Commentary: PCC; Political blackmail in God's house.

His supporters, as if the PCC is a country with a ruling party and the opposition, are indicting him for being "dictatorial, corrupt, and a money monger," who has acquired choice properties he could not have owned with his legitimate earnings. 

Maybe there should be declaration of assets before and after taking office as Moderator. For those who sing his halleluiah, even with COVID-19, he has increased the flock, finances of the church, infrastructural development, and the number of church employees under his leadership.

So, why the diatribe about the outgoing Moderator, instead of scrutinising and screening his potential successor and the Synod Clerk? 

I hear the incumbent has already groomed his successor and the team is trending in the social media lobbying for support.

“Dear Reverends, Pastors, during your ordination, you took vows of serving and leading God’s church and people the right way. Then what example are you people preaching and showing the Christians and the world that there’s no God and no difference between the house of God (the church) and the state?," one of such messages circulating on social media reads. 

The Moderator of the PCC is said to have, in a message, brought out a list campaigning for Rev Miki Hans as Moderator and Rev Ayuk Solomon Eta as Synod Clerk.

However, some Christians of the church are backing Rev Dr Bongajum Dora Lemnyuy and Rev Dr Mokoko Mbue Thomas, for the post of Moderator and Synod Clerk respectively.

For me, I see nothing wrong in a competitive church politics which should be guided by the Holy Spirit or an incumbent grooming his successor to ensure his legacy, if unworldly, continues.

But truth be told in God's name. The Church, the House of God in Cameroon has become a reflection of the rotten and crime-ridden society, where even the dying will still claim to have a clean bill of health or even question the ability of some deadwoods to remain in office.

It is not only the PCC that is becoming like a satanic political sanctuary. The Executive President of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC, is periodically in court with one of the recalcitrant pastors and some Christians, over worldly and political issues.

Last January, I also read about the Roman Catholic Bishop of Buea, His Lordship Michael Bibi, prohibiting his retired predecessor, Immanuel Bushu, from celebrating "holy mass" within his Diocese.

Those are the three main church organisations in Cameroon with some evangelically renowned gone astray.

I need not talk of the numerous Pentecostal churches, some of which pretend to be medical centres of miracle, healing or occultist outfits using the name of Christ to dupe the gullible population to ‘sow seeds’ for crops they never shall harvest.

If the house of God to which worldly society should look up to for direction has itself become so polarised, politicised and satanic arena, where does the nation now turn to for deliverance?   

Postscript: “Be careful, lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon. I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis once said that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist,”- Philip Yancey in Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3245 of Monday September 30, 2024