A Bishop in Court? God Gracious!
- Category: Peering Eye
- Date 11-06-2006
- 376 views
If you went to Kigoma and gathered people to tell them that you are President Kikwete’s envoy, sent to distribute cash among the poor members of the community, there is no doubt that you would be arrested. You are not a valid State House agent, but a person who might actually want to use your genuine, personal money to make people thankful to and praise the President, but that alone would not save you.
Soon, the government would call a press conference to condemn and disown you, as well as pay for media space to expose the criminal in you. They would then arraign you in court and subsequently dispatch you to the penal complex, on charges of impersonation.
But this is not so with God, who is more important and powerful than Kikwete. You can commit all tribes of crimes with impunity, in the name of God, even at the doorsteps of a police post. It is a matter of calling yourself God’s messenger and crowds will embrace you, adore you and commit all their possessions to you.
Yes, especially if they are poor. And the practice of impersonating God before unsuspecting citizens is not uncommon nowadays, since unemployment and money shortage are biting hard indeed. Someone turns up in a poor society and promises heaven on earth, knowing that in an attempt to solicit abundant wealth from God, believers would give anything to persuade Him.
Margaret Neema Mgongo of the Maranatha Africa Outreach Ministry is a classic example. She tells people to give their money to her to pray over, and other forms of trickery. It turns out to be a case of conning and obtaining money by false pretence.
Again, if the testimony of Jimmy Julius against this Zambian bishop Peter Mutafungwa is to be believed, then I need not say more. The “bishop” promises to donate 360 tonnes of food, medicine, clothes and 2,250,000 US dollars (over 2.8bn/-) to Tanzania’s orphans, widows and cripples.
To deliver the stuff however, he demands an Air ticket, a house and a car with diplomatic status, all of which cost would be refunded. Having no money at hand, the Community Organisation Partnership (COP), which assists orphans and widows, borrows money from a Bank, on top of the funds contributed for orphans’ and widows’ assistance. And God’s man travels first class from America to Dar es Salaam.
Throngs of needy people; orphans, widows and other disadvantaged persons spend a sleepless night at the Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere International Airport, lest they miss Gods favour sent through His messenger, Peter Mutafungwa.
When he finally disembarks from the flight, sadly, he is empty-handed, without “even a single biscuit to give the five-year-olds who have been joyfully awaiting the aid”: clothes, food and money. He is thus taken to court; having refused to refund the NGO money spent on his trip, accommodation and transportation.
Peering Eye believes that if the money had not been borrowed from a bank, therefore having to be refunded, Mutafungwa would never have seen the inside of court. For it would be understood that God is at liberty to disappoint an eager flock. Have we not seen numerous “reverends” conning their adherents of monies and property, by assuring them of miracles that never come?
Next Sunday, visit a nearby church. You will find a man, rarely a woman, intimidating gullible worshippers with feigned divine powers to turn water into wine, stones into bread, lack into abundance! Hark and hearken, there is a condition: that God would not bless your pouch unless He partake of its contents – empty it first to Him and he will fill it in turn! Devine truth, but does God tolerate bribery?
Why don’t police intervene in this glaring fraud? Mutafungwa, the accused operated a company known as Children Pastor International of Atlanta in the United States. Perhaps he did here what he was doing elsewhere; perhaps what many others are doing here!
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen