Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro (right) and nominated MP Maina Kamanda at Gitui Catholic Church on September 9, 2019 where the two leaders clashed during a fundraiser. PHOTO | NDUNG'U GACHANE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
It’s not breaking news that the Church in Kenya has fallen into a moral pit. In biblical parlance, the Church has fallen short of the glory of God. I mean the entire Church — Roman Catholic, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the African Inland Church, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, and the so-called Full Gospel Churches. The whole godly kit and caboodle has lost its way.
LOST SOUL
It’s involved in what might be termed spiritual harlotry. For God’s sake, it boggles my mind why the houses of Christian worship — the House of God — have been auctioned to politicians. Pray, who will redeem the Kenyan Church and lead it to salvation? Who will lead the Church and save its lost soul?
In John Chapter 2 verses 13-17, it’s reported Jesus went to Jerusalem. There, in the temple courts, he found petty livestock merchants and money changers. It’s written that “he [Jesus] made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle, he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.” This is probably the only time Jesus was so incensed that he turned physically violent. The episode is repeated in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Luke Chapter 19 verses 45-46, an irate Jesus said that “it is written” that ‘my house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
DEPRAVITY
I wonder what part of this gospel the Church doesn’t get. If the Church can’t redeem itself, who will save and minister to its sinners, penitents, and congregants? I don’t write this piece with any pleasure. It stresses me a great deal to criticise institutions that claim the freedom of religion, belief, and conscience for these are very fundamental human rights. The Church leaves me no choice but to lambast it for abandoning its mission. There’s a reason the state confers on the Church tax exempt status. It’s because the Church isn’t a temporal institution pursuing earthly, petty, and mundane affairs. But when the Church engages in the skulduggery and depravity of politics, it forfeits its hallowed status.
By now, it’s common knowledge that many a politician launder their money under the guise of “tithing” every weekend and twice on Sundays. Lots of them “donate” millions every Sunday. Excuse me, but any politician or businessman who donates that much money must be a damn fool. Either the money is cheap — because it doesn’t belong to him — or it’s ill-gotten. Hence the phrase easy come, easy go. One throws away that which he didn’t earn by the sweat of his brow especially if it buys him political patronage and the slavishness of MPs and the Church. The Church mustn’t be turned into the very forum for daylight sinning. It’s a Faustian bargain it must firmly reject.
DELIVERENCE
This isn’t the first time I am writing on the subject. But I am flabbergasted by the Church when it willingly allows itself to be used for money laundering. A couple of weeks ago, a crude display of political immorality was captured at Gitui Catholic Church in Murang’a. There, MPs Maina Kamanda and Ndindi Nyoro of the Kieleweke and Tanga Tanga factions of Jubilee and their supporters physically clashed as cameras rolled. Mr Nyoro of Tanga Tanga, or Manga Manga, if you like, is a front for DP William Ruto but he wasn’t invited although he’s the area MP. Fr John Kiburu intervened in vain as Mr Nyoro was overwhelmed by Mr Kamanda’s side. In effect, they trashed the church.
Back to the Gospels of John and Luke and the episode at the temple. It’s true the Church exists so sinners can come for benediction and deliverance from their evil ways. But I can guarantee you that the Tanga Tanga and Kieleweke factions weren’t at Gitui Catholic Church to atone for their sins. On the contrary, they were there to do the exact opposite — to desecrate the House of God with corrupt money and dirty politics. In the language of Jesus in the Book of Luke, they turned the “house of prayer” into a “den of robbers.” This wouldn’t happen if the Church didn’t surrender its divine mission and prostrate itself before malign political mandarins.
LAUNDERING
The Church has lost its way. How come we don’t read or hear of such dastardly events — money laundering and fisticuffs — in mosques, Hindu temples, and other houses of worship? Why only in the Church? What happened to the Church of Archbishop Ndingi Mwana’a Nzeki, Bishop Cornelius Kipng’eno Korir, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth, Bishop Alexander Muge, and other upright churchmen? Can Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit, and Bishop Silas Yego lead their churches out of this spiritual morass? I fear they will totally destroy any remaining iota of moral and spiritual authority the Church still holds in Kenya if they don’t totally banish politics and dirty money from their pews and podiums.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.
Source: Daily Nation
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