Yes, it’s true, everyone is ready to sympathize with you when your husband beats you, yet the same people will turn against you if you come out reporting that you were abused, and raped by your Pastor. All of a sudden, you will turn into a monster, whose agenda is to tarnish the good image of the man of God and to fight the body of Christ. This is how toxic and hypocritical most professing believers are.
Beloved, as much as there is marriage hurt, there is also church hurt. Many people have been harmed by the very institution that is supposed to protect them, by the very same people who are called to lead them safely into the arms of Jesus. That is a reality and it must not be dismissed! Those people that come out exposing the corruption in the church are not the enemies of the church, but they are the heroes of the church, because of their courage and boldness to confront such evil. Therefore, since you and I have no evidence that some of those allegations are true or not, we have no right to take the side of the accused church leader, lest we find ourselves siding with wickedness; the very devil himself.
Church hurt also comes in many shapes and sizes, some are hurt through coerced giving i.e. “Give this amount of money or else you will be cursed, or else you are not serving the Church, or else this and that…” Others are hurt through favoritism, for example, we all know that rich people and tithe payers are more favored in most churches than normal, poor souls who are loyal to Christ. Others are also hurt a lot by control-mongery by some church leaders, who work overtime to enforce members’ loyalty to their empires until they lose their privacy and independent control of their lives. There are also some who are hurt by false doctrine; just as the Galatians were “troubled” by the false gospel that had penetrated that church, as soon the Apostle had left (Gal 1:7). Many believers overlook the fact that bad doctrine can permanently damage your faith. For example, when you are taught that you will never lack money as long you keep paying your “seed” to the man of God, the day you lose your job is the last day you will ever set foot in anything called church. Finally, some people are hurt by neglect by their shepherds. They believe that it is the duty of their Pastor to regularly check on their wellbeing; to visit them when they are sick, and to support them after they lose a loved one. Yet some Pastors just do not care about this because they are busy trying to build their own kingdoms at the expense of the Lord’s sheep. In the end, they hurt more people than they heal them.
Brethren, all this is the reality of what’s happening on the ground; although many such stories will remain untold until judgment day – perhaps. In fact, one good Christian Brother confided in me that he was advised by his leaders to preserve the secrets of the church. My question is, why does the church have “secrets” to begin with? Are we not an open letter that is supposed to be read by everyone? (2 Cor 3:2-3). Hence, wherever there are allegations and scandals, it is our duty to thoroughly investigate these issues, not sweep them under the rug, just because of our personal affiliations with our leaders. For example, there is a certain Nigerian Prophet, Tb Joshua, who passed away only for some individuals to come out afterward and narrate the crimes and horrors he committed through his church empire. If you are in America you will also remember that it was the same story with the good Evangelist Ravi Zacharias. What actually pained me with that Nigerian guy, is not the allegations themselves, but the backlash from the so-called African believers. They couldn’t care one bit if the incidents might have happened or not, all they cared about was that this man did many philanthropy works; giving poor food and sending kids to school. Therefore, based on that, what these victims were saying couldn’t have been true. That is the kind of hypocrisy and wickedness I am talking about; from you who claim to be a Believer in the good Lord; washed in the blood and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Yet you care about the well-being of fellow humans only when it is convenient for your emotions. It’s wrong!
There is no one, I mean no prophet, Pastor, or Apostle who is above the law of God; we are all accountable before the Lord and before men. Hence we have a Christ’s given right to purge evil from the house of the Lord, regardless of who commits it; bishop or pope. Sometimes Satan is among the leadership, and the last thing we want to do is to strengthen his hand so he can continue hurting more innocent souls (Ngitsho).
Here are my final words; the whole point is this: being hurt by the church is a reality, let us not dismiss it but let us deal with it. Let us sympathize with those who are hurt, and support them into recovery, rather than turning against them. To you who have been injured in the house of the Lord I say, very sorry that you were heartbroken by those who were called to protect you. Nonetheless, always remember that being hurt by the church community is not being hurt by Jesus himself. Therefore, do not lose faith in the only One who genuinely cares for your soul; the great Shepherd Himself. Ultimately, the church environment itself is a gathering of sinners saved by grace, therefore, we all get hurt one way or the other. As long as we acknowledge our shortcomings, forgive each other and prayerfully continue loving each other with Christ’s unconditional love. Peace.
Sinothi Ncube
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