The rate at which religion tends to find its
way into virtually all that we do, has become very alarming. However,
the issue is not with the various religions, but with those who believe
and follow these diverse believes.
It is no news that everyone is free to practice whichever religion
suits him or her, but it is sad to note that that freedom has been
abused and to a great extent has become man’s captivity.
People (especially Africans), tend to always throw away rationality
in their dealings with religion and issues regarding belief. Some go as
far as terming their irrational as “faith”. For instance, one is sick
but because his/her religious leader has spoken on exercising faith by
not using medications, he/she follows the rule dogmatically and the end
result is not palatable.
The great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant noted that “The
autonomous man, insofar as he is
autonomous, is not subject to the will
of another. He may do what another tells him, but not because he has
been told to do it. He is therefore, in the political sense of the word,
free.”
It is in trying to address this issue of freedom and rationality that
this article has been written. For this piece, Christianity will be the
focus and the major reason is because Christianity is the most
populated in the world. Bringing it back home to Africa, and narrowing
it down to Nigeria, statistics show that Nigeria has the largest
Christian population of any country in Africa, with more than 85 million
persons belonging to various denominations.
Some major examples of rather controversial Christian practices will
be presented, as to help draw the line between religion and rationality.
For all the examples that will be highlighted below, the basic rule or
yardstick of judgement will be if the practice or act by these
preachers, pastors or prophets follow and biblical principle.
It is only rational that if one says he/she is a Christian, then the
bible is the perfect book by which his/her actions would be measured.
One would find out that most of the examples do not borrow from the
bible, nor follow any rational principle. Hence the question, “why are
many people still deceived?”
1. Pastor makes members eat grass
A certain Pastor Lesego Daniel who is the founder and Head Pastor at
Rabboni Centre Ministries, said that he was basically trying to prove
that humans can be controlled by “the spirit” and they can eat anything
to feed their bodies.
This clearly is a case of debasing humans to the level of ruminants.
And of course some will defend the act by saying there was a time when a
certain king was made to live among lower animals for about 7-years.
Then the question becomes how does it relate? In the bible story, the
act was a punishment, but here was a full congregation being used for a
so called “spirit experiment”.
It is still a mystery how the South African pastor got to convince adult members of his church to resort to eating grass.
2. Holy ghost foot mats
The same Pastor Daniel made headlines again when in a bid to deliver members of his congregation, he used them as “holy ghost foot mats”
3. Drink petrol-pineapple juice
have turned water into wine, hence this same man of God thought it wise
to turn petrol into pineapple juice.
A viral video showed the clergyman praying for a bottle which
according to him contained petrol, to be turned to pineapple juice.
exclaiming how ‘sweet’ and ‘nice’ it tastes, some said it tasted like
the blood while some others begged for more. The blood?
4. Human-donkeys and fake messiahs
Controversial Prophet Penuel, was not satisfied with having fed his followers live snake, asking them to take off their underwear and eat them;
the man of God called one of his members simply identified as
‘Thabiso’, he commanded him “by the power of God” to turn into a horse
and according to the church’s . update, indeed it happened.
replica of Christ’s triumphant entry. And again if you righteous mind
has not been totally lost, you what to question the rationale behind
this miracle. Why continue to debase ourselves all in the name of
religion.
According to a . user who posted it online, the able-bodied
brothers in the church have to carry him on their back one after the
other until the end of the service.
“I will give you the holy spirit through ejaculation” was the claim of Valdeci Sobrino Picanto, a Brazilian evangelical pastor. He was arrested for deceiving his congregation.
Valdeci was arrested after deceiving the faithfuls using the name of
the “Holy Spirit”. He said his penis was blessed and that “the Lord had
consecrated him with divine milk of the “Holy Spirit” and, of course, he
had to release it in order to ‘evangelize’”.
One of the victim said: “He has convinced us that only God could come into our lives through our mouth and that’s why he would do what he did.
“Often, after worship, pastor Valdeci would take us to where the
funds were kept at the back of the Church and asked us to have Oral sex
with him until the Holy Spirit would come through ejaculation.”
Again one is forced to ask, how does one get to be a victim of such
scam? The act does not follow the bible principles, neither is it
rational. Perhaps, since Mary was conceived of the holy spirit and gave
bath to Jesus, then Valdeci saw an opportunity and many fell for the
sham.
The Christian holy book warns that in the “end time” there will be so
many fake pastors, preachers and prophets. Many of them will come well
prepared to deceive, however, if Christians can just be rational a bit
and think twice before leaping-in-faith, then perhaps certain issues
will not rear-their-ugly heads.
Experts have said timelessly that religion is not the problem, but
the people who practice these religions are. If Christians can do more
of operating according to what the bible says in conjunction with what
is rational, then they won’t be swayed by just any wind of doctrine that
blows by.
