Christ Realm Ministries of All Nations leader Prophet Blessing “Hitman” Langton has attracted withering negativity and could, possibly, invite serious trouble with pertinent health authorities after he exhorted his congregants to consult clergymen first before seeking treatment at hospitals.
Addressing hundreds of his followers during a Sunday service in Epworth, the charismatic evangelist, who claims his name means ruthless to the evil and demons, said people should not rush to hospitals before calling in the “man of God.”
“The majority of diseases are spiritual and they require spiritual answers. Demons are real and cannot be treated by scientific methods. Do not rush to hospitals if you are sick, rather consult your man of God first,” he said.
The prophet, who is delighted about his church’s exceptional growth having started with less than five people, told Newsday that he is not fretted about the criticism he is receiving from naysayers, saying even Jesus was denounced and criticised over his marvels.
“All that I want is to help people who believe God is the answer to everything in their life. We are here to demonstrate the power of God by eradicating demons as revealed in many testimonies that are coming,” he said.
Prophet Hitman’s advice that believers should first check in with the ministers of the word is, however, in sharp contrast with government policy which urges sick people to immediately seek medication in clinics and hospitals to facilitate early examination and prescription.
Jasper Gurupira, an Epworthian from the small township of Overspill, who spoke to the Newsday expressed mixed feelings over the cleric’s advice.
“This man of God needs to be reminded that life is so precious, he must not mislead people about his miracles, people must go to clinics, death is real,” he said.
Several medical unions across the continent have for long accused faith healers of spiritualising diseases and encouraging people to dump medication on unfounded claims they had been miraculously healed.
As the promise of miraculous healing mixes with scepticism about the dangers and necessity for caution around deadly diseases, some Christians turn to faith-based treatment rather than medical care.
Earlier on in July, it was reported that Ebola death tolls in DRC rose alarmingly as patients turned to miracles over medicine.
“Some sick people believe that the Ebola epidemic comes from sorcery—they refuse to be treated and prefer to pray,” said Julie Lobali, a nurse in a hospital in Mbandaka, the city where the two patients died.
Virtually three weeks ago, Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries leader Walter Magaya was shoved to recant his claims that he had found a cure for HIV/Aids and cancer amid intense political pressure from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, National AIDS Council, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights(ZADHR), World Health Organisation, the United Nations and related medical societies of Zimbabwe.
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