Is revealing someone’s medical status in church an irresponsible act based on faith or testimony?
According to Kelli Mahoney, author of “About.com Guide”, testimony explains the experiences a Christian had, and how they had managed to overcome sin.
Dieter F. Uchdorf, of Quorum of the twelve apostles, chronicles testimony as a declaration of the absolute truth of the gospel and contends a testimony is personal. Declaring someone’s medical status publicly by “prophets” to bear testimony to the power of God has gone unchallenged. To testify the power and might of God in healing the sick and announce publicly what the healed suffered from indiscriminately, seems to be the challenge to the modern day church.
In the midst of concerns and exasperations at the rate at which churches are mushrooming, a new phenomenon is taking centre stage. Some churches have popularised revelations of member’s medical conditions and status. The revelations are often made public and oblivious to the composition of the church. The church in most of the time makes these revelations synonymous with testimony. The fad and latest craze has sadly also caught-up with public schools, where most of the young members come from.
A Pentecostal church in Francistown recently had an all night session. In the middle of session, a young prophet announced his prophesies to the multitudes. A middle-aged woman was summoned to the front where the prophet announced his prophecy. The congregation had to hear a sad and shameful tale of the woman’s past.
The prophet revealed publicly that some years ago, the woman had illegally terminated her pregnancy, and for the past two years had missed on her menstrual cycle and, instead, has clots of blood and fleshes coming from her private parts. The revelation shocked the older members of the church, and the young members of the church on the other hand found the revelation amusing. The young woman was asked to give testimony to the prophesy. This did not go well with some members of the church who felt the church had shamed the woman.
Some members of the church, however, believe that is the way to go.
“We need to shame Satan, clearly killing a child is an act of Satan and needs to be shamed and condemned,” said a highly spirited school-going girl who refused to identify herself. “We are actually bearing testimony to the power of the Lord,” quipped a colleague of hers.
Students at some senior school in Tonota region are reported to be frustrated by student members, who they allege are members of the Pentecostal churches. The students report that the alleged “student prophets” storm into their classes and announce uninvited what is to befell some of them. One student revealed that a young prophet, who is a student, revealed publicly that her mother was about to die and she needs to pray for her sins to save the mother.
“This disturbed me as I did not understand what to make of this and why they chose to embarrass me in that fashion,” said the Form Five student.
The mainline churches are against the declaration of one’s status in public. In discussion the issue, Christians did not want to either be interviewed or identified.
“Every house has its own way of addressing issues. As the mainline churches we are churches of order. Pentecostal churches do not have order. A pastor has to train and then be ordained. You cannot have a situation where one wakes up in the morning, reveals there are born again, and the next morning they are a prophet,” said a member of the Lutheran Church.
A pastor at Bible Life Ministries is concerned that the protagonists of these acts are young people who seem to care less about the aftermath of their actions. “Most people who are embarrassed in this fashion lose faith in us as Christians,” said the pastor.
Efforts to reach prophets from the Pentecostal churches were fruitless.
