Women also in firing line
‘With your raw hair or your hips as they are, you may not get a man,’ bishop says
EVANGELIST Bishop Dag HewardMills‚ who angered Idols SA host Somizi for his views on homosexuality at the weekend‚ also had a controversial message for women. Dag Heward-Mills is a Ghanaian minister based in Accra, Ghana. The Lighthouse Chapel preacher and medical doctor‚ who delivered a Sunday sermon at Soweto’s Grace Bible Church‚ simultaneously criticised women for paying too much attention to their looks before seeming to suggest they would struggle to find a husband if they left their looks too natural.
“If you leave your hair raw‚ just as it is‚ it may not get somebody to marry you.
“Or if you leave your hips as they are‚ you may not get somebody . . .‚” he preached.
Earlier in the sermon, however, he told women to pay less attention to their appearance – even while criticising overweight women.
“The ladies have many things to do . . . that’s why they’re always late. They paint their face‚ change their hair . . . Wigs‚ Brazilian hair‚ Chilean hair‚ Peruvian hair.
“They change their breasts‚ make it bigger or smaller‚ they change their hips or thighs‚ their stomach‚ I tell you.
“Many people feel that it’s only men who have pot bellies but I tell you‚ half of the people who have pot bellies are women‚ it’s only that they have strapped it‚ they cannot even breathe.”
Heward-Mills then switched back to a faithbased message by urging congregants to spend more of their energies on improving their spirituality.
“The nails are not real‚ everything is fake and so much time is given to make your body look wonderful. “But the soul is neglected. “The soul is very important. It can die‚ it can be destroyed.
“You must feed the inside‚” he preached.
“If you don’t train yourself spiritually‚ if you leave your soul unattended‚ you will naturally be nasty . . . you will not be nice.”
Heward-Mills featured in news reports in Ghana last year when he said it was very difficult for a man to live with only one woman for the rest of his life and reportedly advised children not to disrespect their father if he married another woman.
Said to have one of the richest ministries in that country‚ he was also reported to have told Christian women to have more sex and not to behave like “dead bodies” in bed.
In December 2015, Heward-Mills preached at the Dan Qeqe Stadium in Port Elizabeth, with 10 000 seats filled and still more people standing.
He was flanked by bodyguards and dustbins served as collection bins.