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Two deadly sins that haunt men of cloth

Opinion & Analysis
People should view men of God as people who can make mistakes and not view them as mini gods.

People should view men of God as people who can make mistakes and not view them as mini gods.

Ropafadzo Mapimhidze

These men of God also need to seek repentance because in their day-to-day life, they also sin in many various ways.

Adultery among these people is what has made most of them fall from grace, and this is because men of God deal a lot of times with women who are experiencing trouble in their marriages, single mothers and the widowed.

They develop a strong emotional bond that sometimes develops into love affairs.

Some ministers of religion have, however, made it a point not to visit homes of single mothers as a way of cushioning them from becoming too emotionally connected.

They normally visit these women in the company of other church members or the pastor’s wife.

I once asked a Roman Catholic priest why there were cases of HIV in this group of people and yet they are supposed to practice celibacy.

The priest tried to duck the question, but eventually said: “Priests are human beings, and human beings can make mistakes . . . but what is important is what this person does afterwards and that is to seek forgiveness from his Creator.”

Sometime last year, readers bashed me on the NewsDay website after I had written about Catholic priests that engage in sex, with some of them actually making some nuns pregnant.

This is because, under the qualification of priests, pastors and overseers, you will see there that a minister, overseer, or bishop must be morally, socially, doctrinally and spiritually qualified so that he can effectively perform his duties and responsibilities.

But should a minister be perfect?

Well, obviously, nobody is perfect and nobody can be perfect except the incarnated Christ, says The Disciplers, a website on Internet.

“All of us, however, are bound to desire and strive to be perfect. All ministers have flaws, they have strengths and weaknesses.

“If you are a church minister, please read this carefully as a warning. There are two deadly sins of a minister. It means that if you committed these sins, your ministry will be more or less, shattering until it drops down. There are several who survive the impact of these sins, but they really suffered a lot from the consequences of these sins. Finally, these sins are the most common sins that you can see in the ministry.”

The website continues and says that: “Looking in our world; I think there is nothing more prevalent than sexual immorality. This has become the norm of our world today. Empires in the ancient are pagan immoral. Included in their major belief is having orgies in the temple of gods and goddesses in order to entice them. And now the world is going back to these immoral practices.”

Furthermore, the application of legality of divorce and its abusive use opens to more cases of immorality which are destructive to biblical family relationships.

The Bible says that a minister should be a husband to one wife. It just shows that sexual immorality and divorce should not form part of the life of any church minister.

It is sometimes very difficult to believe a person who speaks against immorality then goes ahead and commits that sin. It is devastating for both the congregation and spouse in the marital union.

The second deadly sin is the love of money which the Bible says is the root of all evil (1Timothy 6:10).

“We have seen pastors who get along too much with the finances of the church to the point that they are the ones that handle and keep money collected as offerings.”

Whilst this may not be totally wrong, The Disciplers say this may not be totally right because many evangelical groups that practice this face many risks.

“My only comment in that this is too risky. Personally, I really do not see any advantage for a minister to hold and keep the money collected from the offering. Even Jesus himself is not the one who kept the money but one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot.

“Keeping the money from tithes and offerings will open more issues that will eventually threaten the authority and respect for the minister especially if the money is not properly disbursed in the ministry.”

However, The Disciplers say, the impact of these sins are detrimental to the ministry and can probably destroy a ministry. It is imperative for these men of God to try their best against sexual sin and the love of money as these are known to have split churches.

“Rest assuredly these temptations will come to the life of ministers, but God gave us the power to resist evil (James 4:7). If we cannot resist the evil, then let us flee from it (1Tim.6:11),” The Disciplers say.

The religious church worldwide has suffered the aftermath of the flake within its members and leaders.

From Catholic priests such as Father Joseph Henn, who was indicted by a grand jury in the United States on 13 charges of molesting children, to conservative preacher and tele-evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart’s infamous sexual scandal with prostitute Debra Murphee in a Louisiana motel.

Adultery often destroys marriages and families. The husband and the wife will suffer emotional, spiritual and even physical damage when the bond of fidelity is broken. Major healing will be needed to repair the breach.

Memories created during a marriage breakup can last the lifetime of the family and the effects can be felt up to four generations.

Viewing pornography by men of God is also a form of adultery (Matthew 5:28), and its potential to damage a marriage is real and significant.

Too often it is justified as a harmless necessity by the addicted, suggesting that it is not as damaging as physical adultery.

This is a lie!