Faith & Spirit Quote by Peter Akinola

Akinola is wielding Scripture as both a moral compass and a border checkpoint. Pulled from Amos 3:3, the line sounds like pastoral common sense - harmony requires shared direction. In his mouth, it also becomes an organizing principle for separation: if agreement is the prerequisite for walking together, then disagreement justifies distance, refusal, even rupture.

That double action is the point. The phrasing is deceptively gentle: no threats, no insult, just a proverb-like inevitability. It frames conflict not as a political fight but as a natural law embedded in God’s order. The subtext is strategic: dissenters aren’t merely wrong, they’re incompatible. Once disagreement is recast as impossibility, the speaker doesn’t have to negotiate; he can only “obey.”

Context matters because Akinola is not an armchair theologian. As a Nigerian Anglican leader and a key voice in global Anglican disputes - especially over sexuality and Western liberalization - he used biblical language to contest what he saw as doctrinal drift and cultural imperialism. The quote taps into a wider postcolonial dynamic: the Global South insisting it won’t be dragged along by institutions headquartered in richer, historically dominant countries.

The rhetorical power comes from how it collapses complex questions (authority, inclusion, tradition, power) into a single moral litmus test: agreement. It’s an argument that sounds like unity talk while functioning as a mandate for realignment - to find new walking partners, and leave the rest behind.