Why pastors tell big lies

As God’s dog, sniffing around to make sure that God, who is in a state of rest, is not misrepresented with total impunity, it is only natural that the aberrations of our Pentecostal/Born Again pastors interest me; especially since many a pastor sounds like a witchdoctor’s apprentice, racing ahead of himself and making claims that even a child can debunk.

Unfortunately for pastors, we have a time warp. As everybody knows, a thousand years is about one divine day on God’s calendar. If God rests for only two days, that will see us through 4000AD.
I was mindful of this anomaly towards last weekend when I stumbled into an open-air crusade in Kira Municipality’s Kyaliwajjala trading centre. 

The stage was a substantial knockdown steel structure. The sound equipment drowned out all the loudspeakers small-time traders use to advertise their stuff in the general market area. The performers – pastors, singers and dancers – were numerous. The atmosphere was one of enhanced roadside entertainment.

We – the standing ‘congregation’ – looked like a gathering mainly composed of idlers and petty traders taking time off our other distractions. The organisers may have had exaggerated expectations.
Was there serious content at this so-dubbed Mega Crusade? 

As usual, ‘plants’, devotees and imitators had their arms raised and swaying on command. Bystanders were watching. And whenever we were assured that our fortune would be like that of some heroic biblical figure, some devotees clapped ecstatically.

The health needs of any congregation are a serious matter. And the pastor on the stage that evening was proclaiming instant and near-instant healing for a catalogue of complex conditions: high blood pressure and heart disease, including inherited conditions, diabetes, Aids, cancer, persistent headaches, and so on; of course, in the name of Jesus. You only had to touch the area of your body that troubled you as the pastor commanded all the disorders to disappear!

We often hear that instead of their churches being named after the traditional Christian saints (who are considered stale), Pentecostal churches are given names that refer to actions, or aspirations, or attributes.

Instead of, say, St Luke Church, you will find something like The All Engulfing Holy Spirit Fire Church; or even more ridiculous mouthfuls. This, in fact, signifies a big problem.

After rejecting the sobering distance provided by a dead saint, the pastor presents a picture of high drama in his immediate time and place.

The pastor, who sometimes vainly calls himself an apostle or a prophet, sets himself at the centre of this drama as the earthly agent of divine power. 

But he is 100 percent mortal. His God is resting and does not even know him.
When a narcotic drug fails to show any effect, it is tempting to take bigger doses of the drug, or to turn to a stronger narcotic. Likewise, to show his power, and the power of his God, the pastor proclaims bigger and bigger miracles, which are of course big lies that sometimes turn deadly.

The more outlandish the pastor’s claims, the more gullible and more vulnerable are those who believe him.

But lying about his special access to divine power is the source of the pastor’s livelihood. He is a freelance operator in circumstances where his supposed leaders jostle for connection to the power and money of the State instead of taking (enlightened) responsibility for their amorphous faith outfits. Selling bigger and bigger lies to believers who seem to become more idiotic will therefore increase.
That is one way a faith system begins to die.

Alan Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.