Unlike the time Bishop Olorunmolu was growing up when the “principal agents of socialization” were the family, the Church, and the school, the Abuja-based member of the Clergy of Nigeria’s Lokoja Diocese said that modern time has given the responsibility of socialization to social media that is controlled by celebrities.
“With the mobile phone in the hands of our children, the television in our homes, and the billboards littering our towns, villages, and highways, the more powerful influencers of our children’s values today are often social media personalities, popular musicians, Nollywood stars, comedians, and sundry entertainers,” he said.
The Nigerian Catholic Priest who founded the Psycho-Spiritual Institute (PSI), a Catholic entity that specializes in psycho-trauma healing continued, “Many of these celebrities are school dropouts, products of broken homes or dysfunctional families. Many of them are drug and alcohol addicts, serial polygamists, and unrepentant sexual perverts.”
These celebrities who “are regularly recruited as brand ambassadors by corporate organizations” are now the modern social influencers, he lamented, adding that they pose a threat to modern Christian parenting considering that they are rich and famous and have millions of young people following them on their social media and adoring them.
Present day Christian parents need “to do a lot more, with the grace of God,” to salvage their children from the influence of celebrities characterized with questionable morals, Fr. Ehusani emphasized in his September 1 homily on the occasion of the 75th birthday of his Local Ordinary.
The Catholic Priest who serves as the Executive Director and Lead Faculty of the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation that deals with leadership training cautioned Christian parents against laxity in fostering spiritual values in children on daily basis.
“Your children may not turn out to be good Christian children if all you are able to do is take them to Church every Sunday,” he said.
Good Christian parents, Fr. Ehusani said, “will need to be Christian parents in all truth and with all seriousness, making your homes domestic Churches, giving loud witness to Christian values, and teaching your children from their earliest days to be signs of contraction to the evil generation, to stand out and shine their light amid the surrounding darkness, and with all boldness to defend the hope that is in them.”
“Since we are celebrating the 75th birthday of our Bishop, I would like to challenge all the senior citizens here present to take responsibility for the future generation,” the member of the Clergy of Lokoja Diocese said, adding, “Many of our young people are today behaving like sheep without shepherds.”
Fr. Ehusani called upon the experienced “old people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s to help” the young people find life’s ultimate meaning and purpose.
