THERE IS NEED TO ENGAGE ALL CHURCHES ON THEIR JURISDICTION UNDER THE SOCIETIES ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

THERE IS NEED TO ENGAGE ALL CHURCHES ON THEIR JURISDICTION UNDER THE SOCIETIES ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATEWe are not done celebrating; so why didn’t the clergy issue a statement or Pastoral letter before the elections ? In Kasama we had some clergy literally going public at a rally campaigning against the government and we picked the information on how they were distributing money to voters to aid the opposition . At that point , we made it clear that whoever is caught will regret as to why chickens have no horns .

This may be the 2026 strategy ; we need to build a robust security system around this as a country before our sovereignty is compromised by the church. The church must not and should never decide political leadership on behalf of citizens. For those who have done political science , you may recall , that such a mistake of allowing the church to decide political leadership was made during the Roman Republic State, and it was agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia , to never again allow that to happen in the world .

The treaty of Westphalia is what gave birth to America’s Civil and Political rights as a foundation of their constitution. It means , the church and the secular world should never jointly run the secular world . To have the church in collusion with the political parties send back voters as experienced in Chawama and as attempted in Kasama is a criminal offence in Zambia !

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There is also need for government to engage leadership of churches, including the Vatican City for the clergy that may be doing similar criminal activities , and also engage those known clergy involved so we establish if that is the approach they want to take in a sovereign state, then enforce available laws . As we have stated before, genocide or peopleKilling each other in Rwanda was started by a Christian Radio station which spread hate speech and focused on negative reporting against government. To date , we have some Christian Radio stations running hate speech programmes and dividing the country in the name of malicious excessive freedom of expression, yet such media fall under the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the state has the power to revoke the licenses.

The danger of using Christian radio stations is that it may create agitation and anxiety where political supporters may want to attack radio stations including presenters, which act is against the UPND foundation . We must not allow ourselves to act after the situation has degenerated into this level. Before it is too late , the IBA must engage such media institutions or we may help them to do that .Having a political opinion as a right should not threaten the rights and freedoms of other people , or our enjoyment of rights should not affect the enjoyment of other people’s rights – this is the principle about enjoyment of rights and freedoms.

Finally , the Societies Act is instructive as to the role of the church and what the church cannot do especially when it comes to taking part in politics , and military activities ; pursuant to the Societies Act , government must begin engaging all the churches on their role and their jurisdiction or boundaries. Our laws in terms of the participation of the church in supporting politicians publicly are not different from those of Rwanda and Russia . We also have the public Order Act which regulate political or public gatherings; therefore , the churches must choose whether to worship so that they are protected by the Societies Act , or discuss politics so that the Public Order can take effect.In Russia , churches that supported regime change were closed under the laws similar to ours .

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