BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
Barmen Declaration in May 1934 which equivocally reiterated that,
“German Christians believed only in Jesus Christ as He is testified to us
in the Holy Scripture, is one word of God, whom we are to hear, whom
we are to trust and obey in life and in death. We repudiate the false
teaching that the church can and must recognize yet other happenings
and powers, images and truths as divine revelation....” (Barmen Declara-
tion May 1934). For Bonhoeffer (:36), Hitler was antichrist, the archi-
destroyer of the world and its basic values, the antichrist who enjoys
destruction, slavery, death and extinction for their own sake, the Anti-
christ who wants to pose the negative as positive and as creative. He was
firmly and rightly convinced that it is not only a Christian right but a
Christian duty towards god to oppose tyranny, that is, a government
which is no longer based on natural law and the law of God.
We can draw a lot of lessons from this famous and renowned German
theologian in the 21st century Zimbabwean context. Clearly the church
needs a better framework to evaluate the nature of the state and the
consequences of public policy. The church must learn to be the voice of
the voiceless and carry out a prophetic ministry. By implication being
the voice of the voiceless entails speaking against the exploitation and
potential exploitation of the poor, be it by an individual, rich or the state.
However, that move alone is inadequate especially if it is confined in the
pulpit alone that is what Bonhoeffer called cheap grace (:37).
Instead the church must stand up and seek a platform with the state or
government without fear or favor. She must not be intimidated by politi-
cal statements that are uttered by politicians such as the general rhetoric
that the church must stick to the pulpit and pray for the leaders because
they are ordained by God (Rom 13:1ff). The state must know that the
church is not a threat but an advocate of peace and justice whose role
must not be compromised by bribes or partisan politics. For instance,
even if Christians benefited from a state sponsored policy when the
same government fails to perform in other aspects the government must
not use such benefit as a carrot to silence the church.
More so, the church must partner the state in paving way for the curbing
of corruption in both the private and public sectors. As attested by
church leaders in “The Zimbabwe We Want”, lack of accountability and
corruption have gradually become endemic in the Zimbabwean society.1
They stressed that the elite sought to gain and keep economic enrich-
ment at the expense of the common good. Resources meant for the poor