Fri, 09 Jun 2017 14:27:41 +0000
By ROGERS KALERO
MOST clergymen were more interested in receiving money from politicians at the expense of preaching the right message of upholding peace, love and unity in diversity, Bishop Aaron Phiri of the Brethren Evangelism Ministries, has told the Commission of Inquiry on Voting Patterns and Electoral Violence.
Bishop Phiri told the Commission of Inquiry that failure by the church to preach the right message on how political players should conduct themselves during and after elections
led to the sad voting patterns and violence.
Making a submission before commission chairperson Munalula Lisimba, Bishop Phiri said the church was to be blamed for the rise in violence and voting patterns experienced in the country because, apart from getting interested in receiving money from politicians, other clergymen took a partisan stance.
“As a church, we were more interested in receiving money from politicians than preaching the message of unity and peace. We feared to tell the politicians the truth because we thought if we tell them the truth of upholding unity and peace, they will not give us money.
“So, we as the church, we are to blame because we failed to give direction to the politicians on how they should conduct themselves during and after elections especially on preaching love, reconciliation and dialogue,” Bishop Phiri said.
He said it was sad that the church which was supposed to give direction to political leaders and help them to co-exist had lamentably failed to preach love, forgiveness and reconciliation before, during and after the 2016 elections.
He said if the church had preached the right message there would not have been such conflicts amongst political players as they would oblige and stick to the counsel from the church.
Bishop Phiri said clergymen must avoid engaging in partisan politics because doing so would lead to society losing confidence in the the church itself.
“As clergymen, we should be inspirational through our actions. We should continue to gain and hold the confidence of the public. If we continue to take a partisan stance because of our desire for money, people will lose confidence in us, men of God.
“People will now lose confidence in us men of God because of our involvement in politics. Why can’t we continue giving direction to politicians if we see them going wrong, instead of joining them in doing wrong things because of our desire for money?” he said.
