IS CHURCH EVILNESS JUSTIFIABLE?

Malawi is a country that is largely dominated by people who believe in God and are Christians. It is estimated that 85% of Malawi’s populations are Christians who go to church every Sunday to worship God and give praise.

A day hardly passes with any news if evil doings in the church is a miracle on its own. From pastors to church leaders, the church has become a place of scandals. Many say the dignity of the church has long been polluted. It’s embarrassing to hear of stories that talk of a member of a women guild teaching children witchcraft, embarrassing too to hear of pastor taking someone’s wife to illegal altar of honeymoon.

The focus inn the media now is on the people who are said to be Christians. This is so because these are the people that are expected to leave a life that is different to a life of the world that has no meaning or hope knowing that this world is not their home.

Many of the people that are caught to be involved in corruption in government are those tat call themselves Christians. The people do not at all have the shame to stand on the podium and preach against the same sins they are doing.

In the fore front of this mess are people who are pastors in churches today. Too many cases are going uninvestigated in churches today with pastor and church elders squandering a large sum of church money, they hide under the carpet that no one gets persecuted for eating church money, hardly have I heard of the anti corruption bureau investigating a church member for abusing church funds.

Indeed many do not even bother to report the cases to the anticorruption bureau preferring to stop to go to church and join another church though every church they go to they find the same thing. What has gone wrong with the morality of the churches today that people are no longer afraid of doing evil things? There is lack of people who can be pointed at and stand as a real portrait representing Jesus Christ. Many say even Jesus would understand if he was to be in their shoes.

Only political cases are the ones that are flooding the courts today, though it is estimated that about 35% of funds coming Into Malawi are donated to church organization, they stand saying they are helping to reduce poverty, save orphans and may other different charity works.

My opinion on the fight against corruption is that it should start from the churches and out. Awareness has to be made to Christians to report any kind of mischief they smell in the church, the same with rights of young girls, the fights should not start from the community level but church level and flow out to the community because that’s the only place where people converge frequently than any other place.

I feel churches should still enact laws in their constitutions that any misconduct will lead to suspension or punishment by the land laws. Many argue that pastors are also human who are not immune to sin. That is agreeable but why is it that when an ordinary member of the church does something wrong the repercussions are so hard to bear, the only defense he can give is that he did not know that it was wrong while pastors of different churches have no defense they go through a period of training to diagnose what is wrong and right.

The law of the land should not be segregative in its execution by favouring some sect of the community but be applied equally. No matter what post you hold in the community, disciplinary actions should follow.