Is the Church Under Siege or Are Rogue Pastors?

In keeping with our national tradition we have become a reactionary country,  time and again the state has not “disappointed” in its endeavor to come  out with regulatory framework whenever an issue arises. In an effort to add  the volume of our statute books the Attorney General in his wisdom has seen  it fit to introduce legislation to try and curb the spread of the  televangelists and their supposed machinations to steal from the viewers and  listeners. Now, not too long ago after the “seed pastors” saga I argued  in this forum that the Kanyaris’ of this world “epitomizes what has  become of our society” they have become “the personification of what is  wrong with all of us as a society” and in that article I was compelled to  make a case that we like to “hide behind our veiled holier than thou  professions, businesses, mannerism, attitudes and families” while in  essence we continue to be consumed by the doctrine of materialism that have  allowed us to ride on the backs of the poor, orphans, widows and the  illiterate.

Coming back to our issue of church regulation, at the core of the current  circus is whether the Kenyan government can regulate the “church”. The  simple answer is yes and it should. However, the essence of regulating the  “church” as understood lies in a long held principle of the separation of  church and state. The famous third president of the United States of America  Thomas Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association noted that  religion is a matter between man and God and as such no government can  legislate to limit this freedom of worship. In other words the state has no  business in establishing a state religion. This is the narrow sense of  defining the separation but in reality the church and state are  interdependent and in some countries like Britain and Denmark have  constitutionally recognized state religion while others like India have clear  prohibition.

In Kenya, churches are registered under the Societies Act (Act No. 4 of 1968,  Act No. 10 of 1997). Like any other societies or organization there are  provisions that guide it as an association of members of the Kenyan society.  I guess the broader question is whether we can be able to regulate individual  conscience or what you might call the spiritual realm. Historically, wars  have been fought and debates tabled and general principles seem to have been  reached on what is acceptable or not acceptable even though in some societies  this has been put in their constitutions or the general cultural practice. In  Kenya there is always a thin line where the state ends and the religion  starts but over the years we seem to have accepted a marsh-up, so it is not  surprising that our leaders are sworn into office or take oath of office with  a Bible or the Koran if they chose to do so and this as a public gesture goes  to indicate the religious tolerance.

Why is the kerfuffle now? The recent explosion and mushrooming of tent  ministries that have bought every airwave available seem to have informed the  recent “encroachment” of the spiritual realm by the state. The government  has to step to protect and defend the weak. The traditional meaning of the  church seems to have metamorphosed to commercial enterprises. This growing  cults for they are not churches since at the center of their existence is the  worship of the leaders as demigods through perversion of the Christian  religion in what we may call organized heresy by making the leader the object  and demanding obedience rather than understanding, have devised ways and  means to attract the distance “flock” through the media. They have  capitalized on the long tested marketing strategy of targeting the weak  points, that is, people’s emotions and insecurities. Human beings in  general are religious and the thirst for the supreme being is innate, hence,  these conmen dwell on the susceptibility of those who truly wish to serve God  and by hiding their true intentions behind the cloak of religion they have  become like vending machines that sell false hope in return for cash through  M-pesa.

The call for theologically trained men of the cloth in my view is a sensible  requirement not in the government eyes but for a regular Christian who would  like to attend the Sunday service and drink from a pulpit that is sound and  firm in the Christian doctrine. The argument that God calls you from the  shamba and you pick the Bible and interpret on the go is simplistic.  Historically, the true meaning of education was within the Church, even in  Judaism the men of God were the most educated in the matters of the law. Do  not be deceived Jesus Apostles were under the tutorage of the Master Himself  for not less than three years while Saul and later Paul of the road to  Damascus was a man well informed in the matters law.

Traditionally for over a thousand years after the emergence of Christianity  the Bible and by extension preaching was taught within the institution of the  Church. You did not wake up and ordain yourself as the servant in the altar.  Christian traditions and doctrines required you not to be a heretic and that  meant preaching and proclaiming the Truth and nothing but the Truth. The  sprawling of the modern day street preachers has its genesis in the  enlightenment period to which even the proponents of the doctrine of the  Bible and the Bible alone had not foreseen the distortion of the Bible  teachings that we witness today.

By Macharia Githui