Religious holidays are always happy times for criminals. Perhaps the overwhelming sense of brotherly love makes cash-flush citizens too trusting and thus easy prey.
But a growing category of charlatans is emerging. Instead of pulling a weapon to make folks part with their money, they invoke the name of one deity or another. The Christian God, as is to be expected given the large slice of the population that professes to believe in Jesus Christ, has emerged as the most-used weapon in their armoury.
But for some reason these criminals seems to get away with murder — sometimes literally. We justify our see- and hear-no-evil policies as being tolerant of the religious sensitivities of others.
Although the rewards of the hereafter are a matter for speculation and faith, it is clear who is reaping the rewards in the here and now. And it is not always the faithful.
We criticise politicians when for ideological or pseudoÂscientific reasons they deny sick people medicines that could prolong their lives. But our cities are full of churches that tell their congregants they can cure Aids: all the faithful need do is ensure that the presiding fellow lives in the lap of luxury. And so there is no confusion about where the cure comes from, throw away the “earthly” medicine.
Religious leaders seem to be the only people who can — as reported by City Press in February — persuade others to cash in their pensions or sell their houses for less than market value and let the pastor keep the proceeds in his account in exchange for blessings, without being named for what they truly are. Elsewhere they would be charged with fraud.
Not that fools who are rapidly separated from their money are without blame. But it has never been mitigation that the victim of a con was a sucker.
“Religious leaders” have seen a gap in the despair market and have aggressively made strides to corner it. They have set up shop in every available space, taking over old cinemas and office blocks.
Christians epitomise the dictum “none so blind as those who refuse to see”. They are accommodating when thugs in expensive suits tell them that the poor are so because they are sinners or lack sufficient faith to give away a tenth of their salaries. They tolerate those who, in their name, refuse to show compassion for the sick or comfort the bereaved. Surely this is incongruent with the Jesus who, according to the scriptures, championed the underdog?
By remaining silent when fraudsters milk the poor and hopeless, Christians play into the hands of those who have always said that religion is a drug to keep the poor compliant and unquestioning. Those who know that the church has led the cause of justice in South Africa (and elsewhere in the South) by espousing radical theories such as contextual and liberation theologies should not sit back when swindlers take faith back to the days of dictatorial and corrupt popes.