The Camouflaged Altar: A Review of the Hidden Interests in the Church and Their Implications on the Society at Large

In present times, the word church has different meanings for different individuals. This is according to their experience and institutions. The fact that the church has been affected by modernity has changed its actual face. As humankind increases in earthly knowledge, the purity of the altar is totally compromised. The altar has been used to promote hidden interests from a few malicious individuals. Each and every day, we wake up to negative news from the media about the church; proving the fact that the altar, acting as a connecting point between humankind and God has several evils, inter alia, greed, all manners of immorality, leadership wrangles, dirty politics and corruption, cultic operations, fiction and stage-managed signs and words, but covered with white linen that portrays holiness. Simply, this can be referred to as a camouflaged altar, where different faces of the clergy can be discovered, all hidden in the name of God. This paper therefore discusses this problem through reviewing of existing literature on different issues pertaining to the subject in context, and the implications of the same to the larger society. The study concludes that the current state of most churches indeed raises concerns of spiritual misguidance and confusion about the reality of God, implying that the society at large may end up lacking a guiding factor if the trend continues.