Shame on these evil ‘men of God’

Editorial Comment
SELF-APPOINTED prophets of mushrooming “prophetic and prosperity” outfits have been in the news of late for their evil ways, particularly sexually abusing their female congregants, including married ones.

SELF-APPOINTED prophets of mushrooming “prophetic and prosperity” outfits have been in the news of late for their evil ways, particularly sexually abusing their female congregants, including married ones.

Reports suggest before they blunder their female folk, they firstly strike fear in their minds and hearts falsely using God’s name.

Ten women last week made police reports claiming that Independent End Time Message Church founder Robert Gumbura had allegedly abused them. Police said preliminary investigations into Gumbura’s alleged sex escapades had unearthed more abuses and suspected occult practices.

According to Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe president Johannes Ndanga, each time Gumbura raped married women, he said it was God blessing their marriages.

This is probably a tip of the iceberg, we gather, there is a lot of evil going on in these fly-by-night “religious” outfits.

We are reluctant to refer to some of these organisations as “churches” where rape, fraud, theft, bling and glitz are the order of the day under the disguise of doing God’s work.

Not so long ago, a relative of a young woman sauntered into the offices of this newspaper alleging that her cousin was ravaged by her pastor in Magwegwe North, but was afraid to report him — listen to this — in fear of God’s wrath.

The story subsequently died a natural death and presumably, the rapist pastor is walking scot-free and probably continuing with his rapist ways.

So it was refreshing to read on Monday from the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) in which its leadership chided these evil men masquerading as messengers of God and their outfits.

EFZ expressed alarm and concern over cases of rape, as well as unethical and immoral conduct against some leaders of “churches” and the clergy which clearly tarnished the overall image and reputation of the Christian church.

“Unethical and immoral acts such as rape are themselves unacceptable, but become even more reprehensible when perpetrated by those purporting to be custodians of spirituality, morality and integrity,” EFZ said, adding that some of these “prophetic” and “prosperity” churches have become a trap to the gullible and money-making scheme to others.

“We call upon all churches to return to the true biblical standards of leadership, that is, being humble and compliant with biblical principles, accountable to the Christian community and serving the flock without greed, deceit and self-interest.”

We can’t agree more. These evil men belong to the devil and hell.