Africa-Press – Zambia. Once again, Tuesday to be precise, folks will be turning up at the Showgrounds in the nation’s capital and indeed other locations around the country to commemorate the so-called national day of prayers, repentance and reconciliation. As usual, we shall be treated to spectacles of sprit-filled adherents ‘yelling out’ memorized prayers, rendition of scriptures by the papas…….and of course, flowery speeches from the politicians as a phalanx of TV and radio reporters and photojournalists jostle around for vantage positions on the podium.
Is it really necessary to stretch ourselves to extremes to prove that we are indeed a prayerful people? Mathew 6:5 puts it clear, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.” Do we then still have to be stiff necked and keep on entertaining such a charade? Who’s fooling who?
Anyway…..before the naïve and gullible ones gather the first rocks and stone us or find sjamboks to lynch us; we’ve a few important questions that require immediate answers! How has the declaration of the ‘national day of prayers,’ impacted our lives, particularly the usual suspects – the politicians? If we may call a spade a spade; during the last 7 years of PF in power, we were able to witness how our leaders engaged in the most ‘ungodly’ acts parallel to Sodom and Gomorrah even as they encouraged us to close our eyes and pray. The list of their transgressions is endless – they dipped their dirty paws in the kitty for their selfish benefit; they wantonly nurtured the bitter seed of polarization for political expediency; they unleashed mayhem and havoc against citizens using the police and party cadres – including gassing them during their sleep; they were quick to condemn civil servants to squalor and poverty for belonging to what they considered as ‘wrong’ tribes; they enjoyed life of splendor and opulence as the majority of our people wallowed in abject poverty, and haboured corrosive hatred for their opponents to the extent of referring to them as cows!
What’s so Christian about such awful conduct? Our biggest problem as Africans is our tendency to always hide our inability or shortcomings in prayer! Even as a raging infernal threatens to engulf the entire building, we’d rather kneel down in total supplication as opposed to springing into action to douse the flames. Doesn’t Ecclesiastes remind us that there’s a time for everything? Those resources that will be going up in flames in terms of allowances, time, fuel and other logistics on Tuesday would produce sterling results if put to better use. Imagine if all of us ganged up to clean our communities and plant trees; wouldn’t our country be better than Rwanda? Imagine if we discarded our suits or designer labels for a while and put our hands on the deck, wouldn’t our country be transformed into the bread basket of the region? Imagine if we put our heads together to interrogate the conundrum of youth unemployment, would our youths still be languishing with joblessness?
Let us stop deceiving ourselves with the notion that if abdicate our responsibilities and keep on praying unceasingly, then boom – 3 square meals a day for everyone, jobs galore for our youth while horrific crime will be reduced to zero! Wake up man, it doesn’t work like that!
The New Dawn Administration is better off concentrating on its core mandate of delivering goods and services to our people like they are already doing than sticking a thumb in religion. If you are still insisting status quo remains intact, aren’t we willfully contradicting with what the Bible teaches in Mark 12:17, “Well then,” Jesus said, “give to Caeser what belongs to Caeser, and give to God what belongs to God.”
If any of us have sinned or indeed injured others in any way, the best venue to pray and repent or indeed seek reconciliation isn’t the stadium, but the temple! Mulekutika? You can’t police people to pray lest you’ll be mocking God! As a matter of fact, most civil servants that would pitch up for such prayers, especially in the previous regime, didn’t go there with pure hearts since they were coerced in doing so. Immediately these prayers were done, you’d see senior government and party officials dashing to the pubs to ‘quench’ their throats.
Government must just be bold enough to scrap off this bogus and otherwise tax consuming activity. Why must we make it mandatory for people to turn up for prayers when they are already doing so on other days of the week, January to December? Equally, the clergy mustn’t just be quick to condemn or judge the state over such matters, but endeavor to do what is right even at the risk of foregoing any fringe benefits.
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