This pastor was a bad example to the Christian community

Feb 11, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The recent news captioned: ”Rosignol Pastor gets 40 years for raping minor” was very shocking and disturbing, since the rise and fall of our so called pope among other religious leaders in the Christian community that reminds me of the Rev.Jim Jones who killed 918 innocent souls in the name of God.
The current news of a Pastor getting a 40 years sentence for raping a minor sets a bad example to the Christian community as well as other religious communities. Men and women falling into sexual sin is an old disease that plagued the church since the beginning of time. As a Reverend and religious leader myself, I wish to admonish all religious leaders from every religion to be very watchful; also political leaders and leaders of government and private institutions.
When I attended  Bible College or Seminary I was taught a course called’ Ministerial Ethics’ and over a dozen courses on the ”Principles of leadership.”
I was taught about the three principles or weapons used by Satan to destroy men are: ”Power, Sex, and Money” in the Bible.
King David, a very powerful man, used his power to take away and seduce a next man’s wife, Bathsheba, when he discovered she was the wife of a soldier in his army. King David used his power to corrupt his own life, but he did not escape the harsh judgement of God. His son Solomon also fell into sexual transgression.
We also see many modern day preachers and money hungry con men like Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart falling from grace and even going to jail.
Now we see them in Guyana like the Pope and many of these guys who have churches bigger than cinemas who just try to deceive and swindle uneducated followers for money, all in the name of Christ and God. Now with this Pastor going to jail for 40 years brings a very bad name to the churches of Christ. What one Minister does can impact the ministry of many others, even though they may not serve in the same church denomination and that will also include Imams and Pundits from their religions too.
From the course I did ”Ministerial Ethics” I learn that a Minister of Religion should not counsel a woman alone, be alone with a woman in a closed office, have a woman alone in his car, eat with a woman alone at a restaurant and same goes for Female Ministers of Religion.
Today we have seen the opposite. One sentence in the Lord’s Payer Jesus said:’ ‘And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
Ministers of Religion need to set a better example to the church, community, society and nation. Even today we have a lot of ”so called” Pastors
and church leaders who never went through any Ministry training but called themselves Apostles, Prophets, Bishops, many of whom can barely read at a very competent level. Saint Paul told young Timothy:” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth;” meaning to study and rightly interpret the Holy Scriptures and Paul himself was a literary scholar and lawyer also an orator and linguist.
What is important in ministry and every capacity of leadership is our Morality, Character, Integrity and respect from others. It’s not how nice we dress; it’s how morally upright we are. Good character is the leadership quality that distinguishes great leadership.  It is the quality that most people admire.  Leaders of good character have integrity, courage and compassion.  They are careful and prudent.
Humble in their awareness of their own limitations, they seek out the knowledge and counsel of others.  They constantly learn and others want to learn from them.  Their decisions and actions inspire employees to think and act in a way that not only improves the bottom line, but that contributes to the well-being of the organization and society. The love of God in our hearts will give us the ability to love our wives, husbands, children and the human race. No amount of wealth can replace the love of God. What we need in Guyana is God’s love, which is the cure for all our social problems. Ministers must see their own daughter in a next man’s daughter; they must see the mothers, sisters, aunts as their own because they must have the love of God in their hearts and don’t see members of the opposite sex as sex objects and rape objects because we will reap what we sow.
Our words contain our life that’s our character and attitude. Life is sowing and reaping. We sow bad seeds by our words. Most marriages ended up in divorce because of one person destroying the other with deplorable words.
We must think before we speak because we speak our thoughts; I see a society of very angry and bad cultured people from all walks of life. Our ethics, morality and conduct with each other are extremely poor. Very few people can say: ‘Good morning, thank you very much, excuse me sir or madam’. Ministers and leaders must always think that they will always be victims too of lies and false accusations it’s because Satan will always try to dethrone them from their positions of authority.
^” Abstain from all appearance of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:22
Ministers of Religion are not angels and no man or woman is perfect and no sin is too big for God to forgive, we can learn from our mistakes. My heart is broken when I read of these bad news in the Press but life must go on and the Church will continue to grow. One man’s sin or failure will never affect the whole body of Christ. I advise all Ministers of Religion and all other leaders to live a life of morality and integrity and above all love your neighbour as yourself.
Rev. Gideon Cecil

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