Churches must not be given blank cheque in name of religious freedom

Two weeks ago, more than 100 bodies were discovered in several mass graves in a forest in eastern Kenya.

The dead were followers of pastor Paul Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, which should be referred to as a “cult”.

The church members had been living in secluded settlements in the Shakahola forest.

They were led to believe that they would enter the gates of heaven if they starved themselves.

While authorities were able to rescue some of the members, many of them were emaciated and extremely ill.

A number of them would ultimately succumb to their condition while receiving treatment in hospital.

Tragically, most of the deceased were young children.

Many others were women.

Mackenzie and several other members of his church have been arrested and charged with murder.

With a number of Mackenzie’s followers still unaccounted for, law enforcement officers are still searching the Shakahola forest and expect the body count to rise.

The story of Good News International Church is not unique.

Throughout history, many cult leaders have persuaded their followers to commit unthinkable acts, including killing themselves.

In the late 1970s, more than 900 members of The People’s Temple, a Guyana-based cult led by Jim Jones, killed themselves and their children by consuming a cyanide-laced drink.

They had been instructed by their leader to do so as a way of “protesting the conditions of an inhumane world”.

In Uganda, Kenya’s neighbour, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God committed similar atrocities.

Led by Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere and Dr Dominic Kataribabo, the church was able to convince its members that the world was coming to an end.

In March 2000, church members gathered at a boarded building to celebrate this.

An explosion ripped through the building and killed all 530 people inside.

In the days after the mass killings, hundreds of bodies were found buried in the church grounds.

Autopsies would later reveal that they had died of acute poisoning.

But the horrors that are committed in the name of God do not end with mass suicides and killings.

Many people who follow certain churches have been made to do things like drink petrol, eat snakes and grass, whip one another with sjamboks, and many other acts that have very little to do with scripture.

In some cases, the persuasions on the part of the leaders of such churches have been downright deadly.

The mother of a personal friend of mine was led to her death by a famous pastor who convinced her to stop taking her antiretroviral treatment (ARVs).

He convinced her that prayer had cured her of HIV/Aids, and, as a result, she stopped taking her medication even as those around her were begging her to continue on the medication.

So powerful was the pastor’s persuasion that even as my friend’s mother deteriorated to a point of being immobile, with large boils covering her frail body, she still held on to the belief that her condition, which had once been well managed, had been cured.

It was devastating.

Churches are able to commit crimes and harm people because governments provide little oversight on them.

They are allowed to operate as if they are not bound by laws that govern a country.

The starting point for dealing with these dangerous churches and cults is to have tougher laws.

Religious freedom, which is enshrined in the constitutions of many countries, cannot be used to mask the criminality of some churches.

The followers are victims — men, women and children who have been hurled into desperation and are being taken advantage of by sociopaths hiding behind the cloth.

This cannot continue to happen, and society must be prepared to have difficult conversations about the increasingly thin line between worshipping God and following evil.