Among those who are leading lights among the legal minds and corporate figures of Zimbabwe is Tawanda Nyambirai.
Of late he has been expressing his views on various public and national issues as a citizen.
I fully respect him for such public engagement on matters of public and national interest. If those who have the power to change things can listen to him, he has very well thought views.
As he has publicly engaged, he has not been restraintful from exhibiting his religious affinity and denominational affiliation.
Constitutionally, religion belongs to the private sphere but enters the public sphere as a learnable or academic subject. So once one becomes exhibitionist about personal choices, decisions and lifestyle that should remain in the private sphere, it can be considered to be an open invitation for anyone to be a dialectical about such a personal life that should belong to the Private Sphere.
It is against this background that I write this article.
On June 22, 2016, he said, "The Churches must take the lead in the fight against corruption. The Churches must lead the fight for the restoration of values of hard work, honesty, integrity, love for self, for neighbor and God, accountability etc. That fight must start with church leaders becoming accountable for the public funds that they handle and learning to separate personal property from public property and abandoning models that tend to encourage the flow of wealth from the impoverished followers to the leaders most of whom now lead celebrity life styles. The Government should not regulate this process. But churches must self regulate through their own associations. They can be trusted to be able to do this." - Tawanda Nyambirai - "Diffusing the Economic Time Bomb Set by the GNU: A Lawyer’s Perspective," www.facebook.com/tawanda.nyambirai/...
I read these views as meaning that Christianity should be a moral force for the Public Sphere as if we are a theocracy and yet Zimbabwe is a secular constitutional republic.
Is it true that Christianity is a moral force for the Public Sphere? This is the space where we freely and unlimitedly share our common humanity and citizenship without regards to race, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc.
In its current domineering and monolithic literalist and historicalised form, Christianity has allowed bigotry, idolatry and superstition to thrive in its name thus permitting theological immaturity, perversion and vulgarity.
Being social reformists that we should be, religion in general and Christianity in particular should not be destroyed but purified of superfluous outgrowths and then regenerated and transformed. This comes from an inspiration of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who reconstructed orthodox Judaic theology “so that it remained ever-changing, evolving to meet the needs of people.”
Kaplan called for an emphasis on knowledge over faith, discovery over revelation, and “connection, opportunity and responsibility over commandment.” This is because the Divine should be considered as “a force for the source of meaning, the power within that urges us toward generosity, responsibility, concern and self-fulfillment.”
Therefore, religion in general and Christianity in particular should not be destroyed but hewn and shaped like a sculptor’s stone by a hand chisel. The hand chisel is used together with a hammer to vigorously but patiently knock off defects and faults to extract the latent or inherent beauty. To hew anything is to curb vices and encourage good dispositions.
The hand chisel symbolizes corrective methods while the hammer represents willpower (“ratzon” in Hebrew, Strong’s Concordance #H7522 and “theleo” in Greek, Strong’s Concordance #G2309) and the force of “inner drive to ethical action” or reason-based conscience ("suneidesis" in Greek, Strong’s Concordance #G4893).
Within Christianity, there is a pure core of life-affirming sparks under thick debris or malevolent husks (“kellipot” in Hebrew) or Buddhist three poisons of life made up of ignorance, self-indulgence and malice.
Religion is in serious need of people of goodwill and integrity to individually and collectively conquer the three poisons, which lead to a life of “perverted thought, uncurbed emotions and destructive actions.”
We need to search, discover and actualise the pearls or precious stones in religion in general so that it becomes a platform of shared and common humanity motivated by aspirational interiority and urges.
To pose the question about Christianity as a moral force is not an attack on the personal integrity of anyone affiliated to Christianity. Instead, it is an effort to impersonally scrutinise the institution and the lifestyle called Christianity.
For this reason, I mean not to be disrespectful towards any well-meaning Christian. Those who appreciate critical thinking and open mindedness will not find my views and questions objectionable if expressed with decorum and impersonally.
1. Is Christianity a moral force when the Christian Western civilisation was the motivating force that urged the brutality of racial hatred, racially-based slavery, inquisitions against heretics, crusades against other cultures and religions or lack of it, colonialism, Nazism, apartheid and the hatred we still find among some Christian conservatives?
2. Is Christianity a moral force when its first scriptural ban ("thou shall not") (Genesis 2:17) was an edict decreeing perpetual human ignorance and darkness imposed on humanity by an anthropomorphic or humanoid divine figure?
3. Is Christianity a moral force when human knowledge was banned under the threat and penalty of death? "Thou shalt not eat of (the Tree of Knowledge), for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen 2:17). Later, the message of Christianity is confirmed as not for intelligent people but for the childish-minded only. (Matt 11:26, Luke 10:21).
4. Is Christianity a moral force when one has to seek to benefit out of blind faith by suppressing critical thinking and without questioning, inquiry and examination, “Whoever would draw near to (the Divine) must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6).
5. Is Christianity a moral force when the scriptural vision is to make everyone gullible and believe without facts and evidence because "believe, and ye shall be saved; believe not, and ye are damned already" (Mark 16:16; John 3:18). Damn the unwilling or willing (“nolens volens"), undamn only willing and credulous. Be born and be damned; believe unbelievable things and be saved.
6. Is Christianity a moral force when Saul/Paul, the chief advocate of these beliefs of babes reiterates his enthusiasm for ignorance and his fearful scorn of knowledge. (1 Cor 8:1; 14:88). He encouraged people to be bigoted even if alternative religious views harm or injure nobody, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?”- 2 Cor 6:14.
"The wisdom of this world is considered foolishness with the Divine" (1 Cor 3:19) while the adherents are warned to be "beware lest anyone spoil you through philosophy" (Col 2:8).
The converts and members of the church "are made as the filth of the world" (1 Cor 4:13). To ensure the perpetuation of ignorance, Saul/Paul then defined "faith" as:
a. Faith cares not for facts or evidence, but boasts that it "believeth all things, hopeth all things” (1 Cor 13:7); and
b. Faith is all-sufficient, in lieu of fact and evidence - "the substance of all things hoped for, the evidence of all things not seen" (Heb 11:1), not known and altogether unknowable. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of (the Divine): Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
7. Is Christianity a moral force when it has promoted and validated childish credulity (Matt 18:3, 11:14; John 3:18,36), lack of a critical mind (Romans 14:23), bigotry and harvest of blood (Matt 10:21, 19:29), prejudice and hate (2 Cor 6:14,15) and strife and disharmony in families (Matt 10:34-37, Luke 12:51-53)?
8. Is Christianity a moral force when the priestly class has continued to enforce the ban and the consequential ignorance has been perpetuated? They do so by way of deriding knowledge while persisting "primitive cosmological notions" made obsolete by modern scientific discoveries within the "narrow limits" of their universe.
9. Is Christianity a moral force when organised churches made sure it has a grip on people by eternally damning those not agreeing with its tenets and beliefs by saying that, "Whoever will be saved, it is necessary above all things that he hold to the (Christian) faith. Unless each one keep this whole and unbroken, he shall without doubt perish into eternal death...This is the (Christian): unless each believe it rightly and firmly, he cannot be saved" - 8th century Athanasian Creed?
"The whole fabric of the Christian faith are not its admirable moral precepts which are not peculiar to it at all, but it's laboriously built dogmatic theology of...beliefs and practices enforced by terrific threats of eternal damnation."
10. Is Christianity a moral force when true believers are figured as "flocks," the old members of the flock are dubbed "sheep," the tender ones who are wholly innocent of sense are affectionately termed "lambs," they are herded and driven by venerable pastors called "shepherds," and the shepherds are always allegorically pictured as going about armed with "crooks," to hook the stragglers into the "fold" and to keep them there once hooked in?
By definition, "the flock of the good shepherd" are the simple-minded and silly persons.
To be "sheepish" is to resemble a sheep in silliness or dullness. The sheep is to this day the symbol of the vacuous herd, all blindly following some equally stupid old bellwether which heads the flock this way or that as his inner lights lead or the crook of shepherd pulls.
11. Is Christianity a moral force when Saul/Paul admitted that he lied in the name of the humanoid God (Romans 3:7) and that religion is a profitable enterprise (Gal 1:14)? This was later developed by the organised churches that when there is a just cause, an untruth in self-defense, charity and zeal of the Divine's honour would not be considered a lie even if it's to the dishonour of oneself. So one would rather say what is needful and not what is truthful.
12. Is Christianity a moral force when there has been priestly chronic pious lies, frauds and pretenses by way of suppressing and concealing the truth to protect and encourage credulity among the faithful and the glory of the Divine?
"To undo the Creed is to undo the Church. The integrity of the rule of faith is more essential to the cohesion of a religious society than the strict practice of its moral precepts." (Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7:259).
"When a clearly defined dogma contradicts a scientific assertion, the latter has to be revised." (Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 8:607). This means that methods of dogmatic fraud, forgery and imposture are superior to the principles of moral truth and virtue.
Compare and contrast the precept by Buddha, "Thou shalt not attempt, either by words or action, to lead others to believe that which is not true."
13. Is Christianity a moral force when its scriptures declare and you believe 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which proclaims, the word of the humanoid Divine, “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”?
14. Is Christianity a moral force when its members are therefore to accept Matthew 5:18’s pronouncement that every last bit of the scriptures shall be implemented, including the Hebrew Scriptures, which enjoins the death penalty for all manner of often minor infractions and approves of behavior that, to put it kindly, is no longer acceptable?
15. Is Christianity a moral force when one has to accept the Scriptures in its totality? Do you think sex workers should be burned alive (Leviticus 21:9)? Should women submit to their husbands, as per Colossians 3:18? Should women also, as commands 1 Timothy 2:11, study “in silence with full submission?”
16. Is Christianity a moral force when its members have to adhere to Deuteronomy 20:10-14 and ask their parliament to pass a law punishing rapists by fining them and making them marry their victims and forbidding them to divorce forever?
17. Is Christianity a moral force since the Scriptures ordain genocide (as in 1 Samuel 15:2-3)? Will its members work for the release of those imprisoned for their role in mass killings?
18. Is Christianity a moral force when its members should call on parliament to legislate slavery, since in 1 Peter 2:18, de facto sanctions the horrific practice and demands that slaves submit to their “masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel?”
19. Is Christianity a moral force yet there is a warning in Jeremiah 8:8, 'How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the Divine is with us?" But behold the deceitful pen of the scribes has produced falsehood'?
20. Is Christianity a moral force yet Jeremiah 5:31, "The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority, And my people live it so! But what will you do at the end of it?"
In the Scriptures, one finds ancient cosmological legends, primitive folklore, rude and violent tribal chronicles, some minor historical events and some fables.
Superstition is thus defined by a high lexicographic authority: "A belief founded in irrational feelings, especially of fear, and characterized by credulity; also any practice originating in such belief; excessive and unreasonable scruples due to ignorant dread of the supernatural.
Specifically, a belief in a religious system regarded by others than the believer as unreasonable and without support; a false religion, or any of its rites" (New Standard Dictionary of the English Language).
"For two thousand years mankind in Christendom has been the victim of these priest-invented superstitions imposed on it as the holy will of (the Divine); has from infancy been priest-taught to believe fishermen's tales as inspired truth; has been duped into reverencing, obeying, and supporting for life a horde of parasitic, hypocritic, indolent, insolent soul-savers who have dealt damnation to all who eluded their thraldom.
"Numberless millions of the most intelligent and independent human beings have been tortured by fiendish devices, murdered, and sent to everlasting torment in the fires of hell for daring to doubt, to question, to deride, and to despise the priests and their deadly superstitions. The human intellect has been atrophied and debauched, the mind paralyzed and debased, God-given reason crumbed or confined into puerile and worthless channels, by enforced bondage to priestcraft.
"Freedom of thought had been martyred; learning, discovery, science have been cramped and thwarted; the progress of civilization itself has been hindered and delayed by priestly oppression."
21. Is Christianity a moral force when every conceivable form of religious lie, fraud and imposture has ever been the work of the priests and ministers of religion? They have not been ashamed by skeptical ridicule and exposure of the critical minded because it's their age-long stock in trade and sole means of existence.
22. Is Christianity a moral force yet in the brain of innocence of children, seeds of superstition are planted because of dangerous obedience as exemplified in Genesis 22:1-19? The helpless minds and imaginations of children are polluted and frightened with threats of pain by the superstitions of the priestcraft, which is incapable of the perception or utterance of truth by a humanoid divine figure that is so brutally murderous as indicated in Numbers 31:17-18.
"It is inconceivable that a government would tolerate the inculcation upon helpless children of beliefs that will not stand the most strenuous scientific examination and professed only by fools, bigots or liars."
23. Is Christianity a moral force yet it does not call upon its members especially those who are public officials as politicians and public administrators “iuris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere” ("to live honourably, to injure no one, to render to everyone his due") – the three fundamental maxims of a moral compass, precepts or commandments of the law (Institutes 1:1,3-4), published in 533? Has it disciplined its members who are public officials failing on these maxims?
24. In the Public Sphere, don't we need a life of being human of clean hands and pure hearts; of facts not fetishness; of doing good deeds justly, compassionately and humbly and not based on unquestioning compliance, credulity and gullibility?
25. In the Public Sphere, don't we need to live a life of truth, honest, justice, purity, love and of good report as the golden rules of highest human righteousness?
26. In the Public Sphere, don't we need to be saved from a crude and violent ethnocentricity that gives genocidal commands Israelites to “utterly destroy” the tribes they will find in Canaan (Deut. 7:1–5), savagely instructs the preferred tribe (Israelites) to indiscriminately destroy, “you shall not leave alive anything that breathes” (Deut. 20:16–18), and decadently charged that, for the Amalekites, Israel should “put to death men and women, children and infants” (1 Sam. 15:2–3)?
The crude and violent ethnocentricity of a humanoid deity that was sadistic beyond imagination: “So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 20:25–6).
"Thoughtful Christians who hold the Old Testament in high regard must at some point come to terms with those passages in which God is said to command what appear (to us) to be moral atrocities. In the present paper, I argue that the genocide passages in the Old Testament provide us with a strong prima facie reason to reject biblical inerrancy - that in the absence of better reasons for thinking that the (Scriptures are) inerrant, a Christian should conclude that (the Divine) did not in fact command genocide. I shall also consider and reject the attempts of two prominent Christian philosophers to show that (the Divine) had morally sufficient reasons for commanding the Israelites to engage in genocidal attacks against foreign peoples." - Christian philosopher Wes Morriston, Did God Command Genocide? A Challenge to the Biblical Inerrantist, Philosophia Christi, Vol.11 (2009), No. 1, pp. 7-26
“Just after the genocide passages in Deuteronomy, the tribal deity forbids intermarriage with these foreign tribes (Deut. 7:3). The prohibition against intermarriage is also given in Ezra (9:2, 10:10) and Nehemiah (chapter 13). King Solomon was chastised for his foreign wives (1 Kings 11).
Slavery is an excellent way to see the discriminatory and hateful tendencies. It was limited to six years for fellow Jews, but it is for life for slvaes from other tribes (Lev. 25:44–6). Let’s not imagine that Israelite tribal deity was colorblind.
The apologist might respond that the prohibitions against intermarriage were meant to avoid temptations to worship other deities.
“Okay, but they’re still anti-miscegeny laws. Are they wrong today? If so, why excuse them back then? See more at: www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2013/01/rationalizing-away-the-canaanite-problem-2-of-2/#sthash.MVmV6jSx.dpuf
27. Therefore, is Christianity a moral force when its scriptures are considered the inspired infallible words and yet contain narratives that are grossly littered with fears, brutal violence, immorality, falsehoods and cruelty?
Resource: Joseph Wheless, "Is it God's Word?" (1926)
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