Who is the ‘Almighty God’ in Zim Constitution?

12 Mar, 2017 - 00:03 0 Views
Who is the ‘Almighty God’ in Zim Constitution? Sunday Mail

The Sunday Mail

Shingai Rukwata Ndoro Chiseling the Debris
IN this article, a submission is made that the affirmation in a constitution’s preamble of an “Almighty God” violates the principles of secularity and human diversity and inclusivity because it assumes that every citizen of a country is theistic and therefore agrees to the existence of a God.

In 2013, Zimbabwe had a national referendum that passed a new constitution. Within it, there is a preamble. By literal definition, a preamble is “a preliminary introduction to a constitution, statute or formal document”.

The preamble of the Constitution of Zimbabwe has, among various statements, the following affirmations: “Acknowledging the supremacy of Almighty God, in whose hands our future lies … And, imploring the guidance and support of Almighty God, hereby make this Constitution and commit ourselves to it as the fundamental law of our beloved land.”

This was, unfortunately, adopted for the national school pledge.

Zimbabwe is a secular republic (Section 1) and a constitutional democracy (section 3(a)) with a constitutional guarantee of freedom of assembly and association (section 58), and freedom of thought and conscience (section 60).

God is religiously assumed (thus not factual) as a humanoid force with superior powers over the lives of people, is claimed to determine a future by supplication, guides and support lives, and is owed unquestioning submission and obedience.

This English word “God” (originally common Germanic “Gott/Gawd/Gaud”) was imported into Christianity after the 9th century.

“Gad is a Syrian or Canaanite deity of good luck or fortune. In Hebrew, it is written GD, but with Masoretic vowel-pointing, it gives us ‘Gad’. Other Scriptural references to a similar deity, also written GD, have a vowel-pointing giving us ‘Gawd’ or ‘God’. Gad is identified with Jupiter, the Sky-deity or the Sun-deity.” (Tyndale Archive)

The 11th edition of “Encyclopaedia Britannica (1910–11) says, “God — the common Teutonic word for a personal object of religious worship … applied to all those superhuman beings of the heathen mythologies. The word ‘god’ on the conversion of the Teutonic races to Christianity was adopted as the name of the one Supreme Being…”

Webster’s 20th Century Dictionary (Unabridged 1st Edition – 1938), says, “The word is common to Teutonic tongues … It was applied to heathen deities and later, when the Teutonic peoples were converted to Christianity, the word was elevated to the Christian sense.”

James Hastings in “Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics” (1908-1927) adds, “After the conversion of the Teutons to Christianity the word came to be applied also to the Christian Deity … Its etymology and its original meaning are obscure, and have been much debated.”

JGR Forlong in “Faiths of Man, a Cyclopaedia of Religions” (1906) on “God” says, “It is remarkable that philologists are unable to decide the origin of this familiar Teutonic word.”

According to Julius Pokorny’s “Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch” (The Indo-European Etymological Dictionary) only one German word resembles “god” and this is “ghodh”; and this word means “sexual union or mating”.

According to “Luneburger Wörterbuch, the following are the same word: “gott, got, gode, gade, god and guth (gud).”

Before the importation of the Germanic term “gott/gawd/gaud” into Christianity, Christians had it in Latin as “deus”, derived from the word “deiuos” which refers to the idea of a luminous sky or radiance.

In Greek, the humanoid force that created and sustains the universe and life was generically called “theos” (Strong’s Greek Concordance #G2316).

So when someone mentions “God” in your presence, where possible make it known that “God” is a common Germanic (Teutonic) mythical ancestor (“gott/gawd/gaud”), a Germanic “union, even sexual union (to mate)” (“ghodh/ghadh”) or a deity of fortune and luck (“gad”) for the Syrians or Canaanites (Isaiah 65:11) associated with the Greek Zeus (Strong’s Concordance #G2203) and the Roman Jupiter.

“God” is ananthropological or humanoid figure imagined by some obscure Europeans derived from the creative myths of ancient civilisations. A commonly used word doesn’t make it true for continued usage for both secular humanist and religious references.

The Republic of Zimbabwe cannot constitutionally use public resources to compel anyone to subscribe to a colonial humanoid figure.

What kind of an identity is that for confident Africans with individual and collective agency who immortalise a colonial humanoid creature?

Further reading:

Craig Bluemel, “The Origin of the English Word for God”

www.bibleanswerstand.org/God.htm <http://www.bibleanswerstand.org/God.htm>

JGR Forlong, “Rivers of Life, or Sources and Streams of the Faiths of Man in all Lands, showing the Evolution of Faiths from the Rudest Symbolisms to the Latest Spiritual Developments” (1883)

Feedback: [email protected] and Twitter @shingaiRndoro. A gallery of previous articles is found at www.sundaymail.co.zw/author/shingairukwata

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