By GUNSTON CHOLA –
ZAMBIA’S declaration of a Christian nation faces a daunting challenge once the new Constitution is enacted.
Indications from the Final Draft are that Zambia has cleverly been drafted into a secular state, while on the surface retaining the Declaration in the Preamble. Seemingly already the gays and lesbians are celebrating that for once the country has taciturnly recognised their existence, albeit still in draft form.
Their high expectations come in the wake of celebrative statements from their backers the Grand Coalition of the civil societies including mother church bodies and vocal Western embassies led by the United States, Germany and Sweden whose presence at the recent trial in Kabwe of the Kapiri Mposhi gay couple was unmistakable.
The Grand Coalition was ecstatic that the Final Draft Constitution has included almost all their recommendations. This cannot be the 50+1 or the parentage clause but the rights and freedoms in the so-called expanded Bill of rights. Amidst the celebrations Zambians have remained non-committal and unresponsive.
But the unfortunate part is that this has been achieved with the approval of professing Christians through their representatives the Evangelical Churches in Zambia (ECZ) and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) aligning the faithful to the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), avowed critic of the Declaration.
President Fredrick J.T Chiluba on 21 December 1991declared Zambia a Christian nation, a declaration strongly opposed by some traditional churches which saw in it a charismatic challenge, needless and without merit, amid widespread criminal activities and transgression.
The strongest criticism came from the Catholic Bishops whose Pastoral Letter challenged the validity of the declaration stating it lacked consultation and consensus. Dr Chiluba countered he did not require anybody’s or church’s permission to make the declaration.
The declaration hitherto has weathered further challenges. The Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) recommended for its scrapping and declaring Zambia a secular state. But President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa rejected the recommendation and insisted it stands.
It seems what elates many Zambians, especially Christians in the Final Draft Constitution is maintaining the Declaration in the Preamble. It is a faux pas camouflaging a deeper trench on the highway. The declaration now faces a much stiffer challenge.
Lest I be branded alarmist, my fear stems from a news item from Gaborone carried by the Sunday Times of Zambia of November 16, 2014, Botswana ordered to register gay group. It will bear witness to this prophecy of torment and brimstone fire and why the celebrated expanded Bill of Rights will lead Zambia into a catastrophe and anger from God.
On Friday, a Botswana High Court ordered the government to register and recognise the country’s first gay and lesbian lobby group, in a case testing the country’s strict anti-homosexuality laws. A group of activists approached the court to rule on the matter after the Home Affairs ministry rejected an application to register the Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO).
In his verdict, Judge Terrence Rannowane said “refusal to register LEGABIBO was not treasonably justifiable under the constitution. It is also not a crime to be a homosexual,” declared the judge. He ruled that government’s refusal to register the group had “violated the applicants’ rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly” under the country’s constitution.
The article adds that Botswana is touted as one of Africa’s most democratic nations, yet homosexuality is outlawed under the penal code of 1965, and punishable by a prison term of up to seven years. The judge added that lobbying for legislative reforms was not a crime.
Interestingly, the group that drafted the new Constitution revealed that they had extensively travelled in the region and included articles that were reigning in neighbouring countries. The judgment inn Botswana High Court merely goes to show what is expected in the Zambian High Court.
The Bill of Rights in the Final Draft Constitution begins from Article 24 and runs up to Article 71.
Article 32: Protection of privacy of persons, home, property and communication clauses (d) and (e); Article 33: Freedom of conscience, belief and religion (clause 2); Article 34: Freedom of expression and Article 65: Non derogable rights and freedoms (clause c) freedom of conscience, belief and religion, are among those varying legislatures upon which the Zambians campaigners of gay rights will feast.
From the onset, Christians must be aware of this warning: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and received his mark in the forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb,” Revelations 14:9-10.
Remember that when President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni signed into law Acts that outlaw homosexuality, US Secretary of State John Kerry bemoaned their disregard of existence of the freedom of expressions, association and assembly in their constitutions.
The United States and campaigners of gay rights know that the only weapon available is including, in the constitution, freedoms of expression, of association and of assembly. Of these three there is no defence.
It is, therefore, alarming that the church mother bodies ECZ and EFZ are not aware that throughout the Christendom, Protestantism is a menace to some churches, operating subtly, in pursuit of fresh inquisition of those who followed Martin Luther’s reformation.
It is further perplexing that people who provide leadership to Christians can easily forget a historical fact that for 1,260 years, the Bible was a proscribed book, denied to the majority except a selected few. Today they stand together to shred Jesus’s works, cavorting with the devil, in dismantling the declaration and introduce devilish alien cultures.
Many students of European history will recall Prince Metternich of Prussia and the Congress of Vienna, attended by Russia, Prussia, Austria and Pope Pius V11, and the resultant “Holy Alliance”.
Destroying popular governments was the goal of the Congress held from 1814 -1815 and ensuing meetings of Verona (1822) and Chieri (1825).
In his book, The Secret Terrorists, Bill Hughes quotes Burke McCarty The Suppressed Truth About the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Arya Varta Publishing 1924, that the Congress of Verona was held to ratify Article Six of the Congress of Vienna, which in short promised to prevent or destroy Popular Governments wherever found, and reestablish monarchy where it had been set aside.
McCarty writes that although the meetings were held with much secrecy, one man a British Foreign minister George Canning who attended the first two, baulked and contacted the United States government to warn them that monarchs of Europe were planning to destroy free institutions of America.
The Holy Alliance’s first task was to restore the monarchs in Spain and Italy which declared themselves republics. Next in line was the United States which on July 4, 1776 had declared its independence from the British crown. America’s offence were two documents – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution – both filled with Protestant declarations which Rome found absolutely intolerable. Vatican condemned the Declaration of Independence as wickedness and the Constitution a satanic document.
The resolution from the meeting at Chieri should be frightening enough to any Christian. “What we aim at, is the Empire of the World… We must give them (the great men of earth) to understand that the cause of evil, the bad leaven, will remain as long as Protestantism shall exist, that Protestantism must, therefore, be utterly abolished.
“Heretics are the enemies that we are bound to exterminate… Then the Bible says that serpent which with head erect and eyes flashing threatens us with venom while it trails along the ground, shall be changed into a rod as soon as we are able to seize it,” writes Hector Macpherson, The Jesuits History, Ozark Book Publishers, 1997, as quoted by Hughes.
Today this empire of the world is not coming through the congresses breathing fire and using such strong words, but through unsuspecting organizations such as ECZ and EFZ. But with one aim, to weaken thegovernments by introducing evil legislations such as same sex relationships through set freedoms.
When Martin Luther broke up links with Rome it was to assert the supremacy of the Bible. Luther declared the Bible was the only standard for all doctrine and practice, and a person is justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Is this too hard for ECZ and EFZ to comprehend? “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil,” (I John 3:8, KJV).
Homosexual is evil, is a work of the devil, an affront against humanity. It is impossible that a God that bans unclean discharges from the body (Leviticus 15; 18) can tolerate homosexuals (Leviticus 18: 22-24)
whose sentence is death (Leviticus 20: 13-24), and can accept his own elect to stand in council to proclaim rights of homosexuals in Zambia.
“And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him and arrayed him in gorgeous robe, and sent him to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves,” (Luke 23: 11, 12 KJV).
The arrest and death of Jesus had indeed brought together people who were enemies. And how true, the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), that has lived apart, can find comfort in the bosom of erstwhile strange bedfellows the EFZ and ECZ, if it is not to discuss a most horrible of topics, rights for gays and lesbians.
“The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ… For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,” (Acts 4: 26, 27 KJV).
They came together to pass judgment over Jesus much as the three church mother bodies had gathered to decide Zambia’s fate, damning as abomination, the relationships as meant by the Creator. It only remains to the Members of Parliament and a referendum to hammer in a death knell in the declaration.
Indeed when Dr Chiluba declared Zambia a Christian nation he took Zambia to the highest pedestal of expectations. It is imperative therefore a president emerging after the 20 January, 2015 by-election must publicly invoke and renew the declaration.
Pastor Malama Zulu of the Ndola Worship Centre Pentecostal Assemblies of God Zambia (PAOGZ) prays for such a president. At a recent Zambia National Broadcasting Services (ZNBC) Bemba programme Kabusha, on November 16, one of the presenters alluded to the fact that when Dr Chiluba made the declaration he set Zambia up against evil forces.
Pastor Malama Zulu believes Mr Sata’s death is prophetic. Had he known his fate he could probably not have allowed his portrait to appear on the commemorative K50 note along with former presidents Dr Kaunda, Dr Chiluba, Dr Mwanawasa and Rupiah Banda.
In his numerous teachings on the jubilee based on Leviticus 25: 8-13, 25-28, Pastor Malama believes it is not coincident that in 50 years Zambia had five presidents who have served exactly 50 years among them.
“The Golden Jubilee has a great significance for Zambia. It is a time of liberty (freedom), restoration and repossessing the land. It is a time for Zambians and the government to reflect on the events of the past 50 years and make amends where necessary.
“It is also not a coincident that 50 years ago Zambia gained her independence from the British (white) after a fight and 50 years down the lane a white man takes over, albeit for 90 days, and immediately causes a stir in the nation,” he says alluding to the sacking of Edgar Lungu.
The pastor is convinced that the happenings in the country were spiritual. At its birth the founding fathers dedicated the nation to God as seen through the National Anthem. Along the way Dr Kaunda digressed and brought in the oriental cult in State House thus building a new altar before. Dr Chiluba’s declaration only unsettled the devil.
Dr Chiluba thus entered into a Covenant with God on behalf of Zambians which every ensuing president must enforce. It is imperative that any incoming president must pay attention to the Covenant to survive. We serve a jealous God and the declaration is not placatory.
“People who know the altars are not people to play with. Altars are where spirits land and take off. They are a place of victory, a place where one encounters God and a place where God keeps his data,” Pastor Malama, enthused recalling Gideon’s encounters with God in Judges 6 from verse 12. Christians, it is time to fight back and end the smug on the face of the lord of the ring.