It felt like déjà vu, listening to hearings of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) currently taking place in Johannesburg. It is hard to comprehend that the horror stories about abuse coming out of the hearings are associated with the church.
Reports of abuses by so-called spiritual leaders reminded me of a video clip that surfaced on social media and our television screens two years ago, of a Johannesburg-based "prophet" who claimed to have resurrected a man from the dead. This was proven to be a fake story and a manipulative lie. The use of such falsely reported miracles, and especially the way in which they are used to take advantage of and extract monetary contributions from the poor and vulnerable, do irreparable damage to the name of the church in our society.
How can we forget the scenes of people being fed snakes by their spiritual leaders, or of congregation members being given petrol to drink; the incidences of insect repellant being sprayed into people's faces, or people being fed grass in the pretence that these acts have healing properties? We have been here before as the faith-based community, but have we learnt how to overcome these abuses?
So the allegations of rape, abuse, money laundering and manipulation of congregation members that are coming out of the hearings by the CRL commission don't surprise me, but they do make me angry.
We remain committed to the principle that these are allegations and that those who have been accused of these seriously damaging acts must be afforded due process and given the opportunity to respond, and hopefully clear their names. We hope that the CRL commission will offer them such an opportunity, but in the meantime we ought to hang our heads in shame that these accusations are levelled at anyone who professes to be a prophet, pastor or bishop.
Recently I listened to some of the proceedings of the CRL commission. One "prophet" confirmed that he was part of a cult and went on to explain how the cult functions. He shared chilling stories about how the so-called prophets groom girls for rape and sexual abuse and how the gatherings they wrongly call churches are used to manipulate people and extract money from them.
It felt like I was watching a horror movie. But this is our reality. These are things done in the name of the Christian faith, and for this reason we can't ignore the crisis.
Let's turn to the story of Shepherd Bushiri, which has occupied news headlines for the past two months.
Under normal circumstances one would have preferred to keep quiet and allow the justice system to run its course. Every person has the right to a fair trial and to have their voice heard.
Unfortunately, the right to the benefit of the doubt has been thrown away by Bushiri's criminal act of escaping SA illegally while on bail, leaving law enforcement agencies in a tailspin, scrambling for answers to how, when and where he managed to escape. This has embarrassed the whole country, including the president, who had just concluded a state visit with the president of Malawi, Shepherd Bushiri's native country and the country to which he fled.
But embarrassment is the least of our concerns.
Bushiri has been charged with the serious crimes of money laundering and fraud. How does one even begin to comment or respond to such serious criminal charges laid down by the courts against someone who professes to be both a prophet and the pastor of a church? The decision to escape from the country illegally while out on bail, instead of waiting to clear his name in a court of law, adds insult to injury as a so-called faith community leader.
The problem with the entire situation is that the church as a whole and the Christian faith are dragged through the mud. For this reason we as leaders can't simply keep quiet about these matters.
Religious and church leaders are often quick to call out politicians, government officials and the private sector for corruption and other wrongdoing. Similarly, when these things are happening in our own space, we cannot afford to keep quiet lest we become hypocrites.
With the same passion that we call out politicians, we must call out wrongdoing by these so-called prophets if we are going to clean up our own sector.
All these disturbing developments in the sphere of the church speak to the growing pattern of wickedness and lawlessness dominating our society. When such evil enters the jurisdiction of the church, it demonstrates that some within our churches have been given over to reprobate minds that have no sense of responsibility to society.
Religious and church leaders are often quick to call out politicians, government officials and the private sector for corruption and other wrongdoing. Similarly, when these things are happening in our own space, we cannot afford to keep quiet lest we become hypocrites
The mess we see in the religious sector speaks of two failures: failure by the members of the sector itself to hold each other accountable, and failure by the government to act on matters where it has the capacity to do so.
The religious sector is now, finally, beginning to look at the issues of accountability seriously.
We believe that as religious and church leaders we can come up with systems that help us deal with these issues in our society and bring some order to the religious sector. Though for that order to prevail, the government and other institutions also need to play their part in the process.
The time has come for religious leaders in general to speak in unity against those who bring religion into disrepute. Yes, people have a right to freedom of religion but they do not have a right to commit crime in the name of religion. They do not have a right to manipulate and exploit the poor. They do not have a right to peddle fake miracles and mislead people.
Law enforcement agencies must play their role against alleged criminal acts, especially by so-called prophets and bishops, who must be investigated. Where there is evidence of criminal activity, people must be charged, arrested and jailed if need be.
We understand the desperation among the majority of our people, and the way poverty and unemployment can make people susceptible to false hope, but we call upon our people not to be gullible. People need to guard themselves against being misled or taken advantage of by false prophets who seek only the satisfaction of their own greed and evil lusts.
• Pastor McCauley is president of Rhema Family Churches and co-chair of the National Interfaith Council of SA
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