Kenyan evangelists have done much in their power to bring the name of Jesus Christ low. That is par for the course; after all, religion is not really what Jesus started when he was born of a virgin, performed miracles, died and resurrected, ascended to heaven, and promised a Second Coming. His disciples set up the church and ever since, millions of "disciples" have set up their cults, sects, and denominations pretending to preach the one true word.
In Kenya, these people had always done one good thing: they kept the government on its toes. They held politicians' feet to the fire and jabbed their fingers in the faces of civil servants all in the name of making the lives of the men, women and children they ministered to that bit better. They spoke out when unfairness was done and they marched with the people when marching was required. church sanctuaries were true sanctuaries where the weak and infirm were always welcome.
Something insidious happened in 1997: godmen started drinking the Kool-Aid, as the Americans would say, and became part and parcel of politicians' plans, whether for good or for ill. Churches and political parties became partners scratching each others' backs and doing each other favours. Church leaders led their ministries into partnership with men and women whose moral authority had been steadily declining for two generations. Church leaders became apologists for politicians. It has only gotten worse.
When my father used to drag us to Africa Inland Church Ziwani, we always prayed that Baba Moi was in attendance. Those services were always blessedly shorter than the standard version; the president had important people to see and important places to go. What I remember most about Baba Moi is that he never, ever read the lesson for the service and he never, ever spoke to his fellow worshipers. Of course he left a token, but he never selfishly took over the pulpit for self-serving political ends. It is one of the few admirable traits about the old man.
But since godmen started praying publicly for thieves, liars, cheats and murderers, and laying their hands on them, and baptising them, things have gotten worse. Commentators have bemoaned the politicisation of the pulpit. But it is much worse. The church and church leaders are no different from the government and politicians. Thieving, lying, cheating and murdering seems to define churches and their leaders these days. Even the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church have not been spared the tales of intrigue and murder (or attempted murder) among church leaders, whether clergy or lay.
And so it is no longer unusual but expected that if a politician attends service at your church, he or she will invariably be invited to "say a few words" and he or she will invariably desecrate the sanctity of the sanctuary by lying his or her ass off or by justifying some great moral failing. It is the politicisation of the pulpit that has churches demanding death penalties for convicted criminal offenders instead of intensifying the churches' efforts to rehabilitate the morals of the people and promote the values of charity and fairness.
We eventually settled for the Africa Inland Church Jericho, with its brilliant choirs who could sing the Lord's praises that you believed your soul was destined to glory. And for a long time politicians gave us a wide berth because we were located in Ofafa Jericho which is poor, crime-ridden and backward. But it is our community and we shared what we had with one another. We spoke the truth to each other and we valiantly tried to raise money for our new sanctuary, which we have been building for fifteen years now. But when our pastors got in bed with the political class, money started disappearing, rumours defined our discourse and now even known pederasts and philanderers are permitted to stand in front of us and invoke the name of the Christ. This is where we are today, receiving invocations for blessings from the forked tongues of the sociopaths and psychopaths we call political leaders.
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