Religion for the hell of it

By Maloba Andati

Many people are no doubt increasingly becoming more religious by the day, spending hours in the presence of their maker for spiritual nourishment. Behind this faÁade of worship, there are emerging trends that would least be described as amusing.

From stripping naked while worshiping, giving conventional medicine a wide berth to leaving one’s spouse, religions have taken their game higher.

In 2006, a religious organisation based in Kinangop calling itself ‘House of Yahweh’ took the nation by surprise when it ordered its members to construct underground bunkers in readiness for the end of the world, which was to be on or before September 12 of the same year. They were only to carry their basic essentials. The prophesied doomsday never materialised.

Bizarre practices

Even today, the official website of House of Yahweh, which is headquartered in Texas continues to insist on the accuracy of its prophecy. They have since modified their teaching by saying that September 12, 2006 was only the starting period.

The sect members refer to their creator as Yahweh, not God, and the male followers sport long, goatee beards.

What baffles many is the fact that even with seemingly glaring ‘evidence’ to the fact that some of the practices are outright bizarre, even scary, many people still fall prey to the machinations. Perhaps resulting from the fact that man is naturally a religious being.

Uganda had their fair share of the bizarre religious belief when cult members locked themselves in a chapel early in 2000 and nailed doors and windows closed. They sang for a few hours before dousing themselves in gasoline and paraffin and setting themselves ablaze. It was reported that they had been told that the Virgin Mary would appear on Friday, the day they chose to die.

Back to Eden

In Nigeria, Vanguard reported recently that a self-styled prophetess formed a church named ‘Ministry of Sacrifice’ allegedly to ‘complete the work started by Adam and Eve at Eden’— whatever the work was — after she reportedly returned from a fasting and praying exercise on a mountain of God. The Ministry was said to have been for specific members of the church who were ready to sacrifice all they had, including separating from their respective spouses. On her return from the mountain, she was said to have called members of her ministry to tell them that God had mandated her to carry on with the unfinished work of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

She told the congregation that members were now brothers and sisters and therefore, need not hide anything from each other. To reinforce her claims, she allegedly stripped naked before the congregation and instructed each member to follow suit — a sign that all of them were equal.

In addition, a married female member from that day on was barred from having anything to do with her husband sexually. She would subsequently be ‘assigned’ to a brother in the Ministry. If perceived to be having sexual relationship with her legitimate husband, she would be termed to have committed adultery.

The 40 days of the prophetess came to light when one of the members, a pastor in the church, having received a beating would not stand it any more when his own wife was assigned to another ‘brother’, which meant he would no longer relate with her as husband. He reported the same to the police who followed up the issue. In the United States, another organisation called ‘The Church of Euthanasia’ has surprised many people with its motto: "Save the planet, kill yourself". According to the church’s commandment, the one commandment is "Thou shall not procreate"! It also asserts four principle pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy.

Self-destruction

These are geared towards ‘self-killing’ in order to protect the environment. The church stresses population reduction by voluntary means only. Reportedly, the church’s website previously had instructions on, "how to kill yourself" by asphyxiation using helium. This was removed after a 52-year-old woman used them to commit suicide resulting to legal threats against the church.

Still, another organisation called ‘Body of Christ’ based in the US is a small authoritarian group that relies on what it calls ‘direct revelation’ and not the Bible for its direction. It was reported that a ten-month-old son of the founder’s son died of malnutrition. Apparently, he was not fed because they were waiting for a sign from God to feed him.

This must compare well with Kenya’s own religious organisation based in Ngong, which made headlines recently because they do not allow their members to go to hospital since they believe God will heal them.

And how can we forget about ‘the Church of Maradona’? This was created by fan of the footballer Diego Maradona whom they believe to be the best player of all time. Reportedly, the count was over 80,000 members spread in 60 countries around the world.