The Sunday Mail
Last week’s article, “Zimbabwe is NOT a Christian nation” has prompted heated conversations. I would have been concerned if there were no responses. I wish to further explain!
First, it is a fact that Zimbabwe is a Republic and a constitutional democracy — not a theocracy.
Second, it is constitutionally guaranteed that every citizen and resident has a freedom of thought and conscience, religious and non-religious.
Third, fair-minded and good-natured people will recognise that every citizen has freedom of association, religious and non-religious. This country is religiously plural and culturally diverse. The disregard of the religious plurality and cultural diversity of a country is what feeds hate, conflicts, hostility and animosity!
Fourth, it is recognisable that there are no constitutional or legal privileges for any religious persuasion and affiliation or lack of it.
Fifth, it needs no emphasis that all religious organisations are as good as any other non-religious, private and voluntary associations. Constitutionally, being Christian is exactly the same as non-Christian and non-religious. All are human beings!
Sixth, it is easily observable that Christianity is a very popular religion because of the accident of history.
Zimbabwe was once a colony of a Western country — then a Christian state, Britain. Christianity still has sustained and protected colonial advantages and privileges and the cultural basis for most public holidays.
This is unconstitutional in Zimbabwe. It is these kind of majoritarian and monolithic tendencies that create hate, discrimination and conflicts all over the world.
Christians need to understand that they face too many risks if another religion becomes radicalised and militant against it.
Nigeria and Central African Republic are experiencing some gruesome deaths because of such religious discrimination and intolerance.
Seventh, the religious preference (a domain of personal and private life) of prominent figures has been used to discriminate against those who are not Christian and the non-religious.
How is the discrimination and dehumanisation done? Through majoritarian and monolithic religious tendencies, Christians proselyte in every space available in national events, public media, education system’s religious curriculum devoid of a multi-faith and comparative studies approach, assemblies at schools owned by government and local authorities, and in popular culture.
Despite the colonial monolithic position of Christianity, some Christians still feel very threatened and always plays a victim. Is that not being paranoid?
Substantively, the country is secular but the cultural or observational outlook may provide a false basis for the argument that the country is Christian because of the unconstitutional and coercive conduct of government with its discriminatory Christian bias. Secularism allows “all religions freedom to practise and freedom from persecution”.
The same outlook ignores the fact that many Africans who are in the majority as a population conduct themselves socially outside Christian validation and framing in respect of the rites of passage — marriage, birth, maturity, death, etc.
This is what is called religious syncretism. It is not possible that a person is both a Christian and Moslem, or Moslem and Jewish, but Africans can belong to the Abrahamic faiths and partake of the traditional customs.
Eighth, there are some false and dubious statistics lacking scientific basis, facts and evidence that have been used to claim a majoritarian position of Christianity and this has been used to discriminate and dehumanise against other religions and the non-religious.
According Nick Spencer, writing on religious statistics, “religion (has a three-fold division which) involves cognitive elements (what we believe), social elements (how we define ourselves) and behavioural elements (what we do) . . . (it is) important to draw distinctions between belief, affiliation and practice . . . Take belief . . . You cannot simply ask people whether they believe in (the Divine) or not.
Putting aside the inevitable response: “What do you mean by (the Divine)?” (something that can only be explored properly by qualitative research), belief is not a binary thing, like a light-switch. The interesting question is not so much whether people believe, but how strongly. . .” — The Guardian, 9 June 2009.
So far the available statistics about how many Christians there are in Zimbabwe, are based on manufactured data because measuring religiosity is a broad and complex matter. What kind of religiosity are they measuring? There are three religious things to measure – cognitive elements (beliefs), affiliation or conduct/practice. What are those statistics used for?
Statisticians normally mistake being a “theist” (acknowledgement and recognition of the Divine) and “religious” (affiliation with a religious organisation while considering the Divine as humanoid ready to reward or punish).
My article did not invalidate nor attack Christianity. It was a constitutional call to Christians not to invalidate and dehumanise fellow human beings of other religions and those who are non-religious because it’s hateful, hurtful and discriminatory.
The article affirmed and advanced a constitutional position for the benefit of all. Our constitution is very progressive and it robustly protects the voluntary, private and personal space for which the religious domain is part of.
For feedback, [email protected], and read more of his writings on www.shingaindoro.blogspot.com
