By Banji Ojewale
There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor polite, not popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him he is right. —Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) American churchman and civil liberties defender.
*Pastor Kumuyi and his wife, Mrs
Esther
In his book, An Outline of the History of the World, Herbert Abraham Davies relates the epic story of how a cleric put himself in the path of potential backlash to deliver ancient Rome from annihilation at the hands of an all-conquering army of barbarians. The predators were already in the regions of the Roman Empire; all the soldiers needed was an order from their leader, Attila the Hun, to move in and overrun Rome. From this she was saved, (so it was said), "by the earnest entreaties of Leo, Bishop of Rome, who entered Attila’s camp and warned him not to risk the vengeance of heaven by plundering the city, and the Hun leader was so impressed with the bishop’s sincerity and intensity of purpose that he withdrew his troops."
