Sealing of Churches, a Threat to Christianity

The 11th Dec 2024 press conference granted by the Minister of Territorial Administration announcing the lockdown of churches swimming in illegality had sent shock waves to the general public and the Christian community in particular. 

While some observers received this information with profound ecstasy, other recipients, mainly Christians, described the information as the joke of the century. 

Some even questioned if the MINAT boss had become a comedian, while others held that he couldn't dare touch the church of God. 

While these expressions were parading the streets of WhatsApp and Facebook, I ruminated that there's a high possibility that the questions were simply born from ignorance of the personality of this minister, who is known by many as a no-nonsense man who talks and does.

The proof of this appellation of the Minister of Territorial Administration has been demonstrated through a recent drastic implementation of his declaration, which has, through his subordinates, closed down upto 200 churches in the City of Yaoundé. 

This ardent demonstration of matching words with action has split the opinions of observers into two. On the one hand, we have those who are supporting the minister's actions; on the other hand, those who are against the minister's actions, especially the Christians. 

Beginning with those who are in support of the minister's action, they have tendered the following accusations or allegations against some churches. (1) A Shift from their original mandate.

This category of people claim that churches have shifted from the original mandate, which is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and ensure many are saved, to transforming the church into a business entity where followers are required to pay for miracles, anointing oil, salt and Maggi.

(2)Promoting disunity against unity.

They hold that a church is supposed to be a house of unity and harmony among its followers, but it's rather unfortunate (as they claim) that some pastors and prophets are inciting hatred and division among families, as it is common to hear prophets prophesy against a member of a particular family, claiming that the member is a witch or living in sin and ought to be avoided. 

As a result of such severe religious allegations, many families have been divided, and many couples have divorced just because a prophet counselled his followers to abandon their partners.

Again, many people have died from family abandonment because a particular prophet or apostle accused them of being witches or wizards.

Due to this prophetic revelation, the other family members shun away from this member, who may later die from starvation or depression. 

(3)Criminal Enterprise: The Church, which has to be a pinnacle of morality, has often fallen short of this expectation. This is true with the recent creation of churches here and there by some young stars who answer to the names prophet and apostle. 

These young stars who purport to be men of God have changed the biblical phrase "The lord is good all the time" to "Your wife is good all the time." These can be buttressed by their uncontrollable libido which pushes them to make love and, at times, impregnate the young girls and married women who are their followers. 

Commentaries position that these women are either hypnotised or deceived by these prophets who claim to have anointed penises that can make them conceive. 

These words are at times irresistible to the most desperate, barren women who surrender to this decoy. Still on this point, some pastors have proven to be scammers in the sense that they give fake prophecies about their followers travelling abroad or winning a big contract and ask them to seal the prophecy with a financial seed that will be decided by the prophet. 

When this money has been given to the prophet, and the prophecy doesn't come to pass, the prophet will fault the follower for not praying or obeying some principles. 

Some of them go to the extent of demanding huge amounts of money from their followers and refuse to pay by holding that God has asked them not to pay. 

(4)Nuisance: Many complain that churches are constituting a nuisance in the community, as some churches do not buy sound instruments that are proportionate to their building capacity to contain the sound. 

In some major cities, it is very common to see a church operating in a single room, albeit utilising high-sounding instruments that should be used by big churches with spacious building capacity. 

Since the walls cannot contain the sound, it extends to the neighbours, thereby causing nuisance to them. Some wonder if the followers are deaf and dumb to the point where a pastor will use a mic connected to heavy speakers just to address 5 persons in attendance. 

Due to this factor, many of such neighbours see the church as a nuisance. The above commission seems to be enough evidence to make some observers and critics say that churches (especially the new churches) are doing more harm than good.

So they are fully in support of the action of the MINAT boss to close down churches. On the other hand, even with these shining realities, some religious authorities have implanted through social media a strong stand against the actions taken by the government to close down churches. Their agitations and lamentations can be grouped under the four headings below. 

(A) The action seems to be a judgement to pastors. A group of pastors see the actions to close down churches as wrong because it is tantamount to passing judgement on the recalcitrant pastors. 

They hold that the almighty God is the only being to judge his servants who go astray and not Man, so the minister should desist from taking the place of God.

(B) An Attempt to Reduce Church Influence. Some believers and churchgoers have accused the government under the comment section of social media bloggers that the government's action to sideline only 47 churches out of 1000 churches in Cameroon is an open attempt to reduce the persuasive influence of churches that have been so vocal about the social-economic and political atmosphere of the country. They conclude that it is no coincidence that this is happening during the electoral year. 

(C) An Action Against Illegal Operation or Religious Atrocities

Many churches opine that the action to seal churches could be good but incomplete because the government is targeting churches operating illegally rather than targeting churches committing atrocities in neighbourhoods. 

They hold strongly that not all the churches with authorisation are innocent from malpractices in the neighbourhoods, and there are churches functioning as per the mandate of God but do not have authorisation. 

So will the government close down a church that is operating as per the dictates of God, though without authorisation, and allow a legalised church that is causing havoc to its followers? (D)

Authorisation Bottlenecks. Many pastors have posited that the God we serve is an orderly God; thus, many pastors and church leaders must conform to regulations of the State by seeking authorisation. 

But the unfortunate thing is that most pastors who attempt to get authorisation are always met with administrative bottlenecks; some claimed to have applied with all their documents but are yet to receive the authorisation paper. 

They alleged that they are being asked to give huge amounts of money by some authorities. Once this money is not given, the said administrators will decide to block the authorisation. 

This, they claim, are the realities on the ground. They further beckon the government to ensure some checks and balances in the legalisation process because, as it stands now, many innocent churches will be sealed because of a delay by the same government issuing authorisation. 

They conclude that if the above issues aren't addressed before any of the crackdown, then the territorial boss is just playing the role of a religious bogeyman who is threatening the continuity of Christianity. 

As a writer, I cannot help but join the religious authorities in pleading with the government to probe into the issue of delays in granting authorisation papers. 

And also ensure a balance between Churches having authorisation and doing the right thing, because it's pointless allowing a church committing attrocities to continue functioning just because they have authorisation papers. 

If this is done, it will go a long way to prevent innocent churches from being affected by this government action that left many Christians discombobulated.

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Marks Abaiko