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False Prophets

06/08/2013 02:16:00 The editor

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Sir,

There are those churches where the Pastors have good intentions. To preach the ‘word’ of God, to preach good values.

To assist the people of the church with their problems. And to see that the church does some good in the community. And in Swaziland there is so much good that can be done.

That is why it is so very sad that there are so many false prophets among the good.
The false prophet is common throughout Africa, as these so-called self-anointed Pastors have more success preying (not praying) on the poor and the desperate.

A desperate person will seek a way out of their desperation by any means necessary. And if a self-anointed Pastor tells them that they have the answers to their perceived miserable lives, they will do what he (or she) says willingly.
And if the self anointed Pastor tells them to give everything that they have (and even what they don’t have), and that they will be blessed by God, many will go without eating to give.

Hardship

So that their illness, or their financial hardship, or their lonely life without a partner, or their inability to have a child, will all be taken care of.
And not just by faith alone, but by the giving of money. And these things in your life that you so call lack, will be provided for you. Guaranteed.
Most of the time the self-anointed Pastor will even tell you when your good fortune will happen.

And the manipulation, the scam, is incredible to witness. For if the self-anointed Pastor told his parish that to give to others less fortunate than themselves, or for real charitable reasons (and not so that each of his parish would be personally blessed), he would be far less successful in the amount of funds that he or she is able to cajole from them.

For the self-anointed Pastor is not talking about charity here, he is actually playing on their greed. A desperate person is more often than not, a greedy person.
Tell me what you will do for me, and I’ll follow you to wherever you want to lead me. So the foolhardy that ‘give to receive for themselves’ are culpable.

The self-anointed Pastor is revered, or more likely, feared. He preaches good values. That is what the word is about.
So if he preaches good values, then when he insists on offerings and tithes incessantly, well, like lemmings they jump right off the cliff. Now this is not your typical crooked businessman.
Although in a way, he is. Because he doesn’t look at the church as a house of God, but as a business, where the only shareholder is himself.

Expensive

And like all companies, you must get the most for your shareholders, even if he’s the only one. And no one really questions him. Even tho-ugh he and his wife drive the most expensive of cars.
Even though he and his wife wear a different custom-made suit every week. Even though they have one of the most expensive houses (with all the marble and trimmings you could ask for) in the country.

No, it is a hierarchical society here in Swaziland. And he is at the top of the pyramid. And they don’t question him when the money goes into an envelope by the bucket full, and the envelopes with all that cash goes straight to his safe (and of course he is the only key holder).
And only the next day or so, does he decide how much of the money is going to the bank. And some does go to the bank, for some real expenses do have to be paid.

Although all of the employees are grossly underpaid, but that’s ok, because you are working for the church, and you are doing good work for God he tells them.
That is your just reward. Oh, and don’t forget to make your offerings and tithes so that I can recoup much of the little bit of money that I am paying you.
And all that money (from some that can afford it, but mostly from those that can’t), could be used to actually do some enormous good in this country.
The country where soon one out of five people will be an orphan. That money could actually feed them, educate them. My God, what would Jesus say?
One surely does hope that Jesus does know what is going on.

False

Many of these False Prophets take in tens of millions, hundreds of millions through the years.
With all this money, have you ever wondered where the actual buildings for the orphans and the needy and the disadvantaged and the disabled are, or where the centres for the abused women are, etc.?.
Unless you are an utter fool, I believe you have the answer. Yes, look at the self-anointed Pastor’s cars, clothes, houses, his own children’s educations, and foreign bank accounts (good luck finding that last one).

A couple of years ago one self-anointed Pastor decided to do a church function to cater to the businessmen and businesswomen.
Actually the self-anointed Pastor decided that it was time to start coercing from the wealthier too. Why should it be just the poor?
I’m not using the word stealing, because he just asks for it, and they just give it, willingly. Ok, maybe not entirely willingly.

Anyway, he throws a dinner for the so-called elite at the most expensive hotel in Swaziland. Now the self-anointed Pastor figures that he could ‘invest’ some money for this function, since he will get it back in spades when many of these wealthy join the church.

But he doesn’t want to take any chances, so he hedges his bet, and he gets one of his cronies to get up and lay an intensive guilt trip on all who were there. And the crony told everyone that they must help the poor Pastor with the expense of the dinner and to give, give, give.
The self-anointed Pastor hoped to appear as if he had nothing to do with the asking (although he wasn’t fooling anyone, as these were not your average fools, and they knew that he had orchestrated everything).

Self anointed

You could see that even the inner circle around the self-anointed Pastor didn’t know that the self-anointed Pastor was going to go this far.
But alas, he has no shame, no conscious. One of the guests at a far away table remarked “why couldn’t he just come to a church function where they are not hitting you up for money?”

And then the guest astutely answered himself by saying, “well if you are in this line of business, I guess that is what you do.”
And soon it will be time again for the jasmine trees to bloom. And purple will be scattered throughout the lush green that is everywhere.
The birds will be chirping away. Again it will be a Sunday in Swaziland.

And in the background, past the birds chirping, will be the sound of the singing from the church, where the self-anointed Pastor will be counting on as usual, the lemmings jumping off the cliff.

Bob Justice