Fake prophets

I am about to tread into some unchartered waters that I never really wanted to but good golly I sure cant help myself.

I start off by saying that I am no expert in this field just a mere observer. For as long as I have lived I have seen beauty in this world. Nature, childbirth how everything works, how through no real doing of my own, my life is as it is, and in my heart I believe that there is a ‘being’ higher than myself that makes all this so and I give thanks to ‘It’. My ‘being’ manifests itself in the form of a Christian God, because it was how I was raised and in my 40^th year I still give glory to ‘It’, if for nothing at all it keeps me humble. That being said, I do struggle a lot with the Holy Trinity which is pretty wack because that is the cornerstone of this religion of ours, but I never said I was perfect, and every day I ask for help to be drawn closer to my maker. Sometimes I fail… sometimes I succeed, and as long as I breathe I keep striving. I differ with many of my Christian brothers and sisters in that I believe that the declaration is that I accept Jesus as my PERSONAL Lord and Saviour, therefore in my naivety, I guess, I also believe that all faiths have their place under the sun, because the crux of most religions, when stripped down bare, is about being good to each other and living in harmony with the world in which we live. Along came humans and they decided they were God and tried to make everyone believe what they believe. My thinking is if I live what I believe, those who see my light will be drawn to my light. Beheading, shooting, maiming, in the name of a religion will push me darn far from you.

Now I get to the latest bane of my existence. What is it about Africans and these Pentecostal/Evangelical churches that are springing up everywhere preying on the desperation of the congregation? Yeah there are some that do good but there are plenty that are giving the whole lot a horrible name. Last year, we heard about this ‘prophet’ TB Joshua, how he is a prophet, I know not and no disrespect to him/anyone who swears by him, I am making a mere observation from my standpoint blissful ignorance. He makes gazillions, one of his churches fell down, many perished and from what I read he blames the hand of the devil even though reports state that some simple building regulations weren’t adhered to. His congregation still stands by him. Earlier this week I read about a pastor that makes people eat snake meat, last year another that makes his congregation eat grass. Another who asks his congregation to strip naked and he stamps on them and some even worse stories.

Now I am not sure which is worse, those who in the name of religion prey on the hopes or fears of a seemingly  ‘hopeless’, malleable congregation or those desperate enough to believe that healing and prosperity could be gained from some man who professes to be a man of God, yet rapes their congregation who are already at their wits end in respect of funds and hope? Religion and spirituality have been part of African culture from time immemorial. And like my pops always says, I always look at things simplistically, but I guess that’s the only way I can understand and make sense of it. So I ask, what is it about us that makes us give our wealth (personal or mineral), sell our kin, our souls in the hope of prosperity? How do we allow ‘fake prophets’ to take advantage of us like that? I might be taking it too far, but it seems to spill over into general life outside of sheer religion. We let a handful of troops with guns, mirrors, sugar and bibles, come to our shores and colonise us, we allow them to make us believe that as brothers and sisters of the same soil, one tribe is better than the other based on looks. We let a minority render us animals, here on our own land and we accept it? What is it about us that firstly, people think they can do this to us (well because they can I guess) and why do we let it be so?

When will this beautiful continent rise and prosper?