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Controversial self-styled prophet Shepherd Bushiri, who was recently accused of rape, touches on the subject in a book he has written.
In the book, titled Sleeping Near the Ark, Bushiri focuses on the scourge of abuse in South African churches. He was referring to the recent case where Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso, who faces 63 charges, from racketing to sexual assault and rape.
The Malawi-born prophet, who is famously known as "Major One", wrote about the dire effects of the spirit of familiarity between a "spiritual father and his sons and daughters (congregants)".
"The church is supposed to be the solution to people. The church must not be a place of creating problems," Bushiri said.
The Sowetan reported in April that a Pretoria woman opened a rape case against Bushiri but later withdrew it. The woman later claimed Bushiri's enemies coerced her into concocting the case against him.
READ: Poor attendance puts a damper on #FakeProphetsMustFall march
Sleeping Near The Ark is one of six books that were launched at an event at Emperors Palace on Tuesday night under the theme "Readers are leaders".
Hundreds of Bushiri's followers waited for the event from as early as 16:00. It eventually got under way at around 20:30.
Among those who attended the event were diplomats from Ghana and Malawi, as well as pastors from various churches.
Bushiri, 35, is the founder of Enlightened Christian Gathering.
The other titles of his books focus on issues around money and religion.
"In these books, I have sought to broadly go where no any other person has gone. I have revealed secrets that have made me this territorial commander in my walk with Jesus Christ as well as a pioneer in secrets of business…," Bushiri said during his address.
Bushiri said he decided to publish the six books because he understood that people needed diversity in the information they wanted to obtain.
"It's not every person who wants to read about prophetic ministry. Some like to read about business, some about their spiritual life…These books handle different issues and that is the reason we launched them in one go so that we touch different people, with different backgrounds," he said.
Bushiri said that, although writing the books was "emotionally challenging", he was grateful that he finally had them published and hoped they would minister and change the lives of people.
"It was quite overwhelming writing the books. Finally, I feel like the baby is born because it took me so much time to write these books," he added.
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