Let churches not allow politicians in the pulpit
What you need to know:
- To lubricate their way, politicians dole out huge sums of money to the churches under the guise of supporting their infrastructural development.
- The frequency of the church visits and the monies given out at such events easily demonstrate the politicians’ designs.
The Methodist Church of Kenya (MCK) and a horde of independent churches have broken ranks with other Christian congregations in the country to allow politicians to use their pulpit to play politics. They argued that anything to the contrary is discriminatory.
That is perverted reasoning and the leaders of those churches need to be disabused of such heretic thinking.
Church and politics are different sides of a coin. Whereas the Church serves the moral function in society, politics, and politicians, have secular roles to play. The point of convergence is that they both serve diverse needs of society.
In recent years, politics has taken the centre stage in the Church with politicians using the pulpit to preach political messages to the congregants. To lubricate their way, politicians dole out huge sums of money to the churches under the guise of supporting their infrastructural development, when, in actual sense, they are buying loyalty.
The congregants end up being sold unknowingly to the highest bidder, so to speak. The frequency of the church visits and the monies given out at such events easily demonstrate the politicians’ designs.
Incensed at the trend, Kenyans have demanded that politicians be locked out of the pulpit. Those campaigning should organise rallies away from the churches and do whatever pleases them there. That is why we applauded Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit when, recently, he emphatically outlawed politics in church. Other mainstream churches, such as the Catholic Church, have made similar declarations.
We fault MCK Presiding Bishop Joseph Ntombura, the leadership of the African Independent Church of Africa (AIPCA) and other independent churches from desecrating the altar by allowing politics on their podiums. It is worse that church leaders take huge financial contributions from the politicians, raising integrity questions.
The religious sanctuaries have to be kept sacrosanct and those violating places of worship must be called out. The clergy should keep politics out of the Church.
