The eyes of Kenyans seem to be all trained on Shakahola in Kilifi. That someone could convince fellow humans to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus seems incredible. Yet it happened and the bodies are there to prove it.
Consequently, many people are now calling for the regulation of churches by the state ‘to save lives’; from Interior CS Kithure Kindiki to newspaper editorials.
The state should keep off churches. Period.
Admittedly, churches, especially the ones that have cropped up on every street corner and in residential areas, are a nuisance; what with the loud music and prayers late into the night, before dawn and on Sundays. I for one would like us as a country to find a way to make them turn off their microphones and speakers, especially if they’re in a mabati structure or tent.
That said, it is not a good idea for the state to interfere in Church matters and here’s why. Jesus, the founder of the church, knew there would be many imposters in the movement that He started.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, He talked of a man who sowed good seed and while he slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. His servants wanted to uproot the tares but the man stopped them, saying they might uproot some wheat in the process. He told them to let the wheat and the tares grow together and uproot the tares at harvest time.
We have many examples of state interference in Christianity and the disaster that was and still is in the countries that still do that. Think of the Dark Ages. God does not need the state’s help to guide Christianity. The state itself, sorry to say this, is rotten to the core. There’s still a lot that’s good in the ‘messy’ Church than there is in the state.
As for the proposal that preachers must hold a theology degree, this is a noble idea but we must remember, when Christ walked on earth, he chose ‘uneducated’ men to carry on the gospel work and had no kind words for the ‘educated’ religious leaders—the Pharisees. Forcing preachers to have a theology degree might end up hindering Christ’s work.
So where does this leave us Christians? In his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29, Paul talks of savage wolves coming among the congregation which won’t spare the flock. In Galatians, he spoke of people distorting the gospel. In Philippians, he wroke about of people who preached Christ from envy and rivalry.
In His teachings, Jesus warned about false prophets and teachers. God’s word is full of warnings about false prophets, false doctrines, false teachers, name them.
It is, therefore, our duty as Christians and seekers of the Truth to read God’s word, the Bible, prayerfully, and to ask God to give us a discerning mind. Let us be like the Bereans in Acts 17, who after they were preached to went back to the scriptures to double-check whether whatever they’d been told was indeed in God’s word.
We shouldn’t follow whatever is preached to us blindly. We’ve been created with free will and we enjoy freedom of conscience in this country; let’s make use of these tools at our disposal to stay on the right path and away from the ravenous wolves. Let us interrogate everything we're told, of course by going back to the scriptures. It is our duty.
