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AS the year begins we are told that Christian churches are religiously committed to praying for peace in Zimbabwe. That is commendable. However, I have misgivings about the connotation of prayer by the clerics, under the prevailing circumstances.
Prayer implies that the person committed to it would be inviting godliness in his/her character, so that the presence of God would accordingly be felt among ordinary people living their lives in godlessness. Our environment shows the effects of godlessness, notwithstanding that this country is acclaimed for Christian practitioners.
Typical of those professing to be Christians is their desire to see peace prevailing without contributing anything to its cause. “Let us pray, so that God would make our politicians behave properly,” is the common phrase by most of those in the Christian domain. As a result, our modern day Christians are also caught up suffering from the effects of the politicians’ actions. They sit in the comfort that their kingdom is not of this world, hoping that very soon God would deliver them from the evil politicians who govern them badly. To me, this is misunderstanding of scriptures and reneging on responsibility. It is a syndrome of the “them and us” attitude, which reeks of cowardice, if not congenial pride.
In Matthew 5: 13 – 14, Christ clearly said Christians were supposed to realise that they were the salt and the light of the Earth. This implies causing a peaceable environment where there would be misunderstandings, or making a difference where there would be darkness. The level of their saltiness can be measured in stabilising the chaotic environment that prevails; the level of light being the ability to remove the cause of darkness that seems to be currently dominating and guiding the political activities on day-to-day basis. Where are our clerics when social, political and economic chaos reign supreme, affecting the general populace?
Christians appear oblivious of the law of cause and effect. Any person can cause violence and yet any other person can also bring about peace. Christianity suggests that those converted into it stand for peace, truth and righteousness. Standing for peace, truth and righteousness cannot be viewed as a casual matter. It calls for personal sacrifice with desire to see other people freed from the prevailing challenges than simply enjoying living in the comfort of personal salvation. Praying for peace gives an impression that the person would be committed to freeing people from their misfortunes, just as James counsels:
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” (James 2: 14 – 22 NIV).
Wouldn’t Christianity make a lot of difference if clerics were to be seen in the forefront of political activism in the country? The Christian practitioners of today seem to be engaged only in advising their parishioners to stay away from politics and avoid trouble, yet the prisons and lashings were known to be commonly attached to the first century Christians.
The clerics seem to enjoy the comfort of such dubious Christian activities without realising that theirs is a call of stepping out of the comfort zones, to reverse the cause of the suffering populace, instead of just praying and hoping that the unreligious people would somehow change the environment for the better. Christianity should be understood to be a practical faith seeking to change the environment and not seeking to be changed by the environment.
Christians may not necessarily have to run for political offices, but they should be highly influential to those who run for such offices; although nothing should hinder them from doing so. When they pray “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” they would be seeking to enforce the will of God by practically engaging themselves for the possibility of the establishment of such a kingdom to take place. Having said this, I would also like to commend those Christians already practising what is being advocated in this submission. But I hope that most of the advocates of “All-night prayers” would adopt the simplicity in that; “prayer without action is futile”.
Andrew Masuku,
Harare.
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