OSHIVEVA churches, also known as Pentecostal or evangelical crusaders, have received their fair share of criticism for bedevilling the Christian faith, but it is the waywardness of the so-called traditional denominations that must concern this predominantly monotheist country.
The old Evangelical, Catholic and Anglican churches have not only been losing ardent followers in Namibia, where they have dominated for more than a century, but they are also failing to take the lead on moral guidance as they did almost unchallenged for decades. They have only themselves to blame.
Consider the latest reports emanating from Okaku, a village west of Ondangwa, where a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (Elcin) is accused of locking a cemetery in order to block the funeral of a 115-year-old man, because he belonged to the Roman Catholic faith.
Pastor Nehemia Sheefeni argued that he forbade the burial in a grave that had already been dug for Benediktus Shikwamanga, because his family failed to wait for the reverend to give explicit approval since non-Lutherans must follow a more long-winded procedure.
Pastor Sheefeni put two padlocks on the gate just to make sure the deceased would not be laid to rest in what he insists is a Lutheran cemetery.
That the pastor decided to escalate his differences with family members to deny Shikwamanga his preferred resting place could have been written off as an isolated act of an out-of-control preacher, but it is an indication of the crises that are slowly destroying the faith of many followers in the world-dominant religion that originated from the Middle-East.
The Anglican, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches were seen as so powerful that they played a major role in causing the downfall of apartheid and colonialism. They were at the forefront of “liberation theology”, liberating minds too from ignorance and propaganda. They were seen as only doing good amid the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the previous regime. And they were expected to remain the guiding and shining light.
In independent Namibia, however, even these churches are clearly deviating from their key objectives of promoting harmony, love and peace. Before independence, the Lutherans were hard at work to unite their three factions of Elcin (Finnish-oriented and mainly in northern Namibia), the then whites-only Delk (Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche) and then the Rhenish strand, now called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN).
Nowadays, Elcin is further divided into factions, since it was formalised into a western and eastern diocese. ELCRN is embroiled in something of a civil war with congregations breaking up along ethnic lines as well as according to material status.
Men of the cloth are now competing for the top dollar rather than fighting for hearts and souls, or encouraging all humans to do good to and for one another no matter their different beliefs.
In major towns, places of worship compete based on purse-strings. The will of the rich (businesspeople) and powerful (politicians) in the country is now the one that shall be done.
Should we wonder then why moral decay has set in as violence and corruption rule?
We hold no brief for the traditional churches or any religion for that matter (what with Marx’s warning that religion is the opium of the masses?), but when something as deep-seated as beliefs in the “Almighty” are hijacked by self-serving careerists and charlatans, then it is fair to wonder where we are headed as a nation.
It is about time society takes a critical look at all churches and religion in particular to ensure that the common good of society is better served. As for the churches, they too must re-evaluate themselves. For they are drifting away from the core of what should keep people together. It is not enough just to preach “don’t do what I do, do what I say”.
