Pastors shred marriage fabric

THE most trending news in Christian circles in recent weeks, apart from "miracles", has been the rate at which men of cloth are divorcing and remarrying.

Questions abound as to whether or not pastors and prophets can ditch their loved ones for new wives – who are usually members of their churches.

Last week, the controversial leader of Kingdom Embassy Prophet Passion Java made headlines for marrying one of his congregants, Lily Tsegayi, who is based in the United States barely three months after ending his marriage to wife of four years Prophetess Yasmin.

The new Mrs Java is said to be financially sound and was one of the financiers of Prophet Java's television station, Kingdom TV.

It will also be interesting to see if she too suddenly becomes a "prophetess" because of the marriage.

Prophet Java's re-marriage came hard on the heels of another shocking divorce between Family of God founder Prophet Andrew Wutawunashe and his wife, Rumbidzai.

After severing ties with his wife of many years, Prophet Wutawunashe married a congregant last month.

Prophet Wutawunashe said he and his wife had been seperated for a decade and the union was officially ended in January 2016.

"The purpose of this message is that you may know some important truth about my life which to the present date I thought best to keep private, for the sake of the work God has been doing in you and other people's lives through me.

"It's now imperative that you know that my marriage is coming to an official end after 10 years of separation, but without recrimination," he said.

Not so long ago, Anglican Church St Andrew's Parish priest Father Tendai Mandirahwe accused of wrecking a congregant's 18-year marriage.

Some lurid text messages, allegedly between the man of cloth to married woman Sinikiwe Nyati, have already been splashed on social and mainstream media. The messages allegedly showed a flourishing intimate relationship between the two.

Not to be outdone is Chris Embassy Church founder Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, whose wife Anita Ebhodaghe successfully filed for divorce in 2014.

The divorce was formally announced last week in a statement by Attwaters Jameson Hill, lawyers for Anita.

Part of the statement reads, "We have been requested by Anita Oyakhilome to confirm that on the 8th February 2016 a decree absolute was pronounced in the High Court of Justice Principal Registry of the Family Division dissolving her marriage to Christian Onehirokpeana Oyakhilome.

"Anita Oyakhilome would like to confirm that she is no longer involved in or part of Christ Embassy AKA Believers LoveWorld INC."

International acclaimed Tele-evangelist Pastor Benny Hinn of the US made headlines when he divorced his wife, Suzanne, and then remarried her.

Harare-based theologian Mr Innocent Sibanda says church leaders can divorce.

"Romans 3 verse 23 says we are all sinners' right from a prophet down to a toddler in the church, we all need the blood of Jesus Christ for salvation.

"The only thing that differentiates us is the fact that these leaders were called by God hence they should live exemplary."

Mr Sibanda urges Christians to make Christ their role model, adding that some people who claim to be spiritual leaders are not called by God but are sent by Satan to deceive.

Conflicts in marriages, Mr Sibanda says, exist but many church leaders have not divorced out of sheer fright of scandal.

"While others are papering over the cracks in their marriages in accordance with God's word in Malachi 2:16, others are destroying the marriage fabric," he said.

Mr Sibanda says pastors, evangelists and prophets can fall to the temptation of adultery in violation of God's Seventh Commandment (Exodus 20:14) which says, "Thou shall not commit adultery."

Retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor Admire Mabhena says, "Because none of the created order was sufficient to meet man's need for companionship, God took out of Adam's ribs that bone of man's bone and flesh of man's flesh to create the one called woman.

"The intimate relationship between the two was meant to last until they were parted by death," says United Kingdom-based Pr Mabhena.

He says when a man and a woman are joined in holy matrimony, the two become one in spirit, soul and body.

"All of Adam's hopes and fears, love and lust, faith and phobias, strengths and dysfunctions are, in a moment in time, fused to the same in his Eve.

"That is why divorce is always a great tragedy. It is not only the ripping apart of the fabric of two lives once intricately woven together, but it also is the dissolving of the relationship that- next to one's relationship with God- was intended to be the most intimate. God hates divorce because it damages His creation at its deepest emotional and spiritual core."

He goes on: "It is unfortunate that in our society and in our churches, men and women are becoming one and then ripping that one into two at an increasing rate. Some of our Christian leaders, our spiritual directors for one reason or another, are doing that also."

It is not just church leaders, though.

Ordinary people are divorcing at an alarming rate with the High Court clogged with hundreds of divorce applications. Perhaps the pastors and prophets are mirroring the society in which they live.

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