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The church or temple has from time immemorial been regarded as the sanctuary for humankind. This is the reason why people always seek refuge at the church which is believed to provide protection to all people including sinners. Sinners seek God’s pardon in church while those that consider themselves clean also seek God’s protection from the devil.
The church during the Medieval period could even provide immunity from arrest and as such fugitives from the law or debtors could seek refuge at the church. The church today though not providing immunity to fugitives from the law, is regarded as the holy place where those seeking peace of mind go to.
Those having problems at home, at the workplace, within communities and even in politics, always turn to the church for guidance. The assumption is that those leading congregants such as pastors, bishops and other such persons of high standing in the church, will provide the required guidance as well as assist the distressed.
The men of the cloth are supposed to be leaders, counsellors or mediators of their flock. It is for this reason that the troubled always turn to the church for salvation. The pastors and other such leaders are regarded as the shepherds of their respective flock whose primary responsibility is to protect the very same flock.
Governments, the world over, look up to the church to address the challenges to do with the moral side of mankind. The church therefore is held in very high esteem by society.
What is now disturbing is that the church seems to have been hijacked by the greedy and the wicked. Many today calling themselves pastors are in fact individuals out to fleece congregants out of their hard earned cash or want to use their positions to sexually abuse women.
In Zimbabwe today the so-called pastors are competing for the richest man of ‘‘God” position hence some of them are already boasting that they are billionaires. Some of the pastors have turned their women congregants into sex objects and what is baffling is that this is done under the nose of the victims’ husbands.
Only on Monday, the RMG Independent End Time Message church leader Robert Gumbura was sentenced to 50 years in prison for raping three women who are members of his church. Gumbura has other pending rape cases and it is believed many other women that fell victim to Gumbura’s ‘‘ungodly’’ acts are yet to come forward.
People have now lost faith in the church’s ability to provide sanctuary to mankind given what is happening in many churches. Iniquitous individuals, as already pointed out, are now forming churches to make a ‘‘quick buck’’ while others want to use the church to abuse women.
It is time society rejects those churches deviating from the teachings of the holy book, the Bible and at the same time kick out imposters out to exploit society in one way or the other.
What is obtaining now in Zimbabwe cannot be allowed to continue because it is threatening society’s moral fabric.
Online Reporter