Bishop urges strong family values
SOCIETY has lost its traditions, culture and biblical principles resulting in increased pressure on maintaining family values, says Bible Gospel Church in Africa overseer Peter Ndhlovu.
And Bishop Ndhlovu said even traditional counselors had lost their focus on the need to enhance preservation of marriages, but had instead turned the programme into a money making venture by demanding more money than paying attention to the quality of teachings.
Bishop Ndhlovu said so many families were not living in accordance with expected values and norms because society had lost the tradition and culture which guided forefathers in maintaining close family relations.
He said a solid foundation was key in building a strong united family and getting rid of infidelity.
He said there was need to get back to the beginning to understand the origin of family and come up with a good foundation which is crucial for strong community units.
“We must go back to the beginning. We need to talk about what is marriage and we must also understand what family is, and then try to table and talk about it.
“What were are seeing is not just coming from abstract, it is coming from poor family foundations, and we see many families today living in a broken society,” he said.
He explained that it was no wonder there was a lot of gender violence in society including against young children and many broken homes.
The Bishop lamented that ‘side chicks’ had become a norm, which should not be allowed in any society and called on the Church to take its role seriously.
There were too many divorce cases in the courts, a situation which he said called for the nation to revisit its traditions and culture.
He said even traditional counselors had lost their role as a guardians of marriages, but instead were now demanding huge amounts of money without paying attention to the quality of their teachings.
“Our society needs to revisit our foundations, we need to revisit our family relations, especially for newly married couples.
“Many young people just want to get married for children, to be a production plant for manufacturing children without having a relationship with your partner.
“But marriage with or without children is still a marriage, because this is a relationship between the two who decide to come together and live together in a communion, and not just a production of children,” he said.
He said counselors are charging a lot of money without giving the relevant information adding that the Church must begin to wake up and take charge to rekindle family values in families and in the children.
He said it was common nowadays for marriages to only last six months to one year because of poor foundation.
Bishop Ndhlovu called on the Church to work with traditional counselors to strengthen family values from inception.