Gathaka, The Bible and Democracy in AfricaGames in protest about apartheid in South Africa. Gitari had also turned
the offer to be the official chaplain in the Games. The sermon was based
on Roman 12:1-2 entitled, ‘Do not be conformed to this world.’ Gitari gave
the background of how emperor worship was live during the time of
Paul’s writing of the epistle. It was therefore a must that the citizens
were required to say, ‘Ceaser is Lord’. The Christians would find this to
be hard as they confessed that ‘Jesus is Lord.’ There were many other
ways that the Christians could be enticed to conform to the world stan-
dards. One of the vices that Gitari admonished his hearers was not to
conform to corruption which was and is rife in the country. He espe-
cially appealed to the civil servant and the police in particular. He also
called on the politicians in KANU not to condone the expulsion of errant
members from the party as there was no other party to associate with.
Duties of the State and Obligations of the Citizens
On 30th April, 1989 at his St. Thomas Cathedral, Kerugoya he preached
the sermon entitled ,’Duties of the State and Obligations of Citizens,’ based
on 1Peter 2:13 -17. Gitari informed the congregation that God was a God
of order and therefore had established the Government. He said those in
authority must therefore be obeyed. He reminded the Christians that
they were both citizens of heaven and earth. He disclosed that at the
time Paul was writing the Roman Empire was being ruled by Nero who
was a ruthless emperor especially towards Jews and Christians. Yet Paul
was imploring them to obey him. In application the citizens must be
obedient to the President and those who govern with him. He cited
Romans 13:3-4 where the citizens are advised to do good in order to earn
the praise of those in authority. The state in turn was to protect the citi-
zens by punishing evil doers and praising those who do well. If the
wrong doers were not punished then that was encouraging impunity. He
described the situation as it was in the time of prophet Habakkuk (Ha-
bakkuk 1:2-4). Gitari decried the situation in his diocese and especially
in Kirinyaga district where evil doers happened to be arrested but then
released. It was also during this time that a political KANU activist had
threatened to attack Gitari in the church. He had been apprehended but
then released. Gitari had the opportunity to declare that he was not go-
ing to be intimidated. He declared, ‘...threats will neither frighten nor