THE recent riot by a Mapositori sect in Budiriro brings to the fore a disturbing trend which has seen the mushrooming of several churches, some with dubious practices.
There would otherwise be nothing wrong with this since freedom of worship is enshrined in the constitution.
However, trouble arises when doctrines of some of these churches are at variance with the laws and behavioural expectations of the society to which they belong.
What makes matters complicated is that in most cases allegiance to religious beliefs as directed by one’s church is not flexible.
Societal norms and even laws of the country are considered to be inferior to the divine word of the pastor or whatever title is given to the head of any religious grouping.
The bottom line is that his/ her word is the will of God.
Let’s take for instance, members of the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic sect who last week allegedly assaulted police, journalists and ACCZ president Bishop Johannes Ndanga’s delegation.
And the reason was the attempt by Bishop Ndanga to make them accept that denying their children education and the servile treatment they gave their girl children were wrong, was considered gross mischief.
This was contrary to what this sect believed and for an ordinary human like Bishop Ndanga to pronounce such ‘disrespectful blasphemy’ was intolerable.
They lost their temper and thought of meting out instant justice, not only on Bishop Ndanga, but also on what they deemed to be his like-minded supporters.
Surely for any normal being there is no justification whatsoever for a parent to deny his/her child education or for a father to use his fingers to test his child’s virginity.
And yet that is what this sect religiously believes to be correct.
So here we see how through religious indoctrination the extent to which gullible followers can go to defend their faith.
We have several examples of churches with, what the rest of society, considers to be weird beliefs.
We don’t have to go far.
We have the imprisoned Pastor Robert Martin Gumbura of the RMG End Time Messages, where Gumbura proclaimed a bizzare gospel.
He had the right to sleep with any of the women in his church, be they married or single.
This might sound strange, but believe it or not, his gullible followers took this as something they accepted Gumbura did with the blessing of God.
Elsewhere in this issue, we cite examples of church members who, of their own volition, decide to pamper their pastors and wives with luxuries and cash.
This has led to greedy and power hungry members to be tempted to start their own churches as a way of enriching themselves.
In a number of cases church wealth has been allowed to be registered in the name of the head or founder.
The tragedy is that religious conviction and fear of God make followers blindly join the bandwagon in accepting unprofessional practices without questioning.
It is this blind devotion which leaves parents giving too much freedom to their children without bothering to verify the truth whenever they claim they will be away doing church duty.
Marriages have broken when husbands have realised that at times wives had used the church as cover to indulge in unacceptable practices.
But this should not be allowed to go on unchecked.
Church beliefs should not supersede a country’s laws and acceptable practices.
The law must always take its course just like what has happened with the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic sect and Pastor Gumbura.
The onus is also upon fathers, mothers and even children to stop each other from blindly accepting anything brought to us in the name of religion.