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Church on the outskirts of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. [Picture: DW]
More than 1,000 religious denominations in Mozambique are not registered . The National Director of Religious Affairs says that the government will review legislation to address the unregulated growth of churches.
The Government of Mozambique is concerned about the proliferation of religious denominations, whose main purpose it sees as making money. It is estimated that more than 1,000 churches in the country are not registered – as many as are.
In Mozambique, there are churches whose leaders call themselves prophets, evangelists, or pastors, who promise they will cast out evil spirits and bring prosperity, heal and deliver good luck, among others claims.
These people often have neither a diploma nor any other credentials to perform religious activity.
The government cites financial greed, unemployment, internal conflicts and the struggle for power in churches as the reason for the spread of these institutions. Churches, on the other hand, find fertile ground for proliferation in poverty, the disintegration of the social fabric, and despair.
Review of legislation
For the National Director of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Arão Litsuri, this subject “is delicate and needs joint reflection”.
The government is preparing legislation to halt the unregulated growth of churches in Mozambique, Litsuri said at a debate on the proliferation of religious churches and sects in Mozambique on Saturday (20-07). “The law regulating the functioning of churches is still the one from 1971,” he said.
“We are currently reviewing this law, which has already been seen by several religious leaders, and will hold public hearings next year,” he told the academics, religious functionaries and members of the government attending the debate.
Litsuri has no doubt that the proliferation of churches is having a negative impact on society, because, “they do everything to educate, but they also do everything to extort believers”. “It’s a big problem,” he acknowledges.
Poverty as an instrument of prosperity
These pastors and prophets use the Bible and its interpretation often subjectively. They use water supposedly blessed by God, and lay their hands on the heads of their believers, to the delight of their clientele.
Catholic priest Salvador Bila pointed out that these pastors or prophets “are charismatic leaders, showing off luxury and using accessible, appealing and repetitive language to keep believers in their churches”.
Emerging churches bring produce who can testify to their success. Prophets, with shouts, weeping and heightened emotional charge tell their believers things like: “It is necessary to plant to harvest”, a formula which, according to Father Bila “ends up relieving the spirit of the believers”.
For academic Teodoro Abreu, the religious confessions took advantage of the liberalism created in the 1990s for their emergence and proliferation. Poverty and the difficult times the country is going through are creating space for churches to thrive. Teodoro Abreu says that, in Mozambican society, “there are no more believers – only consumers of sacred products”. “We have believers who are consumers of miracles,” he says.
Advertisements for prophets, evangelists and pastors are placed in both formal information channels and social networks. What prompts adherence to these crusades is promises which capitalise on social malaise. “The prophets use this phrase: ‘I give to you, and hope one day to get back,'” Abreu says.
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