Church labelled as sinful

MBOMBELA – While other pastors have labelled it as a sinful church, the senior pastor of Ark Of God Ministry, Past Jacob Makhathini, simply calls it a church without boundaries.

What makes this church stand out from other denominations is that it openly accommodates gays and lesbians and is run by a pastor who is gay himself. “Like any other man of God, I am a pastor and do not need to explain myself since straight people do not state their sexual preference when introducing themselves.

I am a pastor, not a gay pastor,” he clarified his position. Speaking to Mpumalanga News, Makhathini emphasised that the ministry was not a gay church but it welcomed all people, regardless of their sexuality.

“We preach the Gospel of love, peace, forgiveness and unity and we serve society without discrimination,” Makhathini told us.

Asked if his motive for founding the church was the discrimination faced by gay people in other churches and in society as a whole, he admitted there was a huge gap with regard to how church ministers handle issues of sexuality but said it had nothing to do with him establishing the church.

“I was saved in 1998 while I was serving at Assemblies of God and received God’s calling to preach the Gospel way before starting this ministry,” he added.

The pastor, who recently got married to a man, said it was pastors, some of whom were straight, who advised him to start his own place of fellowship. “Pastors who knew about my sexual orientation did not judge me, they assisted and ordained me when I launched Ark Of Joy in 2007,” he said.

However, some men of the cloth are infuriated by this church’s existence saying it was an abdomination in the eyes of God. “It is for this reason that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament.

Being gay is a sin and there is no God in that church. This man is disturbing balance in the order of God,” said Prophet Aubrey. But Makhatini said he did not want to argue about the Word of God because he believed it was only meant for sharing and uplifting one another adding that people should stop reading it out of context.

“When reading the Bible, it is important to understand the folowing: who’s talking, to whom and what had happened for such message to be conveyed,” commented Makhathini.

The pastor concluded by saying that if God hated gays he would have condemned the act when he gave Moses the Ten Commandments and he would have destroyed all of them (gay people) by now.

Mpumalanga News visited the church and like any other church, the Gospel of Christ was preached during the service. Ark of God has six branches countrywide and one in Swaziland, which welcome everyone – gay or straight.