Letter from Kenya:My words with Francis Mwongela

 Francis Mwongela

Bunches of hypocrites `raping` and misleading Kenyans.

Kenya is a nation torn between two hegemonic forces. These forces are the most expected to bring the spirit of change and morality or to the worse they need to be the direct opposite and the other. Religious and political forces have misled Kenyans to the greatest and worst edges of societal immorality and poverty.

Religious forces and political forces in this nation are the champions of immorality in our society. You wake up every morning, there is a new corrupt politician and to the contrary there is a new mischievous preacher in the name of God and the Bible. The big question is, what if all the pastors in the thousands of churches and in their thousands of numbers in this country had moral families? This nation would be a new heaven.

The commandments of the HOLY ONE are very clear, ‘thou shall not make any graven image in the heavens above, in the earth below, or in the waters beneath; thou shall not bow down nor worship them for i the lord, I am jealous god blessing those who keep my commandments and punishing up to the fourth generation of those who disobey my commands by making graven images or even worshipping them’. I strongly believe this is where we have gone wrong.

I feel if at all there is a source of moral decadence in our society today, the catalysts are the churches clouted by bunch of buffoons and hypocrites holding bibles with their left hands and deceits on the right hands. Imagine the kind of adverts the churches are putting up; I thought the sign of a church is a cross but not graphically designed and computer generated portraits of pastors and the spouses to advertise and build their brands. The competition in the hawking of the gospel is something we may not afford in the 21^st century.

The ‘gospel’ in the churches is not the word of God but the word of ‘get rich quick’ by making the ‘man of God’ rich!’ this is absurd and source of absolute immorality. I would really rejoice the day these churches neighbouring one another and mounting noisy public address systems if at all they are genuine would join one another and unite in the words of the gospel to worship in truth and spirit.

I watched Kenya roll into referendum campaigns for the new constitution in the year 2010. Luckily I was a practising journalist with the citizen television and I was able to report or get first hand information on these unfolding political events.

We had two sides of the coin. Men of the cloth on the one side and our politicians on the other; churches changed their style of lies and deceits. They moved form pulpits to other battle fields. They have and still had their rights as human beings. No wonder they lost terribly. How do we trust them again? Can’t we have a spiritual revolution before political changes?

Well, I expected the men of the cloth would have a disciplined campaign. To the contrary they practised what even our politicians would not. I remember a certain bishop drive a  Range Rover sports at Uhuru park and calling it a ‘metal’ bragging that even politicians d cant drive such and expensive car. Mark you the poor disillusioned believers who buy these ‘metals’ for these hypocrites and dramatists trail to the churches from places like Kawangware, Mathare slums, Dandora and some of the most toxic places on earth like Kibera housed in Nairobi while these men cruise from Runda, Muthaiga and other heavens of Kenya where vision 2030 resides.

Then if I concluded that they have the best examples of immorality than our politicians, what would make you think otherwise? Not all men of the cloth are such but to the majority, they spoil the broth.

Can’t our churches shape the morals of our society? If not, then why can’t they shape up the morals of their families? Have they who are selling the gospel the knowledge of what happened when we had the split of the Catholic Church in the 16^th century and led to the rise of the protestant churches. The revolution of the church then, I think should have given ventilation and swept immorality. However, what we see now is a complete turnaround of the events and reason for the protestant church.

We cannot talk of societal morals if at all the leaders of such respected places expected to be holy are dens of looting, sexual immorality to name just a few. The force the religion is putting on the poor Kenyan masses, me feels if the poor masses are left to make independent decisions to the good of themselves without greedy politicians and the goons in the churches, they would be leading more descent lives. But to the best, if the churches and their leaders changed their scope and perspectives of preaching the ‘material gospel’ what would prevent Kenyans from achieving vision 2030?

I think there is no difference between what Miguna Miguna has written about our politicians and the religious leaders if at all Miguna’s claims are anything to hold water. Majority or religious leaders and a sizeable number of our politicians are the enemies Kenyans need to tell off if at all any individual has to get to the zenith of personal salvation and personal development.

The writer is a Media Consultant and Journalism Lecturer in Nairobi.

mwongelafrancis@yahoo.com