NOTE: What follows is an open letter written by Dave and Cherry Mckay to the Kenyan Senate Ad-Hoc Committee that was tasked with reporting on the Shakahola Massacre Incident and who have called for an investigation with a view to have all foreign Jesus Christians expelled and barred from Kenya, based solely on a paragraph containing outright lies and distortions about the Jesus Christians.
Dave and Cherry Mckay sent the open letter to many Kenyan media outlets as well as to Kenyan government bodies and members of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee, though virtually all of the official government email addresses (ending in "@parliament.go.ke") for the Committee members bounced back as being non-existent email addresses, even though they appear on the Senate's official web page (www.parliament.go.ke).
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE KENYAN SENATE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE PROLIFERATION OF RELIGION IN KENYA. (12th of November, 2023)
From Dave and Cherry Mckay,
I have just been made aware of a report from your committee, which makes reference to me and my wife. I was surprised to discover that highly esteemed leaders like yourselves appear to have allowed yourselves to be drawn into quoting an anonymous source who has made false and extremely defamatory statements about us and the community which we founded, without offering any evidence for their claims.
Your committee report makes reference to "information availed to the committee." Please, can someone identify the source of that information? Neither I, nor my wife, nor any other member of our community was contacted by any member of your committee to verify any of the so-called "information" that you have anonymously received, and which you have used as your basis for asking that we (and any foreigner who supports anything that we teach) be deported and/or barred from entry to Kenya.
Your report repeatedly refers to our Christian community as a cult. On page 111, you define a cult as "A system of belief directed towards a particular figure or object, for example, a self-appointed leader, prophet or someone with lofty titles." Ironically, one of the basic teachings of our community is that we should not use any titles at all, as taught by Jesus, including titles like Mister, Doctor, or Reverend. You will find no title other than "Brother" or "Sister" used by members of our community for me or for anyone else, including yourselves. Furthermore, far from glorifying a human leader, we have a rotating leadership, so that at any one time, the general public does not even KNOW who is our leader. My wife and I are only founders of the community. We retired many years ago as leaders.
The object of our belief and worship is Jesus Christ alone. If worship of Jesus is enough to define a group as a cult, then it is quite likely that every church in Kenya would fit your definition.
The report states that our teachings "include forsaking all private ownership." This much is correct. Voluntary poverty and a communal lifestyle have been part of many Catholic orders, as well as some Protestant movements over the centuries. And, like with ourselves, such beliefs have been practiced without any hint of criminal activity.
But your report further states that we teach "relocating to an isolated communal place where members serve one master". Our goal, wherever we have travelled, has been to seek out highly populated places, where we can interact with people in promoting the teachings of Jesus. The one Master whom we seek to serve and promote is God, as revealed through his Son, Jesus. This Jesus Christian teaching is repeated over and over in our videos and literature. The committee will not find a record anywhere that we teach otherwise.
In relation to Paul Mackenzie, the Report says that "foreign links were largely established through virtual links and social media." (Paragraph 128) Once again, no evidence is given for this. I have never had any contact with Paul Mackenzie, not in person, not through email, nor via phone, zoom, or social media. Once again, the committee has not provided any evidence to support this claim.
The Committee rightly makes reference to a sermon delivered by a friend of mine, in 2019, at a meeting organised by Paul Mackenzie. That sermon can be viewed in its entirety, as it was filmed by followers of Mackenzie and displayed on their website.
I would urge members of the public, representatives of the media, and government officials who have read the Senate Report, to view that sermon, as it is the only piece of evidence available on which to base judgment of any influence Jesus Christians may have had on followers of Paul Mackenzie.
Here is a link to a video which we Jesus Christians have produced in response to the committee report, in which we include excerpts from that sermon:
JCs & Senate Report
What you will not find in that sermon is the outrageous claim that the ad hoc Senate committee made in its report, i.e. that my friend "urged followers [of Mackenzie] to abandon earthly possessions and follow Paul Mackenzie to the 'promised land', which was later located in Malindi." Where did that come from?
What happened in the Shakahola Forest appears to have been the result of greed on the part of Paul Mackenzie, and fear on the part of his followers. Our representative specifically preached against both of those evils at the televised meeting in Nairobi in 2019. You can view that in the video link above as well.
Information available to the committee strongly suggests that members of Paul Mackenzie's church used violence and coercion to bring about the deaths of hundreds of people in the Shakahola Forest. In direct contrast to that, our Jesus Christian community is pacifist, with strong Quaker connections. It staggers belief that the atrocities in Shakahola can be related in any way to what we believe or to what our representative preached in that sermon.
Reckless use of terms like extremism and radicalisation, to imply that genuine and sincere Christians like ourselves, are promoting violence and terrorism hints at religious villification. The Senate Committee on the Proliferation of Religion in Kenya should do everything in its power to track down the source of these lies about ourselves, and to see that the individual or individuals responsible for spreading them are brought to justice. The video link above actually names the source in Kenya, although we believe that he received his information from someone in Australia.
Any action to locate and prosecute the source of these lies is consistent with articles 27, 32, 33, and 37 of the Kenyan Constitution, which "ensure that every person is entitled to equal protection and benefit of the law and that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their religion."
If you (the committee members) are not prepared to retract what has been said about me, my wife, and other Jesus Christians in the report, and to take action to identify the defamatory source, then I am asking the public and the media to ask the hard questions that need to be asked about the source of these lies.
Sincerely,
Dave and Cherry Mckay,
for Jesus Christians
https://jesuschristians.com/media-section/controversies/the-shakahola-lies/1336-open-letter-regarding-the-shakahola-incident
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