Fake religious men are everywhere

I met a pastor who was renting a room in a friend’s house when I visited California a few months ago. He originated from Berlin, Germany, and has been living in the United States for a few years.

Bumping into each other quite often throughout my stay there, we both shared many conversations over coffee.

On one occasion, we spoke about our interests and the things we enjoyed doing in our personal time. This was when he told me about his ‘side business’ – selling DVDs online. According to him, making copies from original DVDs and selling them online for a lower price is an easy way to make money.

Surprised to learn about a pastor selling pirate DVDs online, I became intrigued of him. I asked him what attracted him to the religious path, to which he said he was never raised with a strong Christian foundation.

Apparently, he decided to become a religious man quite late in life, upon finding out that it was one of the easiest ways to get a visa to work in the United States.

I smiled, listening to his explanation. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about people misusing religion for their own benefit.

Fake monks on the street

I travel to Yangon and Bangkok for work quite often. During many of my trips, I have spotted men with shaved heads and robes walking on the streets asking for donations. At first, it came to me as a surprise because I knew monks should not be handling cash, to begin with, what more holding out their hands asking for it.

As time progressed, I began spotting a lot more peculiar routines of these monks, being associated with the worldly pleasure of life instead of devoting themselves to monastic living.

I have seen monks with smartphones taking selfies and busy updating their Facebook statuses; monks having a relaxing time at cafes, dunking doughnuts in their cappuccinos; monks being driven around in nice cars; and even monks who have the pleasure of being ‘accompanied’ by pretty ladies.

It gets worse. While claiming to be monks, they are not only living like ordinary people, but there are also many cases linking senior monks to illegal financial dealings, sex scandals and corruption. These ‘religious’ men sell their religion for a good life.

Things aren’t so different in our very own Malaysia.

Fake ustaz in Malaysia

I have a few uncles and cousin brothers who made similar choices as pastor friend when life closed its doors to them. Some of them didn’t do well academically in school, hence they were sent off by their parents to religious schools, hoping it would benefit them.

Like the pastor who became a religious man for a working visa in the United States, my uncles and cousin brothers became religious men for job opportunities in Malaysia.

Today, they preach in mosques and are respected as religious men. Some with entrepreneurial talents has even taken it a step further by selling ‘special holy water’ and ‘special dates’, said to be infused with selected verses from the holy scriptures.

And some with political talents have made it big at the national level, selling religion for votes.

Religion is a lucrative business

We live in a world surrounded by ustaz, monks and pastors whom we look high upon as selected men by God to preach His words, when the truth is, they are simply trying to cari makan.

Being religious is a personal commitment to God. However, when one decides to become religious in order to cari makan, he isn’t a religious man, he is a businessperson.

But we can’t really blame these religious businesspeople though. After all, religion has become such a lucrative business these days. It is as an easy way for a nobody to become a somebody.

I mean, if selling religion can turn one into a well-known figure, earning them an RM50,000 bonus and a Mercedes Benz, I am sure every cow and pig would want to become one too.

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FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a director, a struggling producer, a photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot. - Mkini