If you’ve been following South African news lately, you will know that there have been some bizarre pastors and churches where very strange rituals have been taking place. The first of its kind began with a pastor encouraging his congregation to eat grass outside the walls of the church – he claimed God would impart of Himself into those who ate the grass.
A few months later we saw the same pastor offering his congregation the opportunity to consume petrol which he claimed the Lord had turned into pineapple juice.
Next, we saw another pastor crop up feeding his congregation rats and snakes; some even began eating each other’s hair. This same pastor also spent time jumping on them as if they were trampolines.
When you hear of strange beliefs and religions partaking in bizarre rituals you always think: “wow, what a weird bunch, how strange that they would eat raw animals and make strange sacrifices”, etc… Being a follower of Jesus, and a church goer, I find these recent events rather offensive and quite pathetic – they simply make Christianity look like a joke and poke fun at the church and make a mockery out of the Gospel of Jesus.
I wish churches would stop playing silly games like this and rather do what they were called to do, be the light in the darkness and shine Jesus brightly!
The EFF, a national party in South Africa also seem to be up in arms around this debate and allegedly took matters in their own hands. They apparently decided the best way to deal with this problem was to burn the church tent to the ground. A bit extreme I’d say? Vandalism should never be encouraged, and it’s rather dangerous. I do think there are better ways of dealing with such issues.
Burning a church to the ground isn’t going to stop such inasanities, but pastors and men of the cloth need to realize that they have a responsibility to lead and guide people in an honourable way, the way God expects them to.
The South African Council of Churches will convene a meeting this Thursday, 13 August 2015, to discuss what it describes as the unethical practices by pastors making followers eat grass, snakes and drink petrol.