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Prophetism exploitative business venture?

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THE proliferation of Christian religious organisations, many of which are led by so-called prophets, can be explained from two standpoints.
One is that Jesus is about to make his second coming. Many Christians adhere to this theory. The gospel also warns of many false prophets during these supposedly final days.
The second hypothesis links the religious fervour to the free circulation of the United States dollar adopted for use in Zimbabwe as part of a multi-currency basket.
We have many little-known preachers visiting Zimbabwe ‘to spread the word of God’. Zimbabwe now looks like a newly discovered island full of gentiles in urgent need of salvation.
The truth is, Zimbabweans are by nature a deeply religious people. Once the missionaries successfully converted the natives away from their traditional religion, they created fertile soil for harvesting religious spoils in the form of donations to the pastor and to the church.
By selecting appropriate verses, it has been easy to convince African converts to give a 10th of their earnings to the ‘man of god’ leading the congregation.
And once the men and women of god started preaching the gospel of prosperity, even thousands more thronged the open air gatherings where congregants were invited to give to the Lord generously! The catch is the message that says God will also bless generously those who donate generously. Then congregants compete in terms of amounts donated.
Recently I heard a story where a young married man received a car as a gift from his parents. Filled with the ‘spirit of the lord’, he promptly gave away the car to the ‘mfundisi’ (pastor) who gladly accepted.
The parents of the ‘generous’ young man intervened and ‘rescued’ the car from the ‘man of god’. In such circumstances it is easy to see that the happenings are very divorced from what we commonly consider to be normal religious practices.
There is a way in which prophets and other preachers literally induce congregants to become somewhat ‘possessed’ to the extent they make irrational decisions to part with their property as donations to their ‘religious father/mother’, the pastor or prophet.
Some ‘prophets’ are alleged to use ‘juju’ to perform miracles that convince congregants of the power of their ‘god’.
We must submit that all power comes from Musikavanhu/God the Creator of all things living.
We also must admit that some people have divine mystic power that is used for the good.
Yet others have evil mystic power that is used to achieve selfish ends.
Many of the get-rich quick prophets fall into this category.
They visit famous ‘prophets’, especially in West African countries where they are initiated and given powers to perform miracles.
These miracles do not necessarily show that the good Lord is at work. Rather they are demonstrations of magical powers.
It is argued that with God everything is possible! We cannot argue against that but we distinguish clearly between good and demonic powers.
When the power of God makes a woman fall pregnant and deliver a baby in three months, we consider that to be the work of evil powers.
When such babies then turn into snakes or just die mysteriously, then we know that the good Lord is not part of these evil happenings.
So we judge miracles or minana on the basis of whether the powers practised are evil or good.
When the overall aim of the prophet is to make money and become rich, we know this to run counter even to the gospel that Jesus Christ preached.
Never mind that the messages are liberally sprinkled with biblical verses, they still are meant to lure people into a trap where the ‘man of god’ loots the wealth of the congregants.
There is nothing wrong with making collections to support the church leadership but when it turns into a mega-business, we cannot help but cry foul!
I have seen white people arrive with their wives from overseas ‘to come and save black souls from sin’, they claim. They set up churches and often target young people such as students from universities.
A high degree of religious indoctrination literally transforms the converts into frenzied religious clones incapable of logical reasoning.
One of the characters in Steinberg’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath says he left preaching because each time he preached and the people were full of the Holy Spirit (or so he thought), he would take one of the girls into the grass.
No, the devil should have had no chance! But the more possessed they were of the spirit, the readier they were to go into the grass for sexual encounters with the ‘man of god’. He came to conclude that whatever it was that filled the people at the religious gatherings was not the Holy Spirit. Food for thought!
Confronted with any argument, the indoctrinated zealots religiously quote some Bible verses which they believe to be the words of the Almighty. When told that the Bible has been revised many times by different people for different reasons, they still insist it is the literal words of God.
Many students often fail to complete their homework assignments because they are either attending all-night prayer meetings or reading compulsory Bible verses.
Economic and other social stresses are driving ordinary people to seek relief in religious gatherings that are deliberately organised by religious smart fellows taking advantage of their social and economic desperation.
Women are particularly vulnerable if statistics on the numbers raped and sexually abused by prophets and ‘mapostori’ are anything to go by.
And all this is allowed to continue under the guise of religious freedom. No!
Something must be done to protect innocent people from false money-seeking prophets!
At the huge religious gatherings, while promising ‘minana’ and other miracle healings, the poor people are fleeced of their scarce US dollars with a promise of many blessings from a God grateful that the congregant has ‘enriched’ the prophet.
The gospel seems to read: To those who give generously to the ‘man of god’ even more blessings will be poured on them by God.
Many who have visited the shrines or other places of worship immediately report that their symptoms have ‘disappeared’ or become greatly reduced.
It is common knowledge that in African society, there are various concoctions that are used to create ‘special’ conditions at a particular place or even to relieve symptoms of disease. But once one leaves these premises the disease resurfaces.
The evil act is to charge people for the visits knowing fully well that the relief is only temporary!
In some cases, victims are made to pay large sums of money; anything from US$300 to US$700, for the chance to meet the ‘man of god’ face-to-face in a hotel room. Accusations of sexual advances by the prophets are rife but the police never seem to investigate, partly because the complainants are ‘afraid’ of the prophet’s reaction.
For the sick visiting the prophet’s shrine, the symptoms of illness may temporarily disappear but return later. Reports of sexual assaults perpetrated by these ‘prophets’ on desperate women seeking ‘divine intervention are numerous.
This is why many people cast aspersions on the prophets’ movement now largely viewed as an exploitative ‘business venture’.
There is little recourse for the impoverished victims as they are afraid to confront the ‘man of god’ to protest the rip-off.
While we laud our Constitution and the Government for supporting religious freedom, we think the freedom is greatly abused. Those who purport to religiously serve the general public must be held to account for their general behaviour to avoid religious charlatans from exploiting people under the guise of religion.
Freedom of worship, yes! Freedom to exploit women and economically desperate people under the guise of religious worship, no!
We have had enough of religious charlatans chasing the dollar. Let sanity be restored by the relevant stakeholders and law enforcement agents!

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