The newly appointed general overseer of the Fountain of Life Church, Jimmy Odukoya, has defended his decision to wear dreadlocks.
According to him, wearing dreadlocks or earrings does not affect his pastoral calling or violate the Bible.
DAILY GIST recalls that Jimmy was last Sunday announced as the senior pastor of the church by the ministry’s board of trustees following the death of his father, Taiwo Odukoya in line with his wishes.
Shortly after his announcement as new pastor, social media users widely commented on his movie roles as an actor and his dreadlocks and looks generally.
But speaking in an exclusive interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Jimmy explained that several personalities in the Bible had long hair and beards.
Reacting on his dreadlocks, which have continued to generate reactions from social media users, he stated that he has scriptural backing for his mode of appearance.
He maintained that people’s personal opinions about his dreadlocks differ from what constitutes sin.
“As for my dreads, that matter is long. People don’t know that everything i do, i can back it up with scripture, everything I do is in the Bible. Let’s look at the Bible, do you want to tell me that long hair is wrong? You know God told Samson not to cut his hair. It’s still the Bible. That means, long hair is not a bad thing.
“About beards, the Bible said when they were torturing Jesus, they pulled his beard from his face. If Jesus did not have beards, which beards did they pull.
“If you say this pastor is putting on earrings, I can tell you that in the book of Exodus, when the children of Israel got out of Egypt and wanted to do golden calf, they collected jewelry, rings, and earrings from their sons and daughters. If you like short hair, no problem,” said the pastor.
“Anybody can do what they want. A personal opinion is different from saying something is sinful. You should not use your own personal opinion to judge me,” he added.
He also dismissed claims that he is new into ministry, saying that he has been ordained as a minister since 2009 and became a pastor in 2012.
“I was ordained as a minister in 2009 and became a pastor in the church in 2012. I was the lead pastor of the youth church until 2020 or 2021.
The cleric maintained that nothing shakes him anymore having lost his parents, aunty, grand parents; describing them as the closest people in his life.
He eulogized his later father saying he embodied energy and vitality despite losing his two wives, his mum, Bimbo and his stepmom, Nomthi.
“I think through it all, my father, when he remarried, he said let’s move on with life but that one too, died.The constant in all of these is my father, he was a strong man, he was full of life and energy,” Jimmy said.
On whether he intended to abandon acting for full time ministry, his response was “once an actor is always an actor,” adding God will figure it out for him.
