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Comment by FussyZeus | Hacker News Reader

> “Ha-lleluuuu-jah,” booms the distinctive voice of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, also known as the general overseer.

Ooooooh boy, this is gonna be a fun read isn't it.

Am I the only one who thinks it's fucking tragic that in so many parts of the world, the safest place to live is under the thumb of some religious leader who seems to be deliberately blurring the line between religion and cult, or under some insane warlord who only keeps you safe because you and everyone else are fucking terrified of them?

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I suspect the religion and the specific group membership itself is what unites the residents to cooperate and live comfortably together. Better to have the option than not, right? It's not a suicide cult. If anything, it sounds like a perfect manifestation of a libertarian ideal. Don't like Daddy GO? Move with your money to another church-city.

I didn't see any theological details in the article. What is "blurring the line between religion and cult"? Call-and-response group communication (1)? I've considered that an interesting anthropolicial phenomenon, but nothing to eschew. Am I missing something?

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_and_response

I was moreso referring to his alternate title, General Overseer which legitimately sounds like something out of an Orwell novel.

I have no beef with religion in general, other than the fact that many religious leaders seem to have picked that job because they weren't qualified to do a single other thing, but hey, to each their own.

"Overseer" is an alternate translation of "elder" or "bishop" (from the Greek: episkopos), which are recognized offices in most Western Christian churches. "Daddy Go" also sounds strange to my ears, but I'm not Nigerian.

The correct parsing should be "Daddy G.O." -- G.O. being the abbreviation of General Overseer.

Thank you for putting more context into that! I was a bit confused at first.

Ah! That sounds a bit better. I could see children calling their grandfather or older family friend that.

Daddy/mummy/auntie/uncle/cousin/sister/brother pretty much indicate age/seniority/importance/familiarity in Nigeria without necessarily saying much about actual blood relation.

So the use of "daddy" in itself is just cultural and nothing specifically to do with the church.

The two church leaders mentioned in the article Oyedepo and Adeboye had a functioning career.

Adeboye was a lecturer. Oyedepo was an architect.

Check out a picture or video of the Faith Terbanacle building. A 50,000 capacity with no visible support pillar. Guess who designed it.

"Daddy Bridge builder" sounds odd in English, too. Two thousand years, and we don't give "pope" or "pontifex" a second thought.

Why do you say "under the thumb"? People seem to want to be able to live there. They do not see it as oppressive at all and it looks liberating.

Americans might find this a bit different because of the notion of "Private Religion": that your Faith in God should only be limited to one day out of the week. There are plenty of places in the USA where people go to for camp that are ran by the Church.

Religious cults and warlords were the two key organizing principles civilization was built on, from the dawn of agriculture right up to modern times.

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