PRUDENCE: The problem is not religion. It is the preachers

According to the German sociologist Karl Marx, he stated that humans should be led by reason since religion is masking the truth and misguiding followers. This is equally the opposite of what we are witnessing as a nation.

The Shakahola massacre January 2023 is a story that will linger in our hearts and minds forever.The agony and pain had clearly

pricked our delicate hearts seeing people being misguided by their pastor was not a simple nut to crack.People from different parts of the country were migrating to Shakahola only to be fast till death.The impediment had detrimented many who later came up to know about this Shakahola mass killings .It was later nicknamed by  'Shakahorror' due the occurrences there.

The Cabinet Secretary of Interior Prof. Kithure Kindiki called for an impromptu search of all those who had been believed to be in the forest and many were found dead, some nearly kicking the basket and some had been already buried and others buried in the same grave .The exhumation of the bodies started and continued for a while. Every day the media would give updates of

all those who had been found dead and nearly dead.It was horrific and the bottom line of it is that it was a religious belief which

sounds awkward.

I can not say religion is bad. No! It is a good thing when we as believers judge it wisely.Imagine masses of people dying due to

believing in certain doctrines that one should fast till death!That is illiteracy indeed.

Jesus Christ the son of God embraced 

fasting but  he did not mean that one should fast till death .Secondly, God the Supreme Being through his prophets taught people about the kind of fasting that should be embraced. For instance, he told prophet Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah that fasting

means being kind to others and sharing food with the poor.He did not say fasting should be a suicidal mission.

The Kenyan Constitution Article 32 guarantees safeguarding the sacred places of worship by imposing laws to limit religious practices for example rejecting all  acts that are irrelevant and limiting churches in Kenya.A good example is seen when Pastor

Makenzi was arrested. Some churches are unregistered since they registered themselves.This is a good move by the

government.

On the other hand, some religious practices like pastors praying to the  congregation by touching them to some extent  is bad. For example this year February ,Bishop Johana of Nakuru was seen caressing a woman on the altar claiming that he was praying for her.This act evoked reactions from citizens and also the government.

This shows  immorality in some churches. It 

also shows how the prey is sabotaged by the predator.When the prey should be submissive the predator sees itself as a

Supreme Being .I do not think this is the correct way of worship.Even the Bible teaches that during the last days some signs like

emergence of false prophets ,fights and quarrels,nations fighting other nations , enmity and celestial beings appearing would

come.So why toss yourself from the pan to the fire again ?I mean aren't you hurt?

The other concept  I would like to address is the one on tithing and offering .Yes, we all know that a country can not survive

without taxation. This is true.Also the  church can not survive without money .But this concept has been mistaken .Money from

offerings is supposed to cater for the needs of the needy, church projects like building the church and helping the church

members for smooth running of the church but this has been forgotten. 

Every Sunday we as the congregants willingly give our

offerings to Yahweh but what happens is it sinks in the hands of some preachers. Where does it go then? 

Our church structure

remains the same for decades. Those in poverty remains to be poor yet those in power are gaining more riches.This is ironical.

Some bulbous servants of God forcesl people to tithe every month and some are struggling to make the ends meet.This isn't good at all.

Tithing is good yes,but it is a willing heart not a forced heart since it won't be acceptable to Yahweh .

To the churches that have met this good side of religion continue embracing it .My take on Christianity is that we should be filtering what we see so that we pick the residue and do away with the filtrate. In so doing we will be enjoying our religion.

Nonetheless, we should not be hiding some preachers who inflict inflictions on us. We are all human beings and equal. No one is

superior.Through this our Churches would be a nice place to be.

Lastly I appreciate our government for giving us freedom of worship and trying in all means to do away with the religious

perpetrators.Thanks to our government also for taking actions whenever things are not going well this is not an easy task but  a willing good heart.God bless us all.