Last week six church leaders from one of the leading Christian churches in Singapore were sent to prison for embezzling 34 millions US dollars in church funds to promote the leader‘s pop star wife. The mix of faith and corruption has fascinated people in Singapore, from where we seldom here news. No wonder people are getting fed up with religion when things like this are happening. No wonder people make jokes quipping, “If you want to become rich, build a church.” The same thing took place in the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Yung Moon, who became incredibly wealthy, while his followers gave up all of their earthly goods in order to follow him. Two things that all these cult religious leaders have in common are that they all claim that they are the chosen one and that they are constantly talking to God. For example, there was another very wealthy Muslim religious leader who does not have a college degree but is an old reclusive imam now operating a multi-billion-dollar global network of Islamic schools, including in the Philippines. He has three educational facilities here: the Turkish Tolerance High School in Zamboanga City, the Fountain International School in Manila, and the Tuskon Chamber of Commerce, but his schools are being closed by the Turkish government because he led a coup in Turkey on July 15 2016, in spite of his news media outlets, businesses, and sports teams that he manages from his compound in the United States. Gulen had become too powerful because it seems his followers have taken over key positions in the Turkish government and politics. Millions of his followers believe he is the chosen one and that he talks to Allah. In the view of those who believe him and follow him, they all will go to heaven. If Gulen tells his follower to jump, his devotees will jump; that is why they killed more than 245 people in Turkey during the attempted coup. Even President Duterte said that he is a dangerous person and that corrupt mullahs are his biggest concern because they are the ones corrupting young minds.
I recently did a search on Google of “religious leaders who are rich” and what I discovered sickened me. This discovery will likewise dishearten readers.
The majority of them are TV evangelists and multi-millionaires living in more than 10,000 square meter mansions. I would not give the names to bring the attention to them that they seek, but a quick Google will yield the same results. They tell their TV audiences that they need to give to their ministries, so that God will bless them, heal them, or prosper them. The religious leaders are stealing from the most vulnerable and destitute of people. They will preach about giving, but they will practice taking.
This is what happened in the early sixteenth century that forced Martin Luther to pin his famous 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, to stop the Catholic Church. They were seeking to raise money to build St. Peter’s Church in Rome by selling indulgences to the common or destitute people who believed that buying them enabled them to be released from the fires of purgatory sooner, but these theses led to the Reformation of the Church. Jesus did not live in a mansion with servants waiting on him hand on foot, while his disciples lived in poverty. Jesus lived the same way his disciples did. It is against scriptures and, indeed, dangerous to put any person on a pedestal or to idolize a self-appointed “chosen one.”
This is happening around the world from Rome to Africa, Asia, and America in that religious leaders become involved in corruption, using donated money to build mansions for themselves, to buy a private jet or helicopter, to hire, as some have, private chefs, or to purchase huge houses and mansions. This is not the first nor will it be the last religious leader who preaches one thing and practices another. There is more corruption among some of religious leaders than among people in the political circle. The lifestyle of religious leaders is evidence of their corrupt practices. Politics in the church is worse than anywhere else because even secularists expect better. Some of the religious leaders are running the church according to politics, not based on the Holy Spirit. The role of a religious leader is to direct people on how to worship God and how to be honest, but some of religious leaders need to be free of corruption before they could help to fight corruption. These kinds of religious leaders have created two different kinds of Jesus; one that looks like them and the other one who is the original Jesus Christ. So these types of religious leaders do not follow the original Jesus Christ’s teaching nor do they apply them to their own life. Therefore, if they cannot differentiate between the real Jesus Christ and the other Jesus, they will end up with another spirit and another gospel.
For example, when President Duterte criticized the Catholic Church by saying, “You killed Jesus” basically he was asking what have you done with the money you got from the people, but actually the President has a point when unwanted pregnancies have increased, when the cases of HIV continues to rise, when the number of drug users surges; what has the church done to help so far? What we are seeing is another Jesus that they have created who lives according to their lifestyle. It is true we are human and fall into sin, but that should not be a rationale for corruption. Those who truly follow the teaching of Jesus Christ and apply them to their lives do not manifest much corruption about them. For example, Billy Graham has touched millions of lives around the world, but he has not built himself mansions nor purchased private jets, among other things.
Organized religion has become a dirty word in the eyes of many because of the corruption and hypocrisy that it often breeds. It is true we are human, and, as such, we are prone to make mistakes, and even religious leaders are subject to desire, lusts, and temptations. But we do expect our spiritual leaders to set an example of morality and ethics, and some of them try to do just that, yet, they are not infallible. Even some followers portray themselves like their leaders— that they are holy, perfect, and chosen, yet, like their leaders, they demand that people listen to them and respect them the way they want. Their egos are bigger than their God. It is impossible for spiritual leaders to help others when they are the problem. The Church needs renewal in the individual congregations, and that renewal begins with the followers. The Church cannot reach out by not seeking spiritual growth. Envy, greed, pride, and indifference to the needs of others are the causes of the problem; the solution is to have the kind of fellowship in which they can speak truth to each other not politics.
Religious institutions are often held to higher standards of moral and ethical conduct with the assumption that they operate from religious principles. Yet, many religious leaders use coached testimonies, fake healing, and outright extortion. Some religious leaders tell their followers that God personally gave them a vision that they should have a nice car and a nice building trying to convince the people that it was ordained by God and asking members to give more money to fund and fulfill this vision. Religious leadership’s corruption is noted now, but it has existed ever since organized religion began even dating back three thousand years ago when Eli a priest over Israel, allowed his sons to indulge in wickedness. Actually God tells us that we as human beings are corrupt. Indeed, some of our leaders wield their power and position to corrupt the world around them for personal and prideful gain, and they drag weak people along with them. But God has given us a choice and the power to say NO as well. We can solve this corruption problem if we are not enslaved to it; Jesus’ pending death was at the hands of ungodly men, a problem that still exists in the world today. Despite the warning from Jesus Himself to be aware because false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect, we are human beings with choices of our own and both positive and negative aspect to our character. Scientific research posits that one who sees only the negative traits of others will learn only from them and end up learning complete negativity. On the other hand, the one who notices the positive in others will be able to learn from that and incorporate kindness, happiness, and emotional stability into their own lives, thereby becoming a better person. We can choose to see only the negative in our religious leaders or we can seek out and learn from other religious leaders with genuine and positive attributes, such as Billy Graham; if we do, we are much more likely to become better people.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
