Pastors, stop playing God

THE EDITOR: I am writing to the editor hoping that God may purchase a daily newspaper and hear my cry. For it seems He no longer runs this planet but men do. The men and women that claimed to be called by God to teach us about himself are now doing their own teachings and running their own show. I am saddened by the news of a young lady who was recently emotionally ‘stoned’ to death by a church in Arima, where I am from and even grew up.  This young teenager like Mary was found with child out of wedlock and instead of the Pastor taking your biblical example, he decided to play God and publicly have her stand before a congregation of 200 people and have her apologies for being human. Dear God I am confused I grew up in that same church and they taught me of Your love and mercy. I was told about the woman with six husbands at the well, who regained her self-esteem and after meeting with You no longer hid to collect water.

I also remember the prostitute that was brought to You for a good stoning but you said, “He without sin cast the first stone.” I remember the woman that fell at Your feet, who washed Your feet with tears and dried it with her hair and if that was not enough bathed You with the most expensive white diamonds perfume. At no time  did You go out of your way to publicly humiliate these women. In fact, Your request is for closer prayer and not public humiliation. How is it then that an ordained elder could so easily lean upon his own understanding together with other saints (those without sin) and publicly ‘stone’ a teenager for getting pregnant out of wedlock. I imagine this child growing up to know that his first reception into this world was public shame in the womb “The Scarlet Letter.” Growing up in the church I always recognised that unwed pregnancies were the taboo of the ages, “the unforgivable sin.” I am convinced this church taboo is a main contributor to unwanted abortions. Yes, unwanted abortions. There is such a thing. Many Christian young women and some are reading this article right now, have performed unwanted abortions just to protect themselves from church expulsion.

Let’s not talk about unwanted marriages. Many sisters have gotten married in the name of hiding unplanned pregnancies and the church is fully aware, but allows it just to save face and name. When a church has become too proud to address sin with grace then something is very wrong. The church should not be afraid of internal sin. When you join a church you do not become perfect. In fact, the temptations seem to increase. There is so much pressure at attaining perfection that members begin to live a lie in the fear of pastoral judgement and persecution. Pastors need to stop playing God. If God were a pastor he would never publicly ask a teenager or anyone for that matter to stand before a group of sinners and confess. Well let me tell you pastors something, the other young ladies in church who are in the same boat will never come to you for help. They will run to the nearest illegal abortion clinic because it is private and the quack doing the procedure will not bring them to public shame. Please rethink this style of leadership and return to the basics the biblical style of Christ. Remember you are only a hired hand and have to account for every soul that you lead astray. Be careful of how you judge for you shall also be judged with the same venom. Finally, if unwanted pregnancies are to be publicly announced then every other sin should be dealt with in the same way, after all sin is sin and fair is fair. Dear Pastors, time to have a line in church for all to publicly announce their weekly sins to the congregation and we can just call that George.

JOSHUA ADAMS
Port-of-Spain