One very important thing the Christian church brought to this part of the world is education.
The church started the early schools in all parts of our homeland. And to this day, we still have many schools that are run by the church. The Catholic Church, the Seventh Day Adventist, the United Church of Zambia and other church organisations have made a very huge contributions to education in this country. And these churches are still making great contribution to education and health services in our country. This is commendable. Our country will eternally be grateful to these churches and their early missionaries. We also need to commend them and support them for their continued commitment and contribution to education and health services in this country. Today, we do have a number of universities, albeit small, that have been started by church organisations. This deserves respect for the church and its organisations.
Bishop Joe Imakando
And most of these churches that are building gigantic church structures are churches that have no social programmes whatsoever. For instance, in Western Province today, the biggest and most expensive church structure is owned by a church that despite having a very large membership in the area has never built a single school or clinic.
But today, this church prides itself in having the largest church structure in the province. What is the wisdom behind this? This would look foolish even in the eyes of the Pharisees.
Today we have churches that have turned themselves into business organisations. Of course there is nothing wrong with churches running businesses. But what matters is how the money from such businesses is used. We have churches owning guesthouses and all sorts of businesses all over the country. But what do they do with the money they earn from such businesses? Most of it is spent on the church leadership’s allowances and all sorts of expenses, including the education of their children abroad.
A church which values its congregations affords the highest priority to providing education for all its young members and for all the young people in the areas it is serving.
There is need for our churches to be responsible in the use of the money they receive from their members and other donors. Building gigantic and very expensive church structures in areas where poverty is at its highest is certainly not being responsible. This will certainly not please Christ. It may please the Pharisees but not Christ. The church cannot call others to virtues which itself does not make an effort to practice. We ask our churches to be exemplary and make best use of the resources they collect from their members.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that Christ’s entire doctrine was one of humility. His entire doctrine was devoted to the humble, the poor; his doctrine was devoted to fighting against abuse, injustice and the degradation of human beings.
We believe that we have come to a time when religion can enter the social, economic and political sphere with regard to man and his material needs. We respect convictions, beliefs and explanations. Everyone is entitled to his own position, his own beliefs. But we must work in the sphere of these human problems that interest us all and constitute a duty for all.
How can any spiritual guide of a human collective ignore its vital problems? Christianity can now be a real rather than a utopian doctrine, not a spiritual consolation for those who suffer. Christ spent his time addressing social problems of people. Those who were ill, he cured; those who were hungry, he fed. That is, man’s material need, the basic foundation of life, was the most sacred thing for Jesus. Idolatry deprives human beings of sacredness, transferring it liturgical observances and to the material of the cult, such as the temple. For Jesus, it was impossible to speak of spiritual life apart from the material conditions of existence. There is nothing more sacred than man, the image and likeness of God. A religion that cares for the supposed sacredness of its objects but turns its back on those who are the real temples of the spirit is worthless. To Jesus’ way of thinking, there is nothing more sacred than the right to life.
A church that places its patrimonial interests ahead of the demands of justice, life and the people among whom it is inserted is certainly a church that considers man less important than the Sabbath and, like the Pharisees, reverses evangelical priorities.
There is need for our church to invest in people and not in huge and very expensive church structures when people have no food, good schools and health facilities, when their members do not even have a solid roof over their heads. There is still need for our churches to pay attention to education and health and help government increase its effectiveness in those areas.
A new approach by the church to the social problems affecting our people is needed. There is need to review some pastoral practices and establish new lines of evangelising.
We understand how the old churches were built. These expensive old structures, for most of our churches, were built at a time the church was in league with the rich, the aristocrats in the exploitation of the poor. That history should not be repeated.
This is why today we respect those churches that are taking a correct position on the most serious social problems of our times. It is painful to see very influential Christian churches squander money in the way they are doing when their members are wallowing in poverty, ignorance and disease. And it’s even worse that some of this wastefulness is being perpetrated by church leaders who are products of church education – of course by other churches and not the churches they are today leading.
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