Disrespect for God is metastasizing into the bloodstream of modern faith, not merely through atheistic denial, but more perilously through the hypocrisy of those who claim to serve Him. It is a grotesque irony when a choir master, adored in the sanctuary for leading hymns, is unmasked hours later as the architect of a kidnapping ring; or when a holiness sister, famed for piety, is arrested in the shadows of immorality after swindling a man through transactional “hookup” escapades. Such moral contradictions intensify the perception that reverence for God has collapsed, turning sanctuaries into theatres of performance rather than altars of truth.
The phenomenon has spiraled into a crisis of credibility. When sacred offices are desecrated by the double lives of their custodians, the ordinary faithful grow cynical, and the watching world grows emboldened in irreverence. The once-fearful awe of God is traded for laughter, mockery, and social commentary. In digital spaces, hypocrisy in the church is weaponized as memes, dragging God’s holy name through mud, not because He has failed, but because His supposed ambassadors have betrayed Him.
This decline is not isolated but global, manifesting in villages where elders no longer shudder at perjury before God, and in cities where pulpits have become platforms of commerce rather than conscience. The crisis unveils the perilous truth: irreverence does not emerge from empty streets but from corrupted altars. As Friedrich Nietzsche thundered, “God is dead. And we have killed Him.” Though Nietzsche spoke in philosophical despair, today’s hypocrisy in holy spaces gives fresh ammunition to such nihilistic proclamations.
The roots are traceable to unchecked carnality, the pursuit of pleasure under the guise of spirituality, and the enthronement of prosperity over purity. Religious education has withered, and moral discipline has eroded, leaving worshippers more excited about applause than accountability. In such an ecosystem, sin masquerades as service, and deception parades in holy garments. The sanctuary, once inviolable, is now treated as an annex of the marketplace where holiness is rented, not lived.
Civilizations that trivialize God’s sanctity eventually cannibalize themselves. Rome mocked sacred truth until it rotted from within; Jerusalem dishonored its prophets until it was leveled. The Islamic sage Al-Ghazali warned, “To forget God is to forget oneself.” Today’s irreverence is not simply forgetfulness — it is willful rebellion, a daring mockery that leaves society hollow and helpless.
The world stands at the precipice of a dangerous void. Unless reverence is restored, hypocrisy will harden into culture, and the sacred will be profaned beyond recovery. Respect for God is not ceremonial; it is the anchor of moral civilization. To trifle with Him is to dismantle the very architecture of meaning. The urgent call is clear: purge the altars of duplicity, recover the awe of the divine, and let truth, not theatre, define worship — before nothing sacred remains.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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