Reality TV show star and Methodist Church pastor’s wife, Queen Nandi, has alleged that the orthodox church wanted her to abort her child.
She further claimed that when she refused to terminate the pregnancy, the church slashed her husband’s salary.
However, the Methodist Church told Sunday World on Tuesday that it refutes the allegations that it asked Queen Nandi to have an abortion.
The church said it has taken legal steps against Queen Nandi to protect its image.
The controversial star of Honey TV’s reality television show, Pastor’s Wife, was speaking to televangelist Pastor Enoch Phiri on his Christianity show, Taking Dominion, on Sunday.
Queen Nandi, born Nandi Mlombi, has been vocal about the alleged moral decay in the Methodist Church, alleging that the religious institution has been focused on her being a “loud mouth” instead of addressing burning issues that include immoral leaders and homosexuality in the church.
She said: “There was a pregnancy I was asked to terminate. In this economy, how can you have kids?
“When I didn’t terminate that pregnancy, they said they were going to cut the pastor’s stipend.”
Unholy war with the clergy
Queen Nandi has been engaged in a somewhat unholy war with the church for the past two years.
In March, she was evicted from her home, which is owned by the church, following years of going back and forth with the church.
The TV star and her family were evicted for allegedly putting the Methodist Church into disrepute.
She informed Phiri that the church’s current leader is a lesbian hiding in the closet.
“The Methodist Church is becoming the headquarters of the alphabets [a term used to refer to the LGBTQIA+ community],” she said.
“Right now, the church is being led by the past-presiding bishop, who was a lesbian in the closet; the current is a divorcee who is now a lesbian in the closet as well.
“So, there is an agenda. Being heterosexual is going to be very abnormal in the Methodist Church. A straight man is going to be like he just grew a third boob.”
Church leaders behaving ungodly
The outspoken media personality has been making headlines in the past few months for for allegations against the church, which include accusing leaders at the church of behaving ungodly.
In a scathing letter that she wrote to the senior clergymen of the Methodist Church, she called them stupid and clowns.
The Methodist church Presiding Bishop and spokesperson, Rev Pumla Nzimande, said she is aware that Queen Nandi has made a lot of baseless and outrageous allegations over the last couple of years about the Methodist Church as an institution, its leaders, and its agents.
She said the church and its leaders are taking steps to protect the image and reputation of the institution, its leaders, and its agents.
“These steps are sub-judice at the moment, and we are therefore not at liberty to discuss them,” she said.
The church does not discriminate
Nzimande denied that the leadership of the church asked Queen Nandi to terminate her pregnancy.
“We did not ask her to terminate any pregnancies, and those are very serious accusations that she is making.
“Hopefully, Mrs Mlombi [Queen Nandi] will back them up with proof and names in due course,” she said.
Nzimande added that the church does not discriminate against members of the LGBTIQ community.
“Why then does it surprise anybody that the community could be part of the MCSA [Methodist Church of Southern Africa]?
“The Methodist Church of Southern Africa has been and continues to be in respectful and productive conversations on same-sex relationships.”
Nzimande said the church is a microcosm of society and, therefore, by its very nature, would be representative of the diversity that exists in society.
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa has been and continues to be in respectful and productive conversations on same-sex relationships.