By Dorcas Sarkozy
The 2016 exposure of “Doctor” Victor Kanyari’s antics at his Cross Road Church in Nyamakima and the very recent and curious silence of the Kenya’s clergy in the face of blatant and repeated violations of the human rights of the mostly opposition protestors after the two elections got me thinking about society’s vulnerability to these mostly men of cloth.
I know I will get excoriated for this generalization, but we women are particularly vulnerable to these smooth-talking well-dressed men of cloth and I, along many others out there, am trying to understand why this is so.
Why would the gender – female – that is arguably the backbone of most families allow themselves to be manipulated by these so-called pastors?
Anna Aquino, in her article “7 Recognizable Traits of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothings” offers the following:
– Wolves will have an issue with spiritual authority – especially when someone calls them out.
– Wolves will try and control/manipulate you,
– When Wolves fight, they go for blood – “God-ordained” leader willing to lead their flock into a murderous conflict
– Wolves will act one way around those they think matter and suddenly change behind closed doors i.e. they are hypocrites.
– There is some rotten fruit in the life of a wolf – if you peel back the curtains,
– Wolves are often accurate in the spiritual gifts – but misuse them,
– Wolves didn’t always start out being wolves. Something triggered their waywardness.
What is instructive is that the very attributes displayed by these masters of deception are traits we see in people in our everyday lives, including family members.
Even more disturbing is that most congregants don’t realize they are being duped until it is too late.
Again, why are mostly women so susceptible to these wolves in sheep’s clothes?
I am curious to hear the thinking behind women who heed the call by a male pastor that they come to church wearing short skirts and NO PANTIES!
Can any one of Pastor Njohi’s congregants explain to me (and the other morbidly curious visitors to my wall) how they’d countenance his request that female “congregants remove their bras and underwear before coming to church….”; this ostensibly to allow “Christ to freely enter their bodies with His spirit.” (The Kenyan Daily Post – “Pastor Orders Female Members To Remove Underwear So God Can Enter Their Bodies”).
What of the women (and men) who allow/ed their pastor to walk on them to “illustrated the power of the Holy Spirit”; this in Africa’s most developed country South Africa?
What of Joel Osteen, the pre-eminent purveyor of “prosperity ministry”, who was excoriated on social media for failing to open his mega-church to the faithful in Houston Texas whose homes were flooded by Hurricane Harvey?
And one more example of the abuse of the mostly men of cloth (or gullibility of their flock):
How do the faithful explain Pastor Lesego Daniel’s Rabboni Center Ministries’ command that they eat grass to underscore Jesus’ “many other disciples who did new and unconventional things….”?
We have become a nation of gullible church-goers who assign enormous powers to other men (and women) while living lives that are antithetical to the teachings of the Holy Bible.
The ease with which we attribute our oftentimes abusive, illegal actions and/or personal choices as “God-ordained” is as disturbing as it portends a society that is indeed testing God.
It thus does not come as a surprise that the same people who willingly surrender their money to the likes of Kanyari, Njohi, Jimmy Swaggart, Margaret Wanjiru, Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn are the same folks who will indulge in excesses and behavior that belie their professed – effectively mirroring their chosen leaders who also indulge in the generosity of their flock.
So one more time:
Can someone explain to me how seemingly rational and sane individuals deign to support the lifestyles of their champagne-drinking, private jet-flying, Range Rover-driving Gucci-bespoken charlatans who could care less whether their flocks’ homes are flooded or stomachs semi-full?
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