Pastors in Politics

By Malamulo R.T Chindongo

Politics is still one of the most polarizing issues in the church across Africa. But when it comes to the church of King Jesus, God's people cannot afford to allow politics to set and dictate the direction of pulpits. Some pastors and church leaders have allowed party politics to be the test of fellowship. In turn, the church is divided along party lines. Pastors have made our politicians believe that the gift of God can be bought with money. In the end, the church has lost her prophetic voice. She can no longer, authoritatively, speak truth to power.

In the following pages, the author deals with a range of topics to help pastors and churches rethink politics and its place among God's people: should pastors and their churches participate in party politics? In this book, you will find helpful answers to questions, such as: Should pastors publicly identify with a single political party? Should pastors always keep their political views to themselves at all times? How much should politics be discussed in the pulpit? What is meant by the church's prophetic voice? How can the church speak truth to power without losing her saltness? What does separation of church and state mean, and how does it look like in the African church? In what ways can pastors help their members deal with tribalism and nepotism?

• Language: English
• Publisher: R&R Press
• Release date: May 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393430841

Malamulo R.T Chindongo

Malamulo R.T Chindongo is the author of Rethinking Relationships: 13 Hard Dating & Courtship Questions Answered. He is the founder of the African Reformed & Evangelical News, known as are54news. A news website with a vision to highlight gospel-centered ministries on the continent of Africa. www.are54.org. Malamulo serves as one of the elders at Antioch Baptist Church, Blantyre, Malawi. He has been working with University Students through different programs, seminars, and conferences for the last fourteen years. He is married and together with his wife they have two daughters.

Book preview

Introduction

Politics is messy! So the saying goes. Across Africa, politics is one of the most polarizing issues. In most African countries, people are divided into three lines: tribal, religious, and political. Sometimes it is impossible to see the difference between a political, religious, and tribal divide. At times all three can be mashed up to the extent that it is almost impossible to see where the divide lies. If politics is messy, should those in pastoral ministry dare touch it? The church and her leaders play a very important role in society, but does that have to extend into politics? When we ask whether pastors and their churches should participate in partisan politics, it is out of a recognition of the contribution to public life that the church has made for centuries.

With the dawn of democracy, Africa hoped for better days, after long years of dictatorial regimes. On the contrary, African politics is more toxic today than it has ever been. The democratic system of government came to Africa as an alternative to the old authoritarian system of governing people. It promised hope and better accountability of those in authority. But democracy also promised the end of poverty, tyrannical rule, and the new dawn of prosperity and freedom. Africa has one of the youngest democracies in the world. Across the continent, the democratic system of government has many interpretations. In the research by Afrobarometer, when asked to explain what was important to them about democracy, most Nigerians respond: the freedom to criticize the government.

As we have already noted, most of these countries have barely recovered from colonialism and dictatorial systems of governments. Autocratic forms of governing followed colonialism, but left many poor and traumatized. So ideas of freedom, democracy, and free speech are all understood differently and exercised differently across Africa's continent. Afrobarometer found out: "The relationship between support for freedom of speech and voting in Nigeria may be affected by the timing of the political transition and Nigeria's brief experience with democracy at the time the survey was conducted, closely following the country's first multiparty elections after decades of military rule. Interestingly, when asked to define democracy, the majority of Nigerians surveyed by the Afrobarometer (approximately 40 percent of those that offered a definition) cite government by the people. Only 15 percent cited civil liberties or other personal freedoms in their definition of democracy compared to almost 27 percent of Botswanan and 44 percent of Tanzanian respondents. Nevertheless, the relationship between the support for freedom of speech and voting in Nigeria may provide some indication of the language used by political activists and even civic educators to demand for and justify the transition to democracy and the introduction of multiparty politics."

Today, millions of people on the continent are already frustrated by this new system, called democracy. Some are wondering whether we need to go back to the old system of governing people; that old system that reigned over us with an iron fist. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other kinds. Says Winston Churchill. D.A. Carson. Christ and Culture Revisited (p. 123). As crime is on the rise in our cities and moral depravity accelerating rapidly, many are wondering whether Africa was even ready for democracy. But there are also many who know what the old system did to them and their loved ones, and the thought of going back is sickening. Most people in this category are suspicious of any leader who exhibits any desire to rule with heavy-handedness. 

Over the centuries, the world has seen all kinds of methods of governing people. While modern people might be inclined to embrace a democratic system of government, not all countries in the world govern themselves in that way. Not everyone believes it is the best and only way. Even among those who agree on the need for a democratic government system, most of them apply the principles differently within their countries. D.A Carson observes: More challenging yet are the democracies that preserve almost none of the freedoms and values that most in the West traditionally associate with democracy. Many a ruler in sub-Saharan black Africa has been elected with reasonable fairness, and begins with the genuine support of the majority of the people, only to turn into a tyrant who is ousted only by a coup. The democratically elected governments recently put into place in Iraq and Afghanistan are still very fragile (especially the former), and neither is anywhere near as supportive of freedom of religion as are the democracies of the West — but in all fairness, freedom of religion does not look like quite the same issue when 99 percent of the people of Afghanistan are Muslim. The reasons voters put in some government or other are so complex that what is mandated by the vote is not always easy to discern. Christ and Culture Revisited (p. 124)

If you look around, human systems of government are the most frustrating aspects of human life. Which leads us to ask, what is the best method of government? Where in the world are people fully satisfied with their leaders? What determines a sound system of governing people, and who is to tell? With myriads of views regarding forms of government, each one of us can argue for what we think is a sound government system and for many different reasons. Most government systems are ancient systems. Will our arguments for a particular method be unique to us? Many others have been here before and made the same arguments. What can history teach us about specific systems of government? When Francis Schaeffer wrote The Christian Manifesto, he was concerned about this very same thing: which view of reality will our...nations choose? Where will Governments look to for their ultimate guidance? To what law (if any) are the law-givers themselves subject?. O.R. Johnson, Director, National Festival of Light, Introduction, Pg11. The Christian Manifesto By Francis Schaeffer.

Pastors must help their people think biblically about everything else, that includes politics and all its many faces within the governing machinery. The Bible does not endorse the civil government systems that we have created, as some might want to think. It speaks to all forms of governing styles, not as an outsider, but places itself at the center of human governing methods. The scriptures stipulate what the manner and method of governing people should be. Whatever the context people and their rulers might find themselves in, God has something to say. Whether it is the Pharaoh of Egypt, the king of Babylon, or the president of the free world in the 21st century, God stipulates — how these leaders should govern and the tools they should use to do so.

Politics is indeed messy! Not only that, but it is also complicated. But the people of God have an exceptional ministry towards politics and politics with the governing machinery. It is a sacred calling, and as a people of God, we need to begin to embrace it. Pastors and their churches are duty-bound to engage those in authority on several levels:

to honour those in authority

to obey those in authority

to pray for those in authority

to evangelize all men even those in authority

How can pastors lead their people to engage in politics and all that goes in without compromising their duties? Perhaps this question becomes even more complicated when you think about partisan politics. Is it possible to be faithful to our national leaders at all four levels while participating in party politics?

Chapter 1

A Voice of One Crying Out in the Wilderness

Should pastors engage themselves in politics? Should they affiliate themselves or their churches with a single political party? Today we have hundreds of pastors rallying behind, one political party after another. What are the implications? How does