{"id":7704,"date":"2021-10-14T00:29:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T00:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera"},"modified":"2021-10-15T00:48:08","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T00:48:08","slug":"churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera","title":{"rendered":"Churches should not harass people with different beliefs \u2013 Chakwera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\">Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>President Lazarus Chakwera says churches should not use the state as a weapon to harass people who have different views on moral and social issues. Chakwera made the remarks this morning when he presided over ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of Malawi Assemblies of God Church headquarters in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n<p>The Malawi leader, who used to be president of the Malawi Assemblies of God Church and remains an ordained minister of the church, said practicing one\u2019s faith is not a licence for depriving other people of their freedom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll faith bodies should exercise their constitutional right to enjoy freedom of worship and conscious without harassing others who do not share their conviction on moral and social issues and without using the state as a weapon for harassing them,\u201d said Chakwera.<\/p>\n<p>He also appealed to faith groups to take a lead in the fight against corruption by practicing their faith\u2019s values and tenets at home, at work and whenever seeking government service. Chakwera noted that people who seek bribes and public servants who steal government funds are also members of faith bodies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf every church-going Malawian refused to cut corners or take bribes or pay bribes, Malawi would have the cleanest government on earth and live up to its aspiration to be a God-fearing country,\u201d said Chakwera.<\/p>\n<p>The president in his speech described churches as institutions that sustains unity and the moral fabric of society. He promised churches that his government will support them with policies and incentives that enable the faith groups to continue being a partner for government in the work of serving Malawians.<\/p>\n<p>On the head office, Chakwera congratulated the church for being self-sustaining by depending on contributions from its membership. He added that the building will add beauty to the city of Lilongwe<\/p>\n<p>Speaking earlier, deputy president of the church, Rev Dr Benito Chisamba said President Lazarus Chakwera needs divine cover and protection and needs to operate with divine wisdom.<\/p>\n<p>He assured Chakwera that the church will continue praying for the president and the Tonse Alliance Administration. \u201cWe assure you sir, that we will be the unseen army of prayer warriors on your behalf,\u201d says deputy president of the church, Rev Dr Benito Chisamba.<\/p>\n<p>The five-storey head office of the Malawi Assemblies of God Church is expected to cost K800 million. President Chakwera today donated K2 million towards construction of the church. s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera says churches should not use the state as a weapon to harass people who have different views on moral and social issues. Chakwera made the remarks this morning when he presided over ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of Malawi Assemblies of God Church headquarters in Lilongwe. The Malawi leader, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,371,306,234,2868,848],"class_list":["post-7704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-lazarus-chakwera","tag-malawi","tag-malawi-assemblies-of-god-church","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Churches should not harass people with different beliefs \u2013 Chakwera - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Lazarus Chakwera says churches should not use the state as a weapon to harass people who have different views ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Churches should not harass people with different beliefs \u2013 Chakwera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Lazarus Chakwera says churches should not use the state as a weapon to harass people who have different views ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-14T00:29:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-15T00:48:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/10\/img-6168cfa76c736.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Churches should not harass people with different beliefs \u2013 Chakwera\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-14T00:29:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-15T00:48:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\"},\"wordCount\":409,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/10\/img-6168cfa76c736.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Lazarus Chakwera\",\"Malawi\",\"Malawi Assemblies of God Church\",\"religion\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/churches-should-not-harass-people-with-different-beliefs-chakwera\",\"name\":\"Churches should not harass people with different beliefs \u2013 Chakwera - 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