Opinion / Columnist
For there is no authority except from God
27 Aug 2015 at 09:43hrs | Views
On Thursday last week, the MDC faction, led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, launched its policy dialogue forums. In this supposedly interactive programme, the party intends to go to the people to explain its various policies and allow interrogations and debates on them.
Nobody has any misgivings about that. However, the venue for the launch of the programme raises eyebrows. The programme was launched in the house of God, the Anglican Cathedral.
The Holy Bible contains every counsel that gives guidance to human relations and interactions. Unfortunately, the people who are supposed to be better versed in this matter choose to play ignorant. The Anglican Church must read and get divine counsel from the book of Romans chapter 13.
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted," read verses 1 and 2 of Romans Chapter 13.
Although the Anglican Church did not directly rebel against what God has established, it is abetting those who are doing so. By providing the MDC-T with a venue to plot the ouster of an establishment that was ordained by God, the Anglican Church is guilty of complicity.
What the Anglican did is practically the same as sponsoring murder and claiming innocence thereafter. The one who sponsored a murder is as guilty as the one who physically carried it out.
Church and politics must never mix for they are like oil and water. The two are strange bedfellows. The duty of politicians is to create conducive environment for religious liberty to prevail. Conversely, the duty of the church, according to the Bible, is to pray for the leaders who were ordained by God.
It is apparent that the Anglican Church will argue that it is only hiring out its place of worship to generate income. Although it is an enterprising idea, there are some expectations that the church must consider when deciding to venture into moneymaking projects. You cannot expect a church of God to lease its property to a brothel operator. A church that preaches against beer or tobacco is not expected to sell same. That is the Christian principle as enshrined in the Holy Bible.
When Jesus entered the temple of God in Jerusalem and found people buying and selling there, he drove them out and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. He then said: "It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." Indeed, the Anglican cathedral must not be a den of politicians.
What raises clouds of suspicion is that the Anglican has been a bedfellow with the MDC-T in the futile fight against Zanu-PF. When the Anglican Communion in Zimbabwe split over the ordination of gay priests, the Chad Gandiya led faction took a clear stand to condemn President Mugabe and Zanu-PF while aligning itself with MDC-T. The faction erroneously thought the ruling party was in support of Nolbert Kunonga's faction. In so doing, the Anglican Church unwittingly abetted gay gangsterism, as happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Zanu-PF respects the autonomy of religion, thus it did not intervene in the dispute. Besides, the matter was before the courts, making it proper for Zanu-PF to remain as silent as it did.
Ironically, there were more Zanu-PF officials in Gandiya's faction than in Kunonga's. However, the officials who included Government Ministers could not do anything, as the Anglican is not a religious arm of Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF has no favourite among religions or churches. It was just by coincidence that Kunonga and President Mugabe shared the same thought on homosexuality.
The Anglican Church has been seriously politicised and manipulated to divide the people of Zimbabwe. Even the South African Archbishop from the same church, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, exposed his church's intrusion in Zimbabwean politics in 2008 when he called on the unconstitutional removal of President Mugabe.
"I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down'… if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily," Tutu once told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova. Now, here is a man of the cloth, whose contribution to the liberation of his own country has been romanticised by the same Boers against whom Zimbabwe stood solidly against, rebelling against that which has been ordained by God.
The relationship between the Anglican Church and the MDC-T manifested in Chitungwiza in May this year when the youths from that party volunteered themselves to remove Zanu-PF supporters who had settled themselves on the land belonging to St Mary's Anglican Church. The issue later on evolved into a political fight between MDC-T and Zanu-PF youths.
The Anglican Church must realise that its parishioners consist of supporters of both the opposition and the ruling party. It is, therefore, spiritually wrong to use the house of God for political gatherings of a party that is not universally shared by all the parishioners. How are Zanu-PF members expected to feel knowing that the same church building they congregate in provides sanctuary to MDC-T rallies,- where disparaging anti Zanu PF slogans are chanted?
If the Anglican Church is comfortable with hosting political rallies, then it might as well be at ease while hosting nude parties, as long as these rack in the greenback.
The men of cloth at the Anglican Communion must not sell their soul to self-serving MDC-T politicians. By accommodating the politicians who invited misery to their flock, the Anglican Church risks contagion.
The MDC-T is very good at using the church for political expediency. The party has been frantically attempting to profit from the unfortunate unknown whereabouts of Itai Dzamara through the so-called prayer meetings. Regrettably, the MDC-T is not clean in the disappearance of Dzamara.
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Tafara Shumba can be contacted at tafieshumbaz@gmail.com
Nobody has any misgivings about that. However, the venue for the launch of the programme raises eyebrows. The programme was launched in the house of God, the Anglican Cathedral.
The Holy Bible contains every counsel that gives guidance to human relations and interactions. Unfortunately, the people who are supposed to be better versed in this matter choose to play ignorant. The Anglican Church must read and get divine counsel from the book of Romans chapter 13.
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted," read verses 1 and 2 of Romans Chapter 13.
Although the Anglican Church did not directly rebel against what God has established, it is abetting those who are doing so. By providing the MDC-T with a venue to plot the ouster of an establishment that was ordained by God, the Anglican Church is guilty of complicity.
What the Anglican did is practically the same as sponsoring murder and claiming innocence thereafter. The one who sponsored a murder is as guilty as the one who physically carried it out.
Church and politics must never mix for they are like oil and water. The two are strange bedfellows. The duty of politicians is to create conducive environment for religious liberty to prevail. Conversely, the duty of the church, according to the Bible, is to pray for the leaders who were ordained by God.
It is apparent that the Anglican Church will argue that it is only hiring out its place of worship to generate income. Although it is an enterprising idea, there are some expectations that the church must consider when deciding to venture into moneymaking projects. You cannot expect a church of God to lease its property to a brothel operator. A church that preaches against beer or tobacco is not expected to sell same. That is the Christian principle as enshrined in the Holy Bible.
When Jesus entered the temple of God in Jerusalem and found people buying and selling there, he drove them out and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. He then said: "It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." Indeed, the Anglican cathedral must not be a den of politicians.
What raises clouds of suspicion is that the Anglican has been a bedfellow with the MDC-T in the futile fight against Zanu-PF. When the Anglican Communion in Zimbabwe split over the ordination of gay priests, the Chad Gandiya led faction took a clear stand to condemn President Mugabe and Zanu-PF while aligning itself with MDC-T. The faction erroneously thought the ruling party was in support of Nolbert Kunonga's faction. In so doing, the Anglican Church unwittingly abetted gay gangsterism, as happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Zanu-PF respects the autonomy of religion, thus it did not intervene in the dispute. Besides, the matter was before the courts, making it proper for Zanu-PF to remain as silent as it did.
Ironically, there were more Zanu-PF officials in Gandiya's faction than in Kunonga's. However, the officials who included Government Ministers could not do anything, as the Anglican is not a religious arm of Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF has no favourite among religions or churches. It was just by coincidence that Kunonga and President Mugabe shared the same thought on homosexuality.
The Anglican Church has been seriously politicised and manipulated to divide the people of Zimbabwe. Even the South African Archbishop from the same church, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, exposed his church's intrusion in Zimbabwean politics in 2008 when he called on the unconstitutional removal of President Mugabe.
"I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down'… if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily," Tutu once told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova. Now, here is a man of the cloth, whose contribution to the liberation of his own country has been romanticised by the same Boers against whom Zimbabwe stood solidly against, rebelling against that which has been ordained by God.
The relationship between the Anglican Church and the MDC-T manifested in Chitungwiza in May this year when the youths from that party volunteered themselves to remove Zanu-PF supporters who had settled themselves on the land belonging to St Mary's Anglican Church. The issue later on evolved into a political fight between MDC-T and Zanu-PF youths.
The Anglican Church must realise that its parishioners consist of supporters of both the opposition and the ruling party. It is, therefore, spiritually wrong to use the house of God for political gatherings of a party that is not universally shared by all the parishioners. How are Zanu-PF members expected to feel knowing that the same church building they congregate in provides sanctuary to MDC-T rallies,- where disparaging anti Zanu PF slogans are chanted?
If the Anglican Church is comfortable with hosting political rallies, then it might as well be at ease while hosting nude parties, as long as these rack in the greenback.
The men of cloth at the Anglican Communion must not sell their soul to self-serving MDC-T politicians. By accommodating the politicians who invited misery to their flock, the Anglican Church risks contagion.
The MDC-T is very good at using the church for political expediency. The party has been frantically attempting to profit from the unfortunate unknown whereabouts of Itai Dzamara through the so-called prayer meetings. Regrettably, the MDC-T is not clean in the disappearance of Dzamara.
--------------
Tafara Shumba can be contacted at tafieshumbaz@gmail.com
Source - Tafara Shumba
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