Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Etymologically, the word ‘sacred’ descends from the Latin word wikt:sacer, that is, consecrated, or dedicated to the gods or anything in their power, and to sacerdos and sanctum, -“set apart”. 1 Strong’s Concordance records sacred through the Greek word hierós (ἱερός) meaning sacred, a sacred thing, a temple 2 Helps Word-Studies (2011) detailed it as ‘properly, sacred’ (because it is associated with God’s sanctuary, the Temple); or consecrated to deity and therefore “holy,” i.e. inviolably sacred because it is acceptable for God’s service’. 3 It is also viewed as something revered due to sanctity and is generally the state of being perceived by religious individuals as associated with divinity and considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe or reverence among believers. However, this can be inferred to mean a selected ‘blessed’ place for the assembly of the selected or called out persons of God. On the other hand, Mfumbusa 4 sees corruption as impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle. He defnes it as “inducement (as of political offcial) by means of improper considerations (as bribery) to commit a violation of duty” . The Neo-charismatic/Pentecostal churches movements are a category of evangelical churches which teach about the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual warfare and power evangelism. Literally, they are the so called ‘Holy Spirit guided’ Churches. As Achebe 5 puts it, ‘things have really fallen apart and the centre cannot hold’. This is why corruption exists in sacred places? The Church which is the centre of social and moral philosophy is not supposed to be mentioned at all with corruption. No doubt, the 1 Stormonth J, Phelp PH. Sacred. Blackwood & sons; 1895. 883 p. 13 2 Strong J. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible; 2009. 14 3 Helps Word-studies, Helps Ministries, Inc. “Sacred.”Downloaded, 5 Mar. 2017 4 Bernardin Mfumbusa. The Church is growing, Corruption is growing. East African Media and Social Responsibility; 2010. 5 5 Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. Great Britain: Heinemann Educational Books; 1958.1 Church has had various leadership challenges over the years and Neo Pentecostal Churches are no exception. In fact, the case of sacred corruption is more associated with such churches. Based on the foregoing, former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Mustapha Akanbi stated in a paper delivered in 2001 entitled, “The Fight against Corruption in Governance”, thus: Corruption is a dangerous foe… The endemic nature and deliberating effect of corruption on the cultural, economic, social and political foundation of the society has been most harrowing and disconcerting. Corruption is, indeed, the bane of our society. It has been the harbinger of the messy situation in which we fnd ourselves today. Our economy has been ruined, our hopes for greater tomorrow have been dashed, our value system is destroyed so much so that the world begins to see us as men and women without honour and dignity. 6 The combination of these words, “sacred” and “corruption”, are not ally to stand together but an upturn in the contemporary ecclesiastical set-up has made the compatibility possible. Mfumbusa (2010) calls it a fundamental paradox because as Church grows, corruption grows in like speed. 7 The above candid and forthright utterance is a factual pronouncement on the state of Nigeria on the issue of corruption, howbeit, related to the state of contemporary Churches. This, however, calls for serious and urgent attention. History of corruption in the Church Armstrong, writes on “The Roman Catholic Church in 1500”; The Catholic Church was an enormously powerful force in 1500, medieval society, and extremely wealthy. The elaborate, ornate, 6 Akanbi M. The Fight against Corruption in Governance. in This Day Thursday; 2001.2 7 Bernardin Mfumbusa. The Church is growing, Corruption is growing. East African Media and Social Responsibility; 2010. 5 Art Human Open Acc J. 2020;4(6):241‒244. 241 ©2020 Dairo. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Sacred corruption in sacred places: the case of some selected Neo Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria Volume 4 Issue 6 - 2020 Afolorunso Olalekan Dairo Professor, Department of Christian Religious Studies, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria Correspondence: Afolorunso Olalekan Dairo, Professor, Department of Christian Religious Studies, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria, Tel +2348034001020, Email Received: July 17, 2020 | Published: December 31, 2020 Abstract It is no longer news that corruption is a persistent phenomenon in Nigeria; in which there is offcial misuse of funds and resources. If dishonesty or fraudulent practices are found in the mist of those in political power and among public servants, should such then be found in a place where the agitation day and night is on “holiness unto the Lord”? When “sacred corruption are found where the “so called people of God” dwells, then such a country is fnished. The Church should be the precursor of anti-corruption campaign. But unfortunately, corruption in the Church is “a new thinking in reverse order”. Corruption in today’s Church takes many forms and can be interpreted in various ways. The faces of corruption in the Church are many. These as observed in this paper includes, misinterpretation of the word of God to suit their purposes, extortion, ethical problems, charismagic and so forth. The paper then examines the high rate of corruption in some selected new generation Churches in Ibadan Metropolis; with the view to establishing the level of greed and how efforts to maintain self-imposed ostentatious life style leads them into “sacred corruption in sacred places”. Phenomenological and descriptive methods were employed in carrying out the research. It is our belief that the results of the research will go a long way in reducing the level of “sacred corruption in sacred places” in Nigeria. Keywords: corruption, Ibadan metropolis, Neo Pentecostal, sacred, sacred places Arts & Humanities Open Access Journal Review Article Open Access