Since 2014, I have been writing for a weekly newspaper column. This was after fellow Africans were made to mow grass, drink fuel, eat raw snakes, got sexually abused and do many other humiliating and degrading things.
I have received open and private messages that were accusing me falsely that I am disdainful towards Christians.
Firstly, I have found this allegation personally insulting and an attack on my integrity as it does not correctly characterise me at all.
Secondly, I have very loving Christian family members, friends and acquaintances who are persons of goodwill and whom I have bonds of affection with without consideration of their religious affinity and affiliation.
Thirdly, I do not consider religious affinity, affiliation and practices or lack of that for me to
affirm and recognize the humanity of anyone, with all the self-evident rights to life, liberty,
property and pursuit of happiness. I have constantly refused and will continue to refuse to have humanity and citizenship qualified based on race, ethnicity and religion. This would amount to being degenerative, demeaning and degrading of me. There is an unrestrained tendency by some Christians to bully and impose their religiosity on others. Their personal Abrahamic God is theirs alone. There is no universal consensus on the existence, nature and relevance of their personal Abrahamic deity. There are many instances of monolithic and domineering Christian tendencies in non-religious organisations, places and occasions. Like any country, Zimbabwe has a constitution as the supreme law of the land. It prescribes the Public and Private Spheres. Religion belongs to the Private Sphere because Zimbabwe is a secular republican and constitutional democracy. The State holds no brief for any preferred religion. Its citizens should interact and engage each other freely without regard to religious qualifications or lack of them. When people are born, they have no religion until adults socialised them into it. From birth and infancy, all of us were full human beings without regard to any affinity to a deity or affiliation to a particular religion. Our childhood contact and association with Christianity (or any religion) in the family and later in the school was not based on our own voluntary choice and informed decision. It was indoctrination.
affirm and recognize the humanity of anyone, with all the self-evident rights to life, liberty,
property and pursuit of happiness. I have constantly refused and will continue to refuse to have humanity and citizenship qualified based on race, ethnicity and religion. This would amount to being degenerative, demeaning and degrading of me. There is an unrestrained tendency by some Christians to bully and impose their religiosity on others. Their personal Abrahamic God is theirs alone. There is no universal consensus on the existence, nature and relevance of their personal Abrahamic deity. There are many instances of monolithic and domineering Christian tendencies in non-religious organisations, places and occasions. Like any country, Zimbabwe has a constitution as the supreme law of the land. It prescribes the Public and Private Spheres. Religion belongs to the Private Sphere because Zimbabwe is a secular republican and constitutional democracy. The State holds no brief for any preferred religion. Its citizens should interact and engage each other freely without regard to religious qualifications or lack of them. When people are born, they have no religion until adults socialised them into it. From birth and infancy, all of us were full human beings without regard to any affinity to a deity or affiliation to a particular religion. Our childhood contact and association with Christianity (or any religion) in the family and later in the school was not based on our own voluntary choice and informed decision. It was indoctrination.
It is this Christianity's legacy of colonial privileges and advantages that has been a source of any sober and civil call to have a transformed and secular Public Sphere.
Since 2004, I have refused to be defined religiously. My humanity and citizenship cannot be qualified by my religious affinity or lack of it. It is suffocating and stifling!
We are creatures of our parental love. Biological science informs us of the process of our conception and birth. If there was any religious label or association to the conception, it was out of a social construct or socialisation and therefore human-made.
Being religious or non-religious doesn't make anyone a better human being and citizen.
What makes us better human beings is when we seek a shared values, common ground or the highest common denominator (HCD). The HCD or common values that should bring together all humanity and citizens (theists and non-theists, the religious and the non-religious) is the need to affirm, acknowledge and recognise individual life, liberty, private property and the pursuit of self-chosen happiness without harming others. The common values can be listed as follows:
Being religious or non-religious doesn't make anyone a better human being and citizen.
What makes us better human beings is when we seek a shared values, common ground or the highest common denominator (HCD). The HCD or common values that should bring together all humanity and citizens (theists and non-theists, the religious and the non-religious) is the need to affirm, acknowledge and recognise individual life, liberty, private property and the pursuit of self-chosen happiness without harming others. The common values can be listed as follows:
1) recognition and affirmation of the humanity of all and any regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, political creed, etc;
2) honour of commitments (“say what you do and do what you say”);
2) honour of commitments (“say what you do and do what you say”);
3) derive earnings out of honest labour;
4) take full responsibility for the results, effects or consequences of one's own voluntary choices, informed decisions and judicious actions;
5) realize and actualise own agency and causative power within your own locus of control.
We need to accept the consequences, results and effects of our own actions; while relying on rationality to understand and deal with any matter and concern.
We need to organize the our lives based on human inherent worth, causation and responsibility; and to develop it based on merit (developed ability or skill), willful effort and sustainable impact. Living conscientiously means we exercise our humanity in a better, helpful and meaningful way.
By content, "morality” has the following attributes: 1) Harm - do no harm to another or oneself; 2) Integrity - live honestly, speak truthfully and act usefully, meaningfully and productively; 3) Exercise compassion and empathy; 4) Reject the false, wrongly motivated and hurtful; 5) Willingly value excellence; and 6) Warmly reward productive effort (value “the fruit of meritorious deeds”). In Plato’s Republic, moral law or morality is defined as, “the precepts of the (moral) law are these: to live honestly, to harm no one, and to give to each his fair due.” This was later codified in 533 CE as "to live honorably, to injure no one, to render to everyone his due" (Institutes 1:1,3 4). These are the aspects of the "universal moral law." They best answer the question, "What is good or bad, and right or wrong?" This requires no authority, tradition, convention or dogma but a nurturing, learning, grooming and continuous training for a utilitarian basis of moral or ethical conduct. If you are to judge or relate with any fellow human being based on a religious consideration and qualification, be informed that you are being discriminatory, hurtful and to the extreme, hateful.
By content, "morality” has the following attributes: 1) Harm - do no harm to another or oneself; 2) Integrity - live honestly, speak truthfully and act usefully, meaningfully and productively; 3) Exercise compassion and empathy; 4) Reject the false, wrongly motivated and hurtful; 5) Willingly value excellence; and 6) Warmly reward productive effort (value “the fruit of meritorious deeds”). In Plato’s Republic, moral law or morality is defined as, “the precepts of the (moral) law are these: to live honestly, to harm no one, and to give to each his fair due.” This was later codified in 533 CE as "to live honorably, to injure no one, to render to everyone his due" (Institutes 1:1,3 4). These are the aspects of the "universal moral law." They best answer the question, "What is good or bad, and right or wrong?" This requires no authority, tradition, convention or dogma but a nurturing, learning, grooming and continuous training for a utilitarian basis of moral or ethical conduct. If you are to judge or relate with any fellow human being based on a religious consideration and qualification, be informed that you are being discriminatory, hurtful and to the extreme, hateful.
Judge me by my character!
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