Why churches must pay tax

Isdore Guvamombe Reflections
Back in the village, in the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, a cock is seen the day it is hatched. There, elders with cotton tuft hair say, a great leader is an ordinary villager with extraordinary wisdom.

Those who have followed instalments of this villager will remember that four years ago, this humble son of Guruve stirred a hornet’s nest when he single-handedly challenged the gospel of prosperity and coined the term gospreneurship, which has become media lingua franca these days.

Admittedly, this villager initially lost friends and was isolated by even close relatives who feared for the worst. This villager lost associates. He was called names to the point where he earned a new nickname, Mhondoro (spirit medium).

This villager challenged Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa and Eubert Angel Madzanire to the limit and was only stopped from writing the articles at the intervention of some powerful politicians of that time. Ironically, prophetic powers had failed to stop the villager.

The villager sought to differentiate between religion and religiosity, the art and the belief: the belief and the execution of the belief. This villager challenged gospreneurship as an art of making money versus seeking God. This villager even questioned if God anointed between the sheets or weather prophetic powers were sexually transmitted in that a prophet’s wife became a prophetess.

Article after article was written attacking this villager and one of them was written by Mr Jealousy Mawarire, a longtime friend of this villager, who was so incensed by this villager’s religious beliefs to the point where, given his way, Mr Mawarire would have hanged the villager by his essentials.

But today, more and more people have joined in questioning our religious arena, especially the prophetic part of it. Gospreneurship!

Last week, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority dropped a bombshell that fell with the proverbial thud that can be heard as far afield as Shabani (Zvishavane). It was a thunderous thud, befitting a rocket-launched missile.

While Zimra was slow in noticing gospreneurship, at least they must be applauded for waking up from deep slumber and managing to shake off the lethargy of a long sleep and decide to tax the gospreneurs. This villager is not sure, if it was the prophets’ anointing oil that kept Zimra sleeping on tax for that long.

Probably Zimra was finally cleansed by Karitundundu, the ageless village autochthon of wisdom and knowledge, who for a long time has been challenging the status quo.

These Pentecostal churches have been milking the poor dry and making millions of dollars out of their troubled souls. These gospreneurs must never be forgiven for buying the best houses in and outside the country, driving the best cars, wearing expensive clothes and living a Heaven-on-earth life, but still cajoling the poorest of the poor to seed even more.

Their children attend the best schools, their pregnant wives fly to the best hospitals in Europe to deliver. They eat what they want. Why should they not be taxed?

Some of them now run football clubs, own hotels and lodges and even run companies listed on the stock exchange and we don’t tax them. Zimra! Zimra! Zimra!

God, being a God of fairness, will one day punish these business moguls. Besides they have their godfathers, who play God. They worship earthly godfathers.

One does not need to enlist the services of economists to see that these so-called prophets, the flamboyant small boys in smart suits and luxury cars, are mere businesspeople taking advantage of troubled souls and making money out of their misery.

To believe them religiously is nothing but mischief. To let them go on without being taxed is tax fraud and economic mischief.

There is no better way to explain their shenanigans than to define them as clever businesspeople whose business model is to milk the poor, the troubled and the gullible.

 

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey