This week, the country goes on a somber mood of remembering those massacred during the 1994 Genocide against the Tusti in which a million lives were lost. The psychological wounds of that pernicious strife are still being felt, 20 years later. This was the time the country needed divine intervention. Yet the devil must have hideously laughed loudly, seeing some church leaders taking part in the massacre. They turned their churches into killing fields of many of their faithful who had sought refuge in the hallowed precincts of the Lord. In his Ministry on earth, Jesus crossed swords with Jewish religious leaders on many occasions. He never failed to brand them hypocrites who preached water but drank wine. In Matthew 23:2 he says of them, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach.” Such acerbic criticism of the self-righteous religious leaders must have exacerbated the deepening hatred they had towards him. However, we are seeing today that what actually he alluded to in his harsh indictment of religious leaders is true, for some of them have become wolves in sheep clothing, preying on innocent, battered souls who need their divine guidance. How often have you heard that a certain church leader has been caught in incriminating sexual tryst with a married woman? How often have you heard of sexual immorality being practiced inside the sacrosanct premises of the church? How often have you heard of grumbles about some religious leaders embezzling church funds meant to assist the vulnerable? The reports about rogue men of clothes are legion worldwide. Yet as Christians, should we just sit back and see as some of the so-called men of cloth take us to a religious ride? Jesus himself said that we shouldn’t be quick at throwing the first stone, for all of us have sin etched on our foreheads like the mark of Cain. However, religious leaders aren’t just like other mortals. They should be above us on moral pedestal, and since they normally tell us to stick to the straight and the narrow, should be beyond reproach. They took the oath to serve the church, thus should be bound by the moral and ethics of the ministry. There are a number of people who believe that religious personages found committing sin should have no place on the pulpit, and we cannot agree less. Felix Hakizimana, a Remera genocide survivor says that repentance is our only way to salvation, and even our religious leaders need to repent. “I was crushed when I heard that many people had been killed in our church at Nyange, through the orders of a church leader I had known and come to respect. I couldn’t believe that he could be part of the bloodbath and for several years, my faith in God completely wavered.” He adds: “I only later come to reconcile with myself that some of them are not true servants of the Lord.”
