorality, promiscuity and maladjustment (Omoteso, Adeniyi & Bada, 2010 and Anise, 2011). However, Dotonu (2011) observed that sex abuse and fraudulent misappropriation of money appeared to be one of the most serious and most common immorality among the youths and leaders of the churches involved in this mess.

The prevalence of immorality in churches among members in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It has grown to a level that creates fear and tension in the heart of anyone who has concern for the future of Nigeria as a nation and that of the teeming Christian populates of Nigeria. The society is grappling with many behavioral problems of the church members and clergy/pastors alike, which according to Ekundayo & Oyeniyi (2008) and Adebule (2012) include fraud, deception, intimidation, drug offences, smoking, flirting, stealing and armed robbery, violent conduct and demonstration, vandalism, examination malpractices, cultism and thuggery. In addition to the above listed widely publicized behavioral problems, Dotonu (2011) stated that heterosexual and homosexual activities are also viewed as part of the behavioral problems prevalent in some of the Nigerian churches.

Therefore, in Nigerian churches where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the immorality in churches, issue and the way forward.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Investigation reveals the problems of the Immorality in Churches, Issue and the way forward research work, which are outlined below:

One of the outstanding remarkable virtues of a good society should be sexual purity which has received little or no attention from the society today. Also, sexual immorality has eaten deep into the fabric of the society. It has become the mainstay of the peoples’ behaviour (Adebule, 2012). Fraudulent accumulation of wealth has also been the order of the day in churches

Without doubt, there is an increasingly low level of morality and ethical standard in the society today especially in the church, many interest groups have laid blame on modernism and developments especially the advent of modern technology and the internet.

Researchers have shown (Omoteso, Adeniyi & Bada, 2010; Anise, 2011 and Odebiyi, 2001) that sexual immorality and corruption has thousands of destructive effects on the society. However, the researcher is examining the issues of immorality in church with the hope of identifying the way forward.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Immorality in Churches, Issue and the way forward. In achieving this aim, the specific objectives were set out as follows:

1. To examine the issues of immorality in churches.
2. To determine the way forward on the issue of church immorality.
3. To identify the factors encouraging immorality in churches.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the level of immorality in churches?
• What is the way forward on the issue of church immorality?
• What are the factors encouraging immorality in churches?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

H0: There is negative impact in the immorality in Churches exhibited in Nigerian churches

H1: There is positive impact in the immorality in Churches exhibited in Nigerian churches

1.7 Significance of Study

The following are the relevance of this study:

1. Outcome of this study will educate the church leaders and the general public on the issues of immorality in the church and identifying the way forward on the issue of church immorality.
2. This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic.

1.8 Scope of Study

This study on immorality in churches will cover all forms of immoral activities that exist in churches today with a view of finding a lasting solution to the problem.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).