Tue, 16 May 2017 10:48:35 +0000
By JUSTINA MULENGA
CLERGYMEN who take advantage of their church members by making financial requests in the name of securing blessings are tarnishing the image of Zambia as a Christian nation, says Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia executive director Reverend Pukuta Mwanza.
Speaking to the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday, Rev Mwanza said Zambians needed to be awakened and enlightened more on what Christianity was all about.
He said desperation by many people for fast miracles was one of the tools most false pastors and prophets had been using to play on their minds.
He said being a clergyman was not about taking advantage of people when they brought forth their problems.
“Being a pastor or servant of God should be concentrated on preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ to people and not exploitation,” he said.
Rev Mwanza said the exploitation of people through unnecessary money demands and requests by clergymen was most common among the mushrooming churches which had no history in the service of God.
He said most of those clergymen do not pay tax because they were not legally registered as churches.
Rev Mwanza also said some foreign false prophets had taken advantage of the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation to lay grounds that they were true men of God operating in a Christian land where they could easily be heard.
He has since called on the Ministry of Religious Affairs to stiffen its surveillance on who enters the country and with what intentions.
