A man eateth where he worketh, so Kanyari can only eat from his flock
What you need to know:
- God’s business has always been messy and ugly.
- Always remember that the pastor has to eat; the electricity in the church and the water in its toilets have to be kept running.
It seems the dust is settling on the “Prophet Dr” Victor Kanyari saga, and it is the right time to bring some history and a global perspective to the matter.
For those who were away visiting Mars the past two weeks, “Prophet” Kanyari was the hottest topic in Kenya.
He is a man of God who was exposed by TV investigative programmes as living large off the backs of his flock and profiting from what someone described as “healing miracles of dubious standing” in a Daily Nation article.
The whole affair reminded me of the dilemma those of us who work in digital media face.
“Content wants to be free” (i.e., people do not want to pay to read things on the Internet), the saying goes, “but labour [the journalists and other content creators] want to be paid.”
When it comes to religion, then, the flock expects free blessings and selfless service, but the pastor, priest, bishop, and archbishop need to eat.
The local priest needs a motorcycle as he cannot effectively do his work around the parish on foot.
But a little history will help. Most religions have an inglorious beginning.
BAD HABITS
In the old days of my own Catholic Church, bishops and popes were men of power, corrupt and murderous.
And as reports of the Vatican in recent years have indicated, Rome still has some of those bad habits.
In Rwanda, the Catholic Church not only dabbled in the 1994 genocide, it owns by estimates 20 per cent of the tiny country’s land.
In Uganda, the Catholic and Protestant churches are among the largest landowners. In the capital, Kampala, the hilltops with the best views spot Catholic and Protestant cathedrals, and mosques.
The churches did not buy these vast tracts in the open market at competitive prices. They got them free as part of the Christian/colonialists’ deal in Africa.
When you go to the “slave island” of Gorée off Senegal, the point from which millions of African slaves departed on a horrific journey to the plantations in the Americas and Caribbean, you get dangerously conflicted.
Opposite the slave house is a church where the slavers prayed. On the top floor of the slave house were luxurious living quarters of the European “masters” and traders.
Immediately below it, on the ground floor, was a holding area where they kept the younger beautiful slave women so the “masters” did not have to travel far to make the pickings for their beds in the evenings.
And next was a prison where rebellious slaves were held, and most of them died. When Nelson Mandela visited Gorée, despite his long incarceration, it was too much for him. He broke down and wept.
Anyhow, the slave house, the luxury slavers’ quarters, and the church were one enterprise.
WERE NO BETTER
The mainstream Catholic and Protestant churches, which remain our standard for respectability even as we abandon them in record numbers for Pentecostal and other independent churches run by the Kanyaris of this world, evolved over time. Even just 150 years ago, they were no better than him.
The focus on Kanyari’s shenanigans, therefore, has only enabled us to avoid confronting the most uncomfortable question about the episode. At the bottom, it goes to the issue of whether God exists and faith.
In Europe, the evolution of the church happened along with the rise of rationalism among the worshippers.
This led, among other things, to atheism — the idea that God and religion are a piece of fiction, but also to agnosticism, the position many took that they are not sure God exists, but they are equally not sure he does not, so they keep an open mind.
And, of course, the believers.
This kind of divergence has not happened in Africa.
The point is that it is expected that a Kanyari would offer to perform miracles.
The greater surprise is that there are people who believed him and, having done so, then parted with their money to purchase the miracle without accounting for the possibility of failure.
God’s business has always been messy and ugly, and your faith will be shaken if you are not a true believer.
Always remember that the pastor has to eat; the electricity in the church and the water in its toilets have to be kept running.
Someone has to pay for it. If not the believers, who else? The only real alternative is not to belong to a church.
The author is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa. Twitter:@cobbo3
