Knocks have been directed at Dr. Abel Damina, a prominent Nigerian pastor and founder of Abel Damina Ministries International, for his recent remarks regarding the remedy for porn addiction.
Damina made his comments during an appearance on Comfort FM’s Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT) programme in Uyo in late February.
A clip of his sermon circulated on Thursday, wherein he was questioned about how individuals struggling with pornography addiction could overcome it completely.
His advice to such individuals was not to struggle to stop but to continue watching while simultaneously listening to the word of God.
“Don’t struggle to stop watching the porn. Don’t struggle at all. Just keep watching the porn. As you are watching the porn, spend more time hearing the ‘word’. If you watch porn for one hour, spend three to four hours hearing the word of God.
“Take not. Go get all my teachings on Christ. Just keep learning and learning. After a while, you will find out that your appetite for porn is dying and the appetite for the word of God is growing. Before you know it, when you see porn, you will be irritated.
“Word of God will kill that appetite completely and give you a healthy appetite. That’s what to do. Don’t try to stop. In fact, keep watching, but spend more time studying God’s word, and you will find out that before you know it, your desire for porn would be gone,” the pastor stated.
However, this submission has sparked disagreement, particularly among conservative Christians on social platforms who felt that the pastor was promoting sin, especially among addicts.
Gideon Odoma, a prominent figure at Fortress Ministry, opposed Damina’s submission, categorizing pornography as a perversion.
“Christains have trivialise sexcapades. The things God call iniquities, we must never call it flexing,” he said.
The pastor, who had previously criticized Damina and Apostle Suleman for favoring the Old Testament over the New Testament, stated that both of them are promoting erroneous teachings with the intention of leading Christians astray.
“The Damina and Suleman terms are wrong. It as if their only objective in life is to derail believers so they have a lot of time on their hands and they find different creative ways to say the same useless things — Your sin does not matter — they find all sorts of ways to discredit as it were,” he said.
In referencing Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 15, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome underscored that pornography is a sin that must be wholly abstained from.
He stressed that God views nakedness with shame, equating pornography with prostitution by highlighting its linguistic roots in the Greek word “pony,” which means prostitute.
“The indication is that once nakedness is being made public, it is a shame when you’re not a child. As far as God is concerned, that is a shame.
“It started from Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden apple. Their eyes were open and they found that they were naked and then covered themselves with leaves and hid from God. Christians desist from it. Those who believe in Jesus should not do it,” he stressed.
