Season of harvest for pastors

By James Ng’ang’a

"The Lord has revealed to me that someone here is about to surrender Sh50,000 which will be miraculously doubled," an evangelist announced at a charged crusade in Nakuru.

One by one people stepped forward with cash as he kept lowering the amount all the way down to a meagre Sh10.

A woman who hurried home to fetch loan money her husband had just withdrawn from a bank was lucky to escape with just a divorce when her husband learnt of it. The preacher has not been seen in the town since.

In Nairobi Wangeci (not her real name) was approached by two smartly dressed men with Bibles under their arms who identified themselves as preachers. They offered to alleviate her financial woes by doubling whatever money she had.

Just then a woman joined them and excitedly thanked the two for doubling her money moments before. Convinced, Wangechi handed over Sh10,000, her entire salary, in a manila envelope and got it back after a long prayer in an alley. On reaching home, she hurriedly tore open the bulky envelope only to find some neatly arranged newspaper cuttings.

The Bible is fast replacing the gun as a weapon of robbery. It is more effective, and less likely to arouse suspicion from the police. Today, the streets of our urban centres are swarming with Bible-totting conmen who take advantage of the prevailing economic woes in the country.

And the churches are not any safer, for here are to be found even more of these preachers whose greedy eyes are set on the wallets of their gullible followers. But they must first tame the soul and mind. A friend once joked: "You wanna get rich? Start a church!"

Preaching in Kenya is now a booming business, as the hallowed isle is fast being transformed into a cutthroat business venture. A dead conscience is all you need, and you are in business.

From their glittering limousines that sweep into the church compound like the limos of Hollywood stars, these pastors are a symbol of opulence.

In ‘church’ the pastor performs on stage like a pop star, dressed in an expensive suit while a live band belts out catchy Christian tunes from the background through giant amplifiers.

Some of them are even led by bodyguards in and out of their crowded churches. The kind of lavish living exhibited by some of the country’s popular evangelists is enough to turn any politician green with envy.

On Sundays many pastors drive in stylish, mainly four-wheel-drive cars from plush upmarket homes to meet their flock. And in rural areas, their palatial houses stand out amidst poor village huts. It is not uncommon to see a lone costly car parked outside a ramshackle iron-sheet church. The car happens to be the pastor’s.

‘Financial breakthrough’ has become a favourite subject of sermonizing for these charismatic preachers. Also known as the ‘prosperity gospel’ or ‘seed planting’, the doctrine requires that you, as a condition for getting rich, give up what you have to the preacher and declare your wish — a car, house, job a plot.

Some of the preachers have been known to move their followers to sell their cars and houses to give money to the church. Not a few people have taken loans from their places of work only to surrender it all to their pastors with the hope of reaping a bumper ‘harvest’.