If all the people, church organisations and groups who call themselves Christian in Zimbabwe were indeed Christian, this country would be heaven on earth.
Sunday Opinion with Pious Wakatama
We wouldn’t need to pray; “Thy kingdom come” anymore, for the Kingdom would indeed have come. Our cities, townships and villages are full of church buildings of all kinds and sizes, which are well-attended on Sundays. Some of the groups don’t believe in buildings and meet under trees or at homesteads. The other day while driving in Chitungwiza, I tried to count the church groups I saw meeting in the open but soon lost count. The press is also full of miracle-working prophets, bishops and pastors who draw thousands of followers to their services. There are so many people who call themselves Christian in this country that some of their leaders proudly refer to Zimbabwe as a “Christian country”. The question is; is it?
The older churches were founded by white missionaries and colonialists from the United States and Europe. They are organised in denominations reflecting their colonial background e.g the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, Dutch Reformed Church, Salvation Army, the Baptist Church, Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Methodist Church and many others.
Most of these are organised into or come under umbrella bodies like the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches. In 2006, in response to the ungodly crisis and suffering in Zimbabwe, these umbrella church bodies, referring to themselves together as “the church”, worked together and published a document called The Zimbabwe We Want.
In this document they claimed that they were the conscience of society. They wrote, “As a religious organisation, the church embraces the vast majority of the people of Zimbabwe. It is closest to the people.
They trust their religious leadership and we can claim to know their desires and aspirations better than any other organisation. Together we know every home and every family, including non-Christians. We can therefore be their voice, and perhaps the only credible voice they have.”
The document is an honest and graphic description of the ills besetting Zimbabwe. However, the direct cause of those ills is not defined. For instance, corruption is described as “self-benefiting conduct by people or entities in positions of responsibility, both in the private and public sector.” It went on, “Both the President and the Governor of the Reserve Bank have continually spoken about the need to uproot corruption from society.”
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It is also an impassioned plea to Almighty God to “bless the nation of Zimbabwe and grant it the faith, the vision and the courage to build a Zimbabwe that is free, tolerant, peaceful, prosperous and God-fearing.”
The Zimbabwe We Want document was launched at a ceremony full of pomp and majesty in 2006.
The VIP in attendance was President Robert Mugabe. From that day up to now, nothing has been heard about it. It is as dead as a dodo together with all the serious commitments made by the so-called church.
In the meantime, Zimbabwe continues to groan in her ever-deepening agony. When you really hurt, you don’t cry out or wail loudly. You groan. One can then legitimately ask, “Was this document authored by the genuine church of Jesus Christ or by a fake one?”
Apart from the denominational church as represented by the umbrella bodies, there are thousands of churches founded by Africans.
A few of them broke away from the denominational churches planted among Africans by white missionaries and colonists. They were led by young African leaders who rebelled against the racial discrimination of their white colleagues. The theological teachings of these churches is not different from the protestant tradition of their missionary founded mother churches.
However, the majority of these indigenous churches cannot even be called Christian because they do not believe in the Bible, in Jesus Christ or in Christian theology. Their teachings are a hodge-podge of Christian teachings, traditional ancestor worship and witchcraft. Among them are most indigenous apostolic churches which are split into several sects.
They believe in polygamy and child marriage. In these churches everything goes. The only serious sins they preach against are smoking and drinking.
However, these apostolic churches form a very important segment of Zimbabwean society. While campaigning during last year’s elections President Mugabe, a Roman Catholic from childhood, had to woo their votes by attending their services bedecked in their white robes, complete with the shepherd’s staff. Today a good number of them are Zanu-PF rally-attending faithfuls.
For this, their leaders are said to have been rewarded with farms. One of these sects, Johanne Masowe weChishanu led by Madzibaba Ishmael Mufani, recently beat up policemen who had come to their service to enforce a ban on their church because of reported cases of child-abuse. Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri described them as “shameful, ungodly and loathsome elements.”
What is rather surprising is that Chihuri is a member of an apostolic sect.
Also to be found among the churches in Zimbabwe are “spiritual” churches started by clever conmen whose sole aim is to make money from an ignorant and gullible population. The dire economic situation in the country is driving our smart young people into all manner of avenues in order to survive. Many who could not find jobs are now pastors, bishops and prophets. They claim to perform miracles and foretell future events through prophesy. Some have millions of followers and have become very rich.
They have become celebrities who drive the latest cars and live in posh houses. They teach that if you give your money to them, God will bless you and you will become rich. This is called “the prosperity gospel”.
With all this confusion within the Christian religion, can one then say there are no true Christians and no church? No. If there were no Christians and no churches Zimbabwe would have broken into civil war long ago.
The country is being sustained by the presence of real Christians who accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and the presence of His Holy Spirit.
These are people who do not try to, but do follow His teaching, which is; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” These people are the true Church and not any human organisation even though they may belong to various church organisations. He, who has ears to hear let him hear!
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