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Innocent Ruwende and Masline Mavudzi Review writers
In an event atypical of most Shona funerals about 50 people recently gathered around the grave of a 23-year-old man at Warren Hills and consigned his body to its resting place. The paucity of mourners was not because Taona (not his real name) did not have many friends and acquaintances to join his kith and kin in interring him.

The burial of the 23-year-old low level utility company employee was shunned by his friends and fellow worshippers because he committed suicide after failing to pay back money he had borrowed from a local bank to plant his “seed” at church. The few relatives at the funeral did not hide their bitterness.

“He was a victim of the churches which are sprouting. He borrowed $1 600 from POSB which he seeded hoping that his life would change for the better but his life actually got worse. His employer scrapped his overtime allowances and his grade was lowered thus he started earning much less,” one relative said.

With a large chunk of his below-the- poverty-datum-line income going to the bank through a stop order facility, Taona was left struggling to meet the bills for daily survival. So he got deeper into credit by going to loan sharks. Still the “seed” did not germinate.

Another relative said all hell broke loose when Taona failed to repay the loan sharks.

“They started visiting his workplace and would wait for him at the gate and threaten him. He was afraid that they would harm him so he started staying away from work. Then he killed himself,” said the relative.

When Taona was buried, the funeral was presided over by a United Methodist Church of Zimbabwe celebrant with the leaders and fellow worshippers from the church where Taona “seeded” his bank loan conspicuous by their absence. The bereaved relatives of Taona said that the least that the church could do was show some decency by attending the funeral to show that they cared.

“These people do not care about the souls of their congregants, but are just after money with their prosperity gospel. “Instead of just preying on gullible young people desperate for success they should be looking at dealing with the rot of the moral fibre,” ranted an angry young man, Taona’s cousin. Efforts to get comments from the leader of the church that Taona allegedly seeded his bank loan with were unfruitful.

Wikipedia says about prosperity gospel:

“Also known as prosperity theology, prosperity doctrine, or the health and wealth gospel, this is a teaching centred on the expectation that God provides material prosperity for those he favours.” Although common opinion associates the commercialisation of Christianity with new churches, history proves that such practices date back over the centuries. According to pbs.org the history of the church is littered with many examples of spiritual matters being linked to material ones:

“One particularly well-known Catholic method of exploitation in the Middle Ages was the practice of selling indulgences, a monetary payment of penalty which, supposedly, absolved one of past sins and/or released one from purgatory after death.”

PHD leader Walter Magaya, who commands one of the largest Christian followings among the new churches, has addressed the controversial issue of seeding in a teaching saying: “The sower understands that there are personal rewards and blessings through constant giving. A sower knows the season to sow in order to attract higher yields.

“By constant seeding you create a vacuum of receiving thereby extending the limits of your receiving. Know what to seed, the season and the proper soil to seed. By changing your limit of seeding you change your level of receiving.

“If you are a constant seeder and your seed also remains constant it means your level of receiving does not change, therefore, if you want to extend your limits then your level of seeding must also go higher. If you do not sow you become a bread eater.”

Elshadai Ministries Bishop Patience Hove says seeding is biblical but it must be done in context and with the right heart not as a tool to manipulate God but as love relationship of surrendering all to him believing he is a father who rewards.

Bishop Hove said the supplicants are responsible for creating prosperity gospel because they only seek God when they need material benefits thus creating room for conning by false preachers. “The problem with Christians of today is they want to put God in a box so that he does exactly what they want. “That’s not God, God is looking for a heart that worships in spirit and truth, Ecclesiastes 11 vs 6 and Psalms 126 vs 6.

“Some of today’s preachers do not want to teach their congregants the conditions for blessings as stipulated in the word of God. They just talk about blessings and microwave answers. “You can never out-give God. God is no man’s debtor,” she said

Spirit Embassy leader Eubert Angel became embroiled in a legal mess when a congregant claimed to have been duped by the man of cloth to surrender his pricey vehicle in the name of “seeding”.

According to the court papers, the congregant gave his Bentley to Angel based on prophetic motivation by Angel that the congregant would in turn receive abundant material blessings including acquisition of multiple such vehicles within a set period.

But after the anticipated period of miracles had passed and the “seed” had not borne any fruit, the congregant decided to claim his seed back. When he got no joy he took the route of legal recourse seeking the return of the vehicle which apparently had already been sold to a third party.

The Very Reverend Farai Mutamiri, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral, said giving to the church is based on Biblical principle and gave reference to Deuteronomy 26 vs 1-12. “If you read vs 3 it says there are certain things that you need to be remember, you are now enjoying fruits of your forefathers. It is a result of the promise given to our forefathers.

“When one takes a tenth back again this is now being shared amongst the less privileged, orphans to mention a few,” said Rev Mutamiri. On churches turning away from the earthly remains of those who commit suicide he said the Anglican liturgy- the order of service, states that they cannot conduct Holy Communion service when someone commits suicide.

“When someone commits suicide there are certain rights that we withdraw such as the Requiem Mass. It is a thanks-giving service. For someone who has committed suicide we have no right to say thanks to God but we can do other burial rites,” said Rev Mutamiri. Bishop Patience Hove said in her view discriminating against a person’s body because of the manner in which they die is not proper.

“Death does not come by anything else except time. No one can kill anyone if God does not permit and whatever demon will have caused that person to commit suicide it is still time that kills the person. When a person commits suicide in my church I will treat death as death and do what I do for everybody who dies.

“We don’t pray for the dead, we bury the dead. “When a person has died their spirit and soul has left them, all you see is the body so even if you try to punish the body the spirit and soul is gone,” Bishop Hove said.