Scandal: Romantic maniacs in holy robes

Romantic maniacs in holy robes

Twister by Brian Ligomeka

Courtesy of scandal stories in the press, Malawians now know that most religious clerics are not as holy as they claim. Irrefutable accounts of priests fathering children, pastors impregnating their members, and clerics destroying marriages of their own flock have all been exposed.

Because of indoctrination, some church members are extremely vexed when their Men of God (MOG) are implicated in sexual scandals. Others in their spiritual blindness fail to accept that as human beings, their MOG can fail to surmount some temptations. Blind loyalty is complicated by the fact that in some churches because of some spiritual fanaticism, followers end up trusting their pastors or prophets more than God.

How I wish the laity understood that though God blesses and endows his prophets with different gifts, as human beings some of them are still capable of making mistakes including flirting with church members and making them pregnant. The beauty of it is that after committing the scandals once they repent God forgives them and through the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they continue to do his work.

I know the laity usually has many questions when their clerics goof. “Can our man of God who is already married have a secret lover? Can our prophet make a girl pregnant outside wedlock?” are some of the questions which church members ask in disbelief.

Unfortunately, indoctrination persuades them to erroneously assume that their MOG cannot commit any sin. They immediately start blaming all reports of sexual scandals on agents of the devil.

The issue of influential clerics feasting their eyes on other women is not new at all because the Bible has documented a number of accounts of some influential prophets and God’s chosen beloved leaders who made mistakes and ended up having more than one wife.

Abraham, who is the faithful friend of God, father of the Hebrew nation and father of the faithful had three wives namely Sarah, Hagar and Keturah.

David, another leader who God loved so much, according to the Bible, had 18 wives some of whom were Michal, Abigail, Ahinoam of Jezreel, Eglah, Maacah, Abital, Haggith, and Bathsheba.

Moses was more modest in the sense that he only had two wives namely Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman than Solomon who according to 1 Kings 11:3 “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines.”

The list of Men of God who ended up marrying more than one wife for one reason or another include Abijah, Ahab, Belshazzar, Benhadad, Caleb, Eliphaz, Elkanah, Esau, Ezra, Gideon, Jacob, Jehoiachin, Jehoram, Manasseh, Nahor, Rehoboam,   Saul, Simeon        and Zedekiah. The list is endless.

Going through the Bible one trend emerges - and that is some of the prophets and kings ashamed of their sexual escapades made attempts to cover up their scandals. In 2 Samuel 11 there is a shinning example of an attempt of a cover-up which unfortunately flopped.

According to the Bible at one point in time the Israelites were fighting against the Ammonites.  King David was on a short vacation and one afternoon, he was strolling on the roof of his house, when his eyes landed on a cute woman bathing. He salivated with libido and inquired about the woman named Bathsheba.

He was told that Bathsheba was betrothed to Uriah the Hittite who was in the battle field.

Failing to control his lust, David sent messengers who took her to him and few minutes of negotiation resulted in the two sharing a bed. Few weeks later, Bathsheba notified David that she was pregnant.

Like our modern day priests, pastors and prophets, the scandalous news of pregnancy depressed him and he wanted to cover it up.

As part of the cover up ploy, he recalled Uriah from the battlefield and inquired from him the progress of the war. After his discussion with Uriah, David told him to go to his house to wash his feet and spend a night with his family.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house and in the process avoided sleeping with his wife.

This article first appeared in the column called The Twister published by The Daily Times of Malawi