adminFreedom Mutanda
It’s that time of the year again when people fast as they say it is the beginning of the year and their fasting will make all temptations thrown at them by the devil to fall away and the devil will watch helplessly as he is defeated, left, right and centre.
A flurry of religious activities ensues when January comes knocking on the door every other year.
There are those who fast for 10, 21 days and the whole month of January in an attempt to be pious and looked at as ardent followers of the Christian faith.
I don’t wish to be labelled a blasphemer, but I am intrigued by the huge number of adherents to the Christian faith who are unrepentant adulterers, fornicators and cheats beyond redemption yet during the 10-day fasting period, they would come to people’s homes and say, ’’tiripama 10 days, musaisa chikafu nechedu.’’
It could be that the number is a miniscule, but for those in the know, one rotten apple will be a negative influence on the other good apples in the basket. Whether the number of die-hard sinners in the church is small or not is immaterial.
The few mad Christians convince other atheists that the religion can’t be trusted to ensure that the nation leads morally upright lives. Jesus Christ once complained that if the green and moisture filled tree suffers how will the dry tree survive?
The greatest tragedy of our time is a clergy that glorifies riches, materialism and prosperity at the expense of the gospel. Fasting could be a feature of the bible in ancient times but there is too much emphasis of it to the exclusion of evangelizing and in my view that is wrong.
Jesus talked about a Pharisee who brazenly told his audience that he did a lot of wonderful things. Perhaps, I am wrong but it is my considered view that showing-off is not a virtue and making it a national fasting week, to me is showing-off. I stand to be corrected though but I need spiritual guidance not theological heresy.
If one wants to fast, fine but it must be a personal thing not an advertised thing. One can fast any time of the year without people having to troop to the church to break at five.
To all intents and purposes, fasting is as eccentric as other so-called activities which are too many to mention in this article.Some weeks ago, our sister paper, The Sunday Mail carried a feature article that chastised the payment of tithe. In it, a self-styled prophet, Prince Wonderful, noted that tithing by modern Christians is unblibical and certainly must be discontinued forthwith.
What followed was an avalanche of opinions but most of them supported the assertion. Is it because people have seen the light or they knew about the apostatic stance but they couldn’t voice their objection to it?
For years, religious leaders have preyed on the gullibility of their congregants in siphoning their hard earned cash and material wealth as the pastors or men of God said hell fire awaits those people who are reluctant to give God what is due to him.
When the writer asked a pastor about his views on tithing, the curt reply was, ’’read Malachi 3.’’
No explanation is done. If people don’t follow some of the laws in the Old Testament, why do they follow what Malachi says to the Israelites?
As the proverbial plate move about for offerings, hymns are sung which would make an individual think that he is the lowest of the law if s/he does not give that love offering.
Misfortunes visit any person who has a blood link with Adam and Eve but in the event that someone has a fair share of calamities when he isn’t in the habit of paying tithe, it is believed he has that fate owing to non-compliance with biblical doctrines.
In my view, tithing is one of the eccentricities in the religious activities of our times. Students of religious history will know about the sale of indulgences practised by the Roman Catholic Church which Martin Luther attacked vociferously during the Reformation era. Imagine, some people had to pay in advance for the sins that they were going to commit and the church didn’t see anything wrong with that.
Martin Luther is the founder of the Lutheran Church but he was excommunicated for daring to challenge that status quo. Apparently, church leaders are able to make themselves seen by the congregants as demi-gods and whatever they say goes.
With the advent of the gospel of prosperity, any mention of the non-adherence of Christian teachings by the charismatic and suave men of God is regarded as anathema in the minds of the congregants. In my opinion, people should go back to the basics of bible teachings.
Solomon was rich, some people pontificate. And what was the final result? When Jesus gives the analogy of the rich person getting in the kingdom of God as similar to a camel getting in the eye of a needle, he wasn’t saying to be rich is bad. Joseph of Almathea was a rich bozo. However, the frequency in which people are told to be rich and so on blah blah-blah is indicative of everything wrong with the prosperity gospel.
I think the prosperity gospel is one of the religious eccentricities of our time.
Of course, there are many who will vehemently say I am going bonkers but hey that is why in our constitution, there is freedom of conscience and religion.
A scoundrel masquerading as a prophet may prophecy about bad things happening to the country but does not offer supplications and prayers for the calamity to come to pass and we say he is a great prophet. Come on! Jeremiah prophesied about the fall of the Davidic kingdom of Judah if the kings did not mend their ways and it came to pass. He was subjected to state terror but he stuck to his guns because his prophecies were coming from Jehovah himself.
In my humble opinion, the prophets that are mushrooming in our land and beyond are indicators of the eccentricity of modern Christianity. Prophets are mushrooming everywhere but they can’t pray for our country? Food for thought.
For a long period of time, we have heard about spiritual fathers. Who are these spiritual fathers? Who anointed them to those lofty heights? I am no atheist but it boggles the mind that another person and not Jesus Christ has taken the role of the midwife. Jesus explicitly stated that he was the way in which people can go to the father and now we hear of spiritual fathers. I am not here to appear as if I am a fundi in religion.
A big NO!
Actually, I want to be taught about the role of a spiritual father in Christianity? The year of lessons could have gone by but the stragglers like me want some form of help in that arena.
Therefore, in my own small way, I feel that spiritual fathers are another example of eccentricities in modern Christianity.
It may not be bad to be eccentric because in some circles, eccentricity goes hand in hand with charisma. Was Jesus eccentric? That’s a question for another day.
Abram had to change to Abraham as he became a patriarch as ordained by God when Jehovah told him his children would be as many as the sand in the sea or the stars in heaven. From there onward, people would talk about the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. Anything wrong with that? We can’t complain because the holy bible says it without equivocation.
Oddly, some people actually speak about the God of Chimuti and we say: ’’how can God be of Chimuti only.’’
It’s eccentric for a man to purport that Christians in his church must equate him to Abraham or one of the patriarchs. Where in the holy book do we get the green light to call our church leaders patriarchs even if they may be founders of churches? Fortunately, those founders have never written anything to show that they love being treated as patriarchs.
Jesus was very clear on leadership. It must be servant leadership. That’s why he symbolically washed his disciples’ feet. In the current scenario, the men of God appear to look at their followers with disdain. Thus, you hear them wax lyrical about their riches and flaunt it to the public.That’s eccentricities of religion for you. For now, let me stop but over the past decade and a half, new entrants into gospel business have been flamboyant men and women. Huge crowds are attracted by the riveting public speaking skills of the founders and the wealth which is showed off and many congregants hope against hope that one day, they will win the lottery.
Marriages have been destroyed when one partner sells everything in the hope of getting more after the charismatic apostle has prayed for them.
A Grade Five Day-by-day English course textbook had an interesting story about a conman; there was a story of a Mr Washington who visited a place and wormed his way into the hearts of the folks there by making their money grow. He was able to convince them that really the money is multiplied by two so much that a day before his departure, residents gave him their life savings thinking that they would be instant millionaires.
The following day, Mr Washington and all their moneys were nowhere to be seen.
A fool and his money . . .
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