The Kenya starvation cult death incident that came to light two weeks ago is just one of many misguided beliefs linked to religious practices. For thousands of years, people have turned to religious practices to help them deal with issues of life and death, loss and meaning, freedom from guilt, as well as hope in ending suffering from earthly challenges. 

Practices such as Christianity give people something to believe in while providing a sense of structure as well as offering a group of people an avenue to connect over similar beliefs.  However, some 21st-century ‘men of the cloth’ in the Christian religion, especially in Africa, maltreat their followers all in the name of prayers and healing. 

This maltreatment ranges from spraying followers with dangerous insecticide on their faces to instructing them to eat freshly cut grass, as well as public humiliations in the forms of slapping, whipping and sitting on the tender spot of the spinal cord. In the ongoing Kenya starvation cult deaths incident, it is believed that followers (including children) were given orders by their ‘man of the cloth’ to starve themselves to reach heaven and meet ‘Jesus’ before what they were told was going to be the end of the world – a clear deviation from John 14:2-3 (NIV). 

To an outsider, this sounds like a fictional African Magic movie production, but sadly, this is not the case. 

How about this? A ‘man of the cloth’ informs his female followers that he perceives a spirit of promiscuity in them and to ‘deliver’ them from such spirit they have to engage in multiple sexual activities with him. If this is not a blatant demonstration of rape and forced sexual assaults on repeat, what else can it be called? 

Similarly, how can a follower give his/her full hard-earned salary to the ‘man of the cloth’ in the form of offerings, financial blessings, prayer and healing/miracle seeds, yet ignore all their monetary responsibilities such as children’s school fees, rent and municipal bills? While at it, how can a true ‘man of the cloth’ turn a blind eye to such acts, when the Bible gave clear instructions on how widows, the poor and those in need should be treated such as in Exo. 22:22-24 (NIV) and 1 Tim. 5:3-16 (NET)? These are just a few of the common misguided beliefs linked to Christianity. Remarkably, one does not read nor hear about any of these happenings in the Baha’i, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and even Rastafarianism. 

Thus, this just further highlights that there is indeed a tiny line between worshipping God and worshipping the 21st century ‘men of the cloth’ when it comes to Christianity.

With these so-called 21st century ‘men of the cloth’, if one is sick, depressed or saddened, you are instructed to rather go fast and pray and seek God’s face at home, but not before telling you to first ‘sow a seed’ for your miracle prayers, instead of recommending that the sick person seeks professional help and medical treatments at health centres using the forced ‘seed money’ as payment if needed. 

How about being brainwashed to believe that the not-for-free ‘holy and anointed’ water/oils/creams from these so-called 21st-century ‘men of the cloth’ are far more superior and effective to heal any kind of chronic and non-chronic illnesses in the world, far better than any scientifically proven medicines and treatments. 

Painfully so, how can you tell widows or orphans or even your followers who have no food to eat or those who find themselves in dire situations beyond their control, to rather go and pray for what to eat and seek God’s face on their respective situation, yet forgetting the clear teachings of Jam. 2:15-16 (NIV), while misquoting Mat. 6:25-34 (NIV) to them?

In a nutshell, followers of religious practices, especially Christianity, should not be psychologically blinded into worshipping ‘men of the cloth’ for “miraculous breakthroughs” in their lives, at the expense of their physical, mental and financial detriments. In addition, it is high time religious organisations, especially the Christianity fraternity stepped-up to the social table and do more to assist with the ongoing social and communal problems in the country, just like the government and (some) private organisations are already doing, and not just make their presence known only when it is time for Christian holiday celebrations, abortion and LGBTQIA+ rights debates, church crusades and weddings officiating.

* The views expressed in this article are those of Opeoluwa Oyedele as a dutiful citizen of Namibia.