Maravi

Don’t quit, stay there and continue doing it

Don’t quit, stay there and continue doing it
By The Post
Tue 28 Dec. 2010, 04:00 CAT

Fr Richard Luonde, an Anglican priest in Kitwe, has both the right and duty to say what he is saying, to do what he is doing and to participate fully in building a just and peaceful society with all the means at his disposal.

Fr Luonde has every right to criticise and denounce that which he feels should be criticised and denounced, just as much Anglican Bishop David Njovu has every right to praise and defend that which he feels should be praised and defended in Rupiah Banda's government. Again, it is a matter of what is good for the goose being good for the gander.

If it is acceptable for an Anglican priest or bishop to praise and defend Rupiah and his government's deeds, it should equally be acceptable for an Anglican priest or bishop to criticise and denounce Rupiah and his government's deeds. If to criticise and denounce is an unacceptable involvement in politics by an Anglican clergyman, to praise and defend should also be seen to be unacceptable. Anyway, it is very easy to praise and defend the powerful than to criticise and denounce them; it is very easy to criticise and denounce the weak, the poor than to praise and defend them.

A good priest, a good bishop should value the democratic system in as much as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate. When a system ceases to promote the common good and favours corrupt interests, a good clergyman must not only denounce injustice but also break with the evil system. And must be prepared to work with another system that is more just, fair, humane and most suited to the needs of the day.

By his example, Christ taught us to live what he preached. Christ preached human solidarity and proclaimed that love should configure all our social structures. Even more importantly, he lived out his message of liberation to its ultimate consequences. He was condemned to death. The power brokers in his nation saw his message of liberation, and the real-life love to which he bore witness, as a serious threat to their economic, social, religious and political interests. Today, as always, the spirit of Christ is actively giving impetus to history.

It shows up in the works of priests like Fr Luonde, in solidarity, in unselfish commitment of those who struggle for liberty and evince authentic love for their suffering brothers and sisters. Truly, we must love everybody, but not everyone the same way; you love the oppressed by liberating them; you love the oppressors, the corrupt, the plunderers, the abusers by fighting them. Love has to be like a classifying device to become universal.

The Church has not only incarnated itself in the world of the poor, giving them hope; it has also firmly committed itself to their defence. The majority of the poor in our country are oppressed and repressed daily by economic and political structures. The terrible words spoken by the prophets of Israel continue to be verified among us. Among us there are those who sell others for money, who sell a poor person for a pair of sandals; those who, in their mansions, pile up violence and plunder, those who crush the poor; those who make the kingdom of violence come closer as they lie on their beds of ivory.

In this situation in which just a few persons control economic and political power, the Church and its priests has no other sensible alternative but to place itself at the side of the poor and undertake their defence. The Church cannot do otherwise, for it remembers that Jesus had pity on the multitude. But by defending the poor it has entered into serious conflict with the politically and financially powerful. And that part of the Church that has put itself on the side of the people and the people's defence has been the target of all sorts of attacks, persecution. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of priests like Fr Luonde: the poor. Once again it is the poor who bring us to understand what has really happened. That is why the Church has understood the persecution from the perspective of the poor.

The persecution has been occasioned by the defence of the poor. It amounts to nothing other than the Church and its priests' taking upon itself the lot of the poor. Real persecution has been directed against the poor, the body of Christ in history today. They, like Jesus, are the crucified, the persecuted servants of God. They are the ones who make up in their own bodies that which is lacking in the passion of Christ. And for this reason when the Church and its priests has organised and united itself around the hopes and anxieties of the poor, it has incurred the same fate as that of Jesus and of the poor: persecution.

The political dimension of the faith is nothing other than the Church's response to the demands made upon it by the de facto socio-political situation in which it exists. What we have discovered is that this demand is a fundamental one for the faith, and that the Church cannot ignore it. That is not to say that the Church should regard itself as a political institution entering into competition with other political institutions, or that it has its own political processes. Nor, much less, is it to say that the Church seeks political leadership. We are talking of something more profound, something more in keeping with the gospel. We are talking about an authentic option for the poor, of becoming incarnate in their world, of proclaiming the good news to them, of giving them hope, of encouraging them to engage in a liberating praxis, of defending their cause and of sharing their fate.

The Church's option for the poor explains the political dimension of the faith in its fundamentals and in its basic outline. And because the Church has opted for the truly poor, not for the fictitiously poor, because it has opted for those who really are oppressed and repressed, the Church lives in a political world, and it fulfils itself as Church also through politics. It cannot be otherwise if the church, like Jesus, is to turn itself toward the poor.

The course taken by Fr Luonde has clearly issued from his faith and conviction. The transcendence of the gospel has guided him in his judgement and in his action. He has judged the social and political situation from the standpoint of the faith. But it is also true, to look at it in another way, that the faith itself has been deepened, that hidden riches of the gospel have been opened, precisely taking up this stance toward socio-political reality such as it is. We are told in Proverbs 31:8-9 : "Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all those who are helpless. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy." Who between Fr Luonde and Bishop Njovu is speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves, the helpless and the needy? Certainly Rupiah and his government have immense capacity, almost unlimited capacity, to speak for themselves. It is the people Fr Luonde is speaking for that have very limited capacity to speak for themselves, to protect their rights.

We see, with great clarity, that here neutrality is impossible. Either we save the lives of Zambians, or we are accomplices in their death. And here what is most fundamental about the faith is given expression in history: either we believe in a God of life, or we serve the idols of death. When the Church inserts itself into the socio-political world, it does so in order to work with it so that from such cooperation life may be given to the poor.

In doing so, therefore, it is not distancing itself from its mission, nor is it doing something of secondary importance or something incidental to its mission. It is giving testimony to its faith in God; it is being instrument of the Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. This faith in the God of life is the explanation of what lies deepest in the Christian history. To give life to the poor, one has to give one's own life, even to give one's life itself. The greatest sign of faith in the God of life is the witness of those who are ready to give up their own life. "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

It is the faith that provides the first impulse to incarnate oneself in the socio-political world of the poor, and gives encouragement to actions that lead to liberation and are also socio-political. And in their own turn that praxis and that incarnation make concrete the basic aspects of the faith.

So the Church has to go on making judgements about politics from within a changing scene. This is the way Fr Luonde's actions should be looked at. There's nothing wrong or unchristian or indeed unpriestly that he has done to justify him being hounded out of priesthood. And to Fr Luonde we say: don't quit, stay there and continue doing what you are doing with the same commitment, vigour, courage and tenacity!

Labels: FREEDOM OF SPEECH, POLITICS, RICHARD LUONDE, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:53 AM