Dear Pastor,

I want to hail you. I read your column all the time and you are doing a good job, although I believe that sometimes you are not fair. I read a letter in your column about "gallis boy" and you said that he should learn to keep his penis in his pants. That is not fair. He is not the one to end all those relationships. He is not the one who is leaving the girls. The girls are the ones playing him. I think you should ask why the ladies were not staying, then you could judge him.

I have noticed that you keep sending people with problems to other people, but a man of God should know that only prayer and meditation can solve these problems. Talk about God more than about man.

Bless up and take care!

Regular Reader

Dear Regular Reader,

I appreciate your letter and I thank you for reading my column. I try to be fair and to hold a balance at all times. But you don't feel that I am fair and you are entitled to your opinion. From the overwhelming response that I have received from home and abroad, I know that you are in the minority. However, I should not ignore the opinion of anyone who is in the minority, so thank you for expressing your views.

I know you are confused. If you were not confused, you would not disagree with me for telling the young man to keep his penis in his pants. As a religious man, I would have thought that you would have agreed with me, so whether it is the women who are "playing" this guy or the guy is wild and very promiscuous, you should support my position. Remember, you are a god-fearing man and a god-fearing man should not support or encourage a young man to have many women at the same time. So you see, you are contradicting yourself, but again, I thank you for expressing yourself.

I also know that you do not understand why I refer some people who write me to other professionals.

You see, sir, as a counsellor, one of my solemn responsibilities is to do referrals. Any counsellor who is worth his salt knows that he has to do referrals because he does not know everything, neither can he do everything. He cannot meet everybody in person and have counselling sessions with them; but other counsellors can.

You see, sir, unlike you, I know that God has raised up professionals in every sphere of work to meet the needs of people. There are those like you who believe that when people are having problems all that is necessary for them to do is to pray. So you, and others like you, need to learn that while prayer has its place, it cannot stand alone. The lawyers, doctors, psychologists, financial advisers, teachers, preachers, building contractors, civil servants, journalists, farmers, social workers, politicians, etc, are all ordained by God to carry out functions that make the world a better place.

Pastor