One of the differences between Cape Town and the greater Johannesburg metropolitan area is the billboards – but more particularly, the billboards selling Jesus.

Every highway, main road and church property up there hosts massive billboards proclaiming the Lord’s love and, to be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming.

Now, one of these many churches places of worship has come under fire for being racist – how very not Christian. During Sunday’s 11:15 sermon, the head pastor of Rivers Church in Sandton allegedly said that black people have abandonment issues.

Bume Mapukata attended the service and had this to say:

The sermon was essentially around abandonment or people with abandonment issues – that is what it was centred around.

About three quarters into the sermon he went off on a tangent. He was speaking about how you need to be open to the way in which God might come and resolve your problems and that he might bring people who are different from you to try and help you in your situation.

And so if you are a white person you might find a black person coming to be the person who allows you to find a way through your troubles and vice versa. And then all of a sudden he says he gets quite upset when people in this country say that white people are the problem with this country or white people are what is wrong with this country.

The pastor had also referred to his own life experiences including being abandoned by his father and that he has worked really hard in his life.

I am not disputing that he has worked hard to be where he is. He is completely oblivious to the fact that he has enjoyed privilege along the way. To insinuate that you are where you are simply because of hard work – are you saying that black people don’t work hard?

To say that we have stolen nothing from no-one so you are going to completely disregard history, and the history of blacks being exploited and manipulated in this country.

After he said what he said – he said that I know that black people are not going to applaud, or I have lost a few people right now, but I will probably get you guys back at the end of the service.

This is what the inside looks like:

The accused, Pastor André Olivier, went onto Radio 702 to explain his side of the issue – which is never a good thing. I mean, just look at the place above, out of which he offers a sermon.

Does he think he is a demigod in a nightclub? He should have just become a DJ.

I did preach on the topic of abandonment, and I mentioned that God uses people and sends people into your life. He did that with King David. He sent a whole band of people [who] were distressed, in debt, discontented and the Bible says they made David commander and later on in scripture he made them his army …

And then I said, ‘Black people, God will send white people to you, and you might not be open to them but He will use white people to build into your life. And I said not all white people are bad.

Someone on TV had said, on Youth Day, that the whites are the problem in this country. No we’re not the problem – the whites are not the problem in the country. We work for what we got, we contribute. We are making a contribution. Then I said to white people, ‘Be open if God uses black people in your life, because God will use people to speak into you that you are not open to’.

Just keep making the hole deeper, pastor.

[source: enca&destinyconnect&ewn]