Maravi

Corruption and our churches

Corruption and our churches
By The Post
Wed 04 Apr. 2012, 13:00 CAT

THE Church and the clergy have a very big role to play in the fight against corruption.The fight against corruption will not be won if it's left only to the law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute the corrupt and to our courts to convict and send them to jail. This is just one front, one plane on which corruption should be fought. But this alone cannot secure the victory we are seeking over corruption. We need to fight corruption on all fronts, using all weapons available to us. Corruption is the result of greed, selfishness, vanity and lack of love for one's neighbour.

As Fr George Musaba has observed, engaging in corruption is turning against God, it is failing to love one's neighbour. Corruption is a failure to commit oneself to the common good; it is a failure to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.

We have been fighting corruption from basically one front - the legal front - for a long time. New ideas and approaches are needed. A new awareness is needed. And that awareness should be built by adding together the best ethical and humane ideas of all authentic religions, the sum total of the preaching of many political thinkers on this issue.

Leadership is needed not only from the politicians but also from the clergymen. Our people need more than one pillar to lean on. If the political leadership fails them on the issue of corruption, they should be able to turn to the Church for comfort and guidance. But today there is very little room for manoeuvre because all sectors, to varying degrees, have been contaminated by corruption.

Today it is not only in politics that we find many corrupt people. We also find them in the Church. Sometimes the people who are leading politics are the same ones leading churches - they are the pastors, reverends and so on and so forth. The situation has even been worsened by the corruption that has permeated to our Judiciary.

This makes it easy for the corrupt and corruption to survive and thrive. Political power is there to aid their corruption and protect them when they need it. We have also seen how some churches and their pastors have been mobilised to use the pulpit to defend the corrupt and corruption. This is so because the pastor and the pulpit have in the first place been corrupted.

This is easy because of the lifestyles of our pastors, of our clergymen. Their love for material things, for luxury is unbridled. Look at how they live, how they dress, what cars they drive and the houses they live in, the properties they own! Instead of worshiping God, they are now worshiping money, clothes, cars, houses and all sorts of things that constitute wealth or affluence.

The church has a duty to participate fully in building a just society with all the means at its disposal. A church is not fully rooted among the people if it does not try to establish justice.

Corruption is the worst form of injustice because it does not only lead to material deprivation of the great majority of the people, especially the poor, but it also leads to the moral degradation of human beings. It is the poor and powerless who most directly bear the burden of corruption. Every human being should have the chance to enjoy the well-being necessary for their full human development.

And our clergymen must be the first to give witness by living exemplary lives. But the lives of some of our clergymen encourages the opposite - encourages greed, vanity, selfishness and indeed corruption. It is not possible for our religious leaders to call their congregations to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practice.

We need a church that contributes towards the reign of justice and not one that promotes and defends corruption, selfishness and greed. A just society can exist only when it respects the dignity of the human person. Corruption is a result of lack of respect for the dignity of the human person.

One who respects the dignity of others cannot rob them and build a mountain of stolen money and wealth which others desperately need to survive. Those who respect the human dignity will never engage in acts of corruption that undermine the lives of others.

We therefore need to strengthen the Church, the values, principles and standards on which it is anchored. Religion is a great force and it can help one have command of one's morality, one's own behaviour and one's own attitude.

If religious institutions lose this, then we are in serious trouble because they are supposed to be the conscience of society, the moral custodian and the most fearless champion of the interests of the weak and downtrodden. And as we have consistently pointed out, the individual does best in a strong and decent community of people with principles and standards and common aims and values. There is need for the Church to protect God's people, to protect the ordinary from corruption and abuse of power.

The pursuit of justice must be a fundamental norm of the Church. Moreover, it should never be forgotten that Christ's entire doctrine was devoted to the humble, the poor; his doctrine was devoted to fighting against abuse, injustice and the degradation of human beings.

And it is your fellow man, and especially the one who lacks life and needs justice, in whom God wishes to be served and loved. Therefore, there is no contradiction between struggling against corruption, injustice, abuses and the fulfillment of God's will. One demands the other.

Corruption destroys the social structures. Christians have a mission to promote transparency, accountability and honesty in society. Corruption is a sin and has drastic evil effects; it is robbing our nation of scarce resources needed by the poor.

It is therefore a duty of all Christians and their leaders to avoid corruption at all costs and condemn it whenever and wherever they see it. "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15).

Labels: CORRUPTION, RELIGION

posted by MrK @ 3:22 PM