Content uploaded by Jonas Sello Thinane
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jonas Sello Thinane on Feb 17, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Human rights abuse by some self-styled spiritual leaders within the "Nyaope religion" in South Africa
Abstract
From time to time, stories of self-styled spiritual leaders make headlines in South Africa. Christians continue to witness strange, controversial and illegal activities by self-styled spiritual leaders done in the name of the Christian religion. Various people, including theologians, have expressed concern about the human rights abuse that ordinary South Africans suffer at the hands of such spiritual leaders. This study seeks to uncover incidents of human rights abuse that have happened in the name of Christianity. It endeavours to answer the research question “In what respect does the conduct of self-styled spiritual leaders perpetrate human rights abuse?” A case study method will be utilised to investigate cases of human rights abuse. The hypothesis is posed that conduct by such churches or religious circles runs counter to the generally accepted basic principles of Christian missions and points to a completely new form of religion masked as Christianity. Trends in world Christianity is employed as the theoretical framework of the study to understand this form of religion. The South African localised drug Nyaope is used metaphorically to describe this new form of religion and juxtaposes it to a form of religion that Karl Marx described as the opium of the people. Consequently, the term “Nyaope religion” is coined to refer to this form of religion.
Some of the New Prophetic Churches apply the fundamentalist literalist reading of the biblical text in their sermons and theology because of a lack of knowledge and application of proper reading and interpretation of scripture. The fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture particularly Mark 16:18 is linked here to the abuses by some of the pastors in New Prophetic Churches. In addressing these challenges, this article proposes a proper exegetical study of Mark 16:18 that pays attention to the context of the text, the historical background and the grammar of the text. This will be achieved by giving a background to a fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture in Pentecostalism particularly as practised by New Prophetic Churches in South Africa. The article will also highlight some of the challenges posed by the fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture. The final section is an exegetical study of Mark 16:18, which is interpreted by recognising the whole passage of Mark 16:9–20 even though some New Testament scholars do not recognise this longer ending. This article reflected on this passage in response to the fundamentalist literalist reading among New Prophetic Churches not necessarily to enter the debate between the short ending and longer ending.Contribution: This article challenges fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture in New Prophetic Churches. The article proposes a thorough exegetical reading of Mark 16:18 that recognises the exegetical tools such as history, grammar and the context of the text.
The socio-economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe that began in the year 2000 caused significant changes in how people related to religion. Zimbabwe has endured one of the world's most puzzling economic catastrophes, characterised by extreme unpredictability and instability. Since the year 2000, Zimbabwe's socio-economic landscape has changed dramatically following the introduction of radical economic policies such as land redistribution and indigenisation. Since then, the economic fortunes of Zimbabwe have nosedived, with economic convulsions and unpredictability becoming the norm. This peculiar period of the country’s history has also seen far-reaching changes in the religious sector as prosperity gospel has risen to become probably the most influential religious force in the country. This paper documents how, in the face of socio-economic challenges, Zimbabweans have sought solace in charismatic churches championing prosperity. It argues that the uncertainties triggered by collapsing social and economic fabric have led to the rise of a charismatic prosperity gospel movement in Zimbabwe. Its growth has been aided by a 'spiritual healing' infrastructure that supports believers in various ways.
The discourse of prosperity gospel has attracted significant international research attention. However, contextually, recent South African writings on both mainstream news media and scholarly have associated the prosperity discourse with nefarious and crass acts tantamount to the commercialisation of religion, subsequently birthing a commission of inquiry in South Africa. Prosperity gospel agents, often neo-Pentecostal religious elites, have been reported to weaponise the prosperity message for self-vested commercial gains. Evidently, there appears to exist a nexus between prosperity gospel and the commercialisation of religion, erroneously attracting interchangeable naming and conceptualisation. The chapter acknowledges and foregrounds this nexus but zooms specifically on how the prosperity gospel message represents on select South African English newspaper reports and opinion pieces, appraising the fact that news is never neutral but ideologically charged. Teun van Dijk’s ideological discourse analysis approach is employed to gauge how prosperity gospel is represented from the year 2000–2022 time frame. Emergent ideological themes demonstrate that the representations of prosperity gospel have evolved overtime; from temperate to scathing, attributable to the recent eruptions of commercialised religion manifest in the South African public sphere. Prosperity gospel, a discourse and message of human flourishing is postured by most news authors and opinion piece writers as a practice of commercialisation of religion without considering the nuanced conceptions of the prosperity gospel among both clerics and congregants.
It is likely that the storm of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Africa will calm only when the country attains herd immunity. In South Africa, the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out plan will first prioritise key frontline forces, the elderly and those with comorbidities. Although there is some new academic insight on COVID-19 within the context of churches, not much has been written on the role that churches can play in partnership with government towards procuring vaccines for the poor people of South Africa. The contribution towards vaccine procurement by churches is juxtaposed with the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour in Luke 4:18–19 and the feeding of 5000 men (excluding women and children) in Matthew 14:13–21, Mark 6:30–44, John 6:1–14 and Luke 9:10–17. This is done against an environment where corruption in the procurement of personal protective equipment, unjust food parcel distribution and subverted relief packages occurred during the hard lockdown of 2020. This article makes use of both missio Dei and missio hominum as its missiological theory in conformity with calls for public health restoration during and after COVID-19. It employs a literature review to support missio Dei and missio hominum as compassion and fundraising for the poor in the face of COVID-19, as exemplified by Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 and Jesus in Mark 6:8 and Luke 8:1–3.
Contribution: In order to preserve lives that would otherwise be lost whilst waiting for the COVID-19 vaccine, this article entreats all churches of South Africa to launch a nationwide church fundraising effort towards procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the poor following the example of the Solidarity Fund, which was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa as one of the early interventions to cushion the impact of COVID-19.
From a communal perspective of the church, this article analyses critically the controversial practices reported in some South African neo-Pentecostal (SANP) churches, such as feeding congregants with grass. The article examines the effect of the controversial practices on the meaning of the church. The main question answered in this article is as follows: What is the nature of the church that emerges from the controversial practices reported amongst some SANP churches? And what is a biblically informed understanding of the church that can be
used to end these practices that violate the human rights of congregants? The question is answered by describing the controversial SANP practices and examining the theological
foundations of these controversial practices. The article argues for the necessity for a sound church doctrine as a way of curbing these controversial practices. This ecclesiology must take seriously the communal nature of the church. The contribution of the article is showing the need for Christians to take personal responsibility to guard against practices that make their churches unsafe spaces.
Scholars with interest in South African Pentecostalism have highlighted the emergence of New Prophetic Churches (later NPCs) in South Africa in the last 5 years. These scholars have indeed characterised NPCs, their theology of new prophetism and pointed to the leading figures in these churches. Majority of these scholarly works have highlighted the abuse of religion by some NPCs. Research gap exists in the relationship between the NPCs and organisational culture. Scrutiny at these churches demonstrates that they encapsulate anti-organisation and anti-structure ideals that soon or later may hinder their growth. Therefore, the main contribution of the article is to seek ways in which NPCs can find balance between their emergence and organisational culture. This will be achieved by highlighting through literary analysis and observation some disadvantages that can impede the growth of these churches. In addition, the article suggests a balanced act in ecclesiological framework that will ensure the sustainability of the emergence of NPCs in South Africa.
Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is an interdisciplinary study between missiology and practical theology. The article suggests the balancing act in ecclesiology between NPCs and organisational culture in order to deal with the challenges of anti-organisational culture within South African Pentecostalism.
In re-visiting issues of empire and African Christianity, this article sought to provide a missiological deconstruction of empire and Christianity in Africa, and to draw some missiological lessons that can help shape the agenda of Christianity in Africa moving to the future. Using a liberating praxis of engagement with available literature, this article concluded that the relationship between empire and Christianity is not only historical, but a present reality - it can be traced back from early Christianity, Roman Empire, colonial and imperial era, to post-colonial and independent/democratic Africa. The article discovered that while the empire dominates and enslaves, Christianity in Africa could be liberated to liberate the rest of the world from the stronghold of the empire. Optics - in the form of various hermeneutic lenses - should be used to unmask the empire for what/who it is. The theology of ubuntu and other life-affirming African theologies should be used as liberating tools, not only from the empire but also from the myth that Christianity is a Western religion.
of the dissertation "Unusual Liturgical Ritual Practices by Present-day Prophets in South Africa. A Practical Theological Analysis".
Pentecostalism is a growing movement in world Christianity. However, the growth of Pentecostalism in South Africa has faced some challenges, including the abuse of religion by some prophets. This book first names these prophets and the churches they lead in South Africa, and then makes use of literary and media analysis to analyse the religious practices by the prophets in relation to cultism. Additionally, the book analyses the “celebrity cult” and how it helps promote the prophets in South Africa. The purpose of this book is threefold: First, to draw parallels between the abuse of religion and cultism. Second, to illustrate that it is cultic tendencies, including the celebrity cult, that has given rise to many prophets in South Africa. Last, to showcase that the challenge for many of these prophets is that the Pentecostal tradition is actually anti-cultism, and thus there is a need for them to rethink their cultic tendencies in order for them to be truly relevant in a South African context.
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle is Associate Professor at the University of South Africa. He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) Y Rated researcher (2019-2024) in the area of African Pentecostalism, and is visiting scholar at the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies-University of Birmingham (2020-2022).
