Sad ending for miracle pastor

AFTER a long wait, Joburg pastor Siva Moodley was finally laid to rest recently. And that was only after a court order had been obtained by the undertaker, Martin’s Funeral Home, against the pastor’s family.

Moodley, 53, a former Durban pastor, was the founder of Miracle Centre in Johannesburg. He had a huge following but there were few mourners at his funeral. His wife and children did not attend his burial; only his siblings, nephews and nieces did.

The family had kept his body for more than 570 days in the mortuary, hoping he would rise from the dead.

I suppose they were disappointed this did not happen and they could not face the public and the media.

A man who had preached that he could cure cancer and make the blind see could not perform a miracle for himself.

Reverend Cyril Pillay, who conducted the ceremony, was especially critical of the family. He said it was inhumane for them to have kept the body in a mortuary for so long. It was disrespectful of the dead and Moodley did not deserve to be abandoned like that.

The poor turn-out at the funeral was not a fitting send off for a man who had such a large following while he was alive.

The reverend urged the public not to be so heavenly minded that they forget their earthly origins, for even as the Bible says, we are all mortals and shall return at the end of our life cycle to the ground.

From “earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to dust”, there’s no escape from it. Once you die, rigour mortis sets in and your body begins the process of decomposition.

No miracle on Earth will reverse that and raise you from the dead.

Medical science can prolong life but it cannot bring you back from the dead. It’s scientifically and physically impossible.

The pastors who promise miracles are lying.

Except, perhaps, for Jesus, who is believed by the Christians to have risen from the dead, there has been not been any single instance of anyone on earth rising from the dead.

The finality of death is an unassailable truth.