FILLING THE VOID

Some scholars say people look to religion for comfort when the state has failed them. This could undermine institutions such as the family and it opens people to being manipulated by the unscrupulous

Many have noted with horror a series of reports of pastors accused of all kinds of outlandish acts. So why do people still lap up their sermons? SA is a deeply religious nation, says Dion Forster, head of department and director of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University. The reasons are steeped in inequality, colonialism and apartheid, and he says there’s been a steady rise in religious, particularly Christian, affiliation.

People turn to religion to make sense of the past and the present, when unemployment is high and growth prospects dim.

“The state hasn’t been able to fulfil what people expected in terms of security and a better life, so they are turning elsewhere — to religious leaders and religious communities [for] that kind of security,” says Forster.

“The historical or mainstream churches haven’t really kept pace with how to help people to live better lives.” They run congregations but do the things they did in the

1800s and 1900s, such as building schools and hospitals and creating jobs. This, he says, has opened a gap for newer churches — the Pentecostal, neo-pentecostal and charismatic churches — that are offering solutions to a largely poor population. this has opened churchgoers to manipulation by some pastors who appear to be running churches for personal enrichment. “[Congregants] are buying into this and some unscrupulous religious leaders are playing on the needs of people and often abusing them as a result,” he says.

The stakes are higher now in some charismatic churches because of how visual people have become in the age of social media, which has resulted in pastors showing off lavish lifestyles to persuade people to join their churches. He says some of these churches are structured like Ponzi schemes.

“The picture of Jesus that I get when I listen to these prosperity pastors, is not the kind of Jesus that I read about in the Bible [but] one who looks a bit like a personal therapist and a stockbroker. He wants you to be healthy and well and beautiful and flourishing and he wants you to have a full bank

account,” Forster says.

Some religious leaders play on people’s religious beliefs and since these are not necessarily based on reason, they find a way to single themselves out as the exceptions for the opulent lives they live in impoverished communities. Congregants will then rationalise that this is a blessing from God.

Forster says those who preach in these ways are extremely subtle but powerful in their manipulation.

They stage things such as the “resurrection” by Pastor Alph Lukau or by faith healer Deon Hockey of the Volle Evangelie Kerk van God in emalahleni (Witbank) purporting to raise someone from the dead. But also in small ways, they facilitate healings.

“It’s not necessarily that some of these things don’t take place, and that people don’t recover from illnesses or find themselves getting financial solutions,” he says. “But these people [pastors] overplay them and say this happened because God has given special power to do it, and people are unfortunately so desperate that they fall for it.”

However, Forster does not believe it’s for the government to regulate churches. Where pastors are accused of crimes such as fraud and intimidation, the law should take its course. Matters of appropriate and inappropriate theology “are best left to ecumenical bodies such as the SA

Council of Churches and the SA

Christian Leaders’ Forum”.

He notes also that manipulation of people by religious leaders is not confined to Christianity. Wherever people trust religious leaders there will be some who are unethical.

Alex Asakitikpi, head of sociology at Monash SA, says the “craze for power and the display of obscene opulence in the [SA] church landscape today is rivalled only by the political class”. This has given rise to the mushrooming of churches.

“Among charismatic [Pentecostal], churches there is no defined process of becoming a church leader or pastor — being ‘called’ by God without any form of training seems to be the norm. Left unchecked, this