Can we agree that people’s HIV statuses, sexual issues, history of rape, and other intimate, personal matters that come up during counselling sessions are not up for discussion during a sermon?
A pastor asking people living with HIV to come to the front for healing prayers? Asking homosexuals to step out of the crowd for deliverance?
Asking women who were raped to stand up for deliverance prayers? Asking members of the congregation to declare whether they are virgins or not…. Whether they have ever aborted… goodness!
What is going on?!
Are we thinking these things through and about their aftermath? Sometimes it helps to put ourselves in those people’s shoes. My pastor always says, the Spirit of God is controlled by the prophet.
Even when the Lord leads a pastor to know that there are members of the congregation who are HIV-positive and that He is ready to heal them, it takes wisdom to handle that information properly without breaking the confidentiality laws of the land.
Ministers of God still need training beyond just the Bible. As services are increasingly being streamed live in hundreds of countries simultaneously, be cautious how you use private information shared by your flock.
Do I really want people in Serbia to watch me on YouTube declaring my health status or sexuality?
Unless someone chooses to, I pray that God gives Pentecostal ministers the wisdom to be discreet and good custodians of secrets shared during counselling. Otherwise, church counselling sessions are becoming simply prayer request sessions, as the faithful seek out professionals.
Imagine if a Catholic priest who receives parishioners’ sordid confessions daily became loose-lipped. Trouble!
During a big church service in this city, a pastor asked women who have suffered rape at the hands of their fathers to step forward for special prayers. The same happened at an Anglican Church youth camp, to the consternation of many. Surely, the Spirit of the Lord God can also touch these people wherever they are in the congregation or wherever they are watching from!
Salvation is still personal and everyone is a work in progress; one can publicly declare one’s weakness(es) on their own volition, but it can’t be the condition for being prayed for.
We are slowly going back to the days when newly born-again Pentecostals would stand before the congregation to confess sordid sins and crimes, until they started attracting the long arm of the law. Wisdom. Bottom line.
malita@observer.ug