I wanted to avoid the ongoing debacle on pastors and fake miracles until I read about Kenyan pastor Paul Mackenzie, who was convicted for starving his followers to death and the murder of 190 children.
As thought leaders, we have an obligation to drive public discourse on critical issues such as faith, culture and religion. Lately, there’s been a feud between Ugandan pastors and businessman Frank Gashumba over the authenticity of miracles performed by new reformation Christian denominations.
We cannot ignore this escalating clash over staged fake miracles because lives are at stake, at the detriment of spirituality, morality and religion.
The debacle reignited when the maverick pundit called out claims of a woman delivering a baby without a uterus, healing of cancer and HIV without professional medical treatment, and promises of overnight wealth as signs of hoodwinking, manipulation and exploitation of gullible peasants and urban elites by pulpit businessmen.
For the first time, many netizens across ethnic, social and political divides united behind Gashumba to challenge stage-managed healings and other grave human rights abuses.
Amid the applause, I noticed unexpected overzealous rage and retaliation from city pastors, self-styled apostles and Pentecostal believers against calls for transparency and accountability.
In my view, the bitter verbal exchanges and diatribe, curses and death threats directed at Gashumba were uncalled for and beneath so-called men of God, revealing hidden motives behind the staged miracles.
I expected restraint and intellectual engagement. They could have taken the biblical path of “Turn the other cheek” in Matthew 5:39, or demonstrated a public healing as in Mark 2:6 to 7, where Jesus told a man: “I tell you, get up take your mat and go home” to silence the Pharisees and skeptics. That did not happen.
Failing to respond with logic, civility and spirituality, some pastors cited infringement on freedom of worship guaranteed under Article 29(1)(c) and Article 37 of the 1995 Ugandan Constitution.
Article 29(1) (c) states that a person shall practice, belong to, or participate in the practices of any religious body in ways consistent with the supreme laws of the land, while Article 29(1) (b) guarantees freedom of worship and association.
By rejecting constructive criticism and accountability, these new reformation leaders disguising as pastors and apostles are turning freedom of worship into freedom of exploitation.
Many neo-Pentecostal and oneness pastors have exploited Christianity for personal enrichment and power, tactically extorting money and property from poor peasants seeking jobs, better living standards, healing, travel opportunities and marriage partners.
Offerings and tithe were traditionally voluntary in Catholic, Anglican, Adventist, Orthodox and Islamic faiths until new evangelical denominations (classical Pentecostalism, oneness, charismatic and neo Pentecostal) began coercing congregations to give fixed large amounts to earn blessings and miracles.
Yet no biblical justification shows God or Jesus Christ (whose names they manipulate to garner followers) putting a price tag on miracles, mercy, forgiveness and blessings. These men of God have turned the pulpit into a platform of emotional and physical exploitation, offering false hope and unrealistic promises.
For instance, in recent clips, a prominent city pastor was seen promising energetic young men that they would become billionaires in just 90 days through sprinkled water. The irony is that that city pastor has spent more than 40 years collecting tithe in US dollars but is not ranked among Africa’s billionaires.
How would young men who have no capital or just completed university become billionaires in three months? It only conditions them to be intellectually lazy and delusional.
If this is not freedom of exploitation, what is it then? Exploitation goes beyond empty financial promises. It is psychological. False pastors hoodwink gullible peasants and urban elites with modern-day witchcraft.
How does a PhD, Masters or Bachelors graduate believe in instant HIV/AIDS and cancer cures without professional medical care? I am compelled to think that this is the use of modern witchcraft to exploit even the highly educated.
Victims often resume proper medication too late, spreading the virus or dying early. It also becomes physical when some self-proclaimed men of God sexually harass young boys and girls, while others fuel faith and gender-based violence that breaks marriages and families.
Do all these atrocities happen without authorities knowing? They happen under full government watch, facilitated and deliberately ignored. New reformation pastors play a key role in third-world countries in political patronage and mobilization, demobilizing principled traditional religions and shifting government failures to Satan.
If a fresh graduate fails to find work due to poor planning and job scarcity out of desperation, they choose to seek divine intervention in Pentecostal churches. There, the pastor blames Satan and sometimes opts to extort money from the victim.
With state apparatus, they gain immunity against the law, power and wealth. Thus, freedom of worship becomes freedom of exploitation. Some pastors and apostles, in the name of Jesus Christ, have year after year hoodwinked masses with fake miracles, shielded bad governance, and committed unthinkable crimes with impunity, except for a few cases like Paul Mackenzie in Kenya.
Lest we forget, Jesus Christ himself said in Matthew 21:13, “My House shall be called a house of prayer’, but you have made it den of thieves” and in Matthew 7:15 warned, “Beware of false prophets that will come in my name.” We are witnessing these warnings.
robertinez07@aol.com
The writer is a sustainable development analyst.