I’M not the most religious man in the world.

I read my Bible, I pray every night and sometimes I go to church.

Religion is a very personal thing to me though, so I don’t like to make such a big, public deal about it as some people.

I guess I’ve just always been a big fan of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6, where he says: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

“If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in Heaven . . . And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”

This makes me feel like I at least have some scriptural backing for my personal dislike of the sort of public religious spectacle that’s been in the news lately.

I’m of course talking about Prophet Penuel Mnguni and his congregants, who apparently like to snack on snakes, human hair and cloth.

Not long ago, Pastor Lesego Daniel was also in the news for making the members of his church drink petrol and eat grass.

In both these cases, the crazy nonsense these supposed men of God were getting up to, got them a whole lot of free publicity.

I don’t know if any souls were saved, but they definitely saved a few hundred thousand Rands on advertising.

The thing that really got me thinking that something’s very wrong here was seeing the faces of the people eating the snake and other objects.

While the prophet and his followers want us to believe the snake really did taste like chocolate, and that rocks have been turned to bread, their faces told a different story.

I started thinking about what it must feel like to put yourself through torture, and lie about it actually being pleasant, just to try and prove your or your pastor’s faith to the rest of the world.

If Mnguni really can turn any object into anything else, then why doesn’t he use his amazing faith powers for something more useful?

Imagine how many souls he could save if he transformed some coals into gold.

I’m sorry, but these self-proclaimed miracle workers just never impress me. It’s exactly the same with many of the ones who claim healing powers.

I’m not saying there’s no such thing as real faith healing, or that there are no honest people out there attempting to heal the sick in the name of God.

I’m just talking about the ones I’ve seen, and they’ve been nothing but a disappointment.

They always seem to be curing the sort of things that also sometimes go away by themselves.

Things like some forms of cancer, back pain, the flu and so on.

When it comes to things that are medically impossible, well, then suddenly the pastors’ faith also seems to be powerless.

Not once has any of them been able to make even one amputated little toe grow back!

If you have the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, why are you sitting in some tiny space you rented at the local shopping centre, instead of spending your time at Bara, healing the sick and the broken?

Don’t give me that old nonsense about how those people must just not have enough faith to be healed!

You don’t know what is in the heart of your brother or sister, and I can promise you that there’s nothing wrong with the faith of many of the thousands of people you can find in our hospitals any day of the week.

I’m not a theologian or a philosopher.

I’m not going to try and figure out what these facts all boil down to.

I’m just telling you the facts I’m seeing.

I’ll leave the interpretation up to you!

Let me know what you think by sending an e-mail to

[email protected].

Until next time, salani kahle!

This article first appeared in the Sunday Sun.