Rev Mtikila Should Give To Caesar What is Caesar’s
- Category: The Comrade
- Date 23-08-2021
- 295 views
A man whose car broke down near a monastery sought help from the resident monks. Although he was not a monk himself, the monks fixed his car, fed and comforted him till he left. While he stayed at the monastery, he heard a strange sound, knowledge of which was only reserved for monks. What was the sound? The Comrade will tell you shortly.
Let us assume that President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete was the man in need of help and Rev John Mtikila the monk. Would the monk really provide the desired help to a man who is not merely a stranger but even more gravely not a monk? Recently, the chairman of the Democratic Party Rev Mtikila authored an epistle about the alleged ‘bad intentions of President Kikwete against Christianity’ (see: ‘Police interrogate Mtikila over controversial circular’ The Guardian, 16th April 2010).
The Comrade believes strongly that a reverend should precisely lead a church not a political party, in the first place. In church, he can directly tell God to intervene politically if he believes that God is interested in political matters. A comedian Jay Leno once said that ‘if God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates’. You doubt, however, if God really is the giver of the foul political leaders we have in Africa.
The concept of democracy and voting must have been a human innovation, possibly with divine inspiration, and we cannot hold God responsible for the inherent flaws that go with the enterprise that is clearly secular. Politics is called a dirty game where every saintly person would find no interest to play a role, like an immaculately clad person would not take a seat on a blatantly smeared bench.
As regards political representation, it is both hard and needless that every religious group should have a president from within their ranks all at the same time. Most citizens in Bongo subscribe to some form of religious conviction. Yet if anyone should assume the country’s presidency, they are obliged to serve the entire population with without favour. This is perhaps where Rev Mtikila might have a point, supposing he is saying the truth and has evidence to back up his allegations against Mr Mrisho.
To The Comrade, however, religious convictions of any particular individual, even if he were a president, mean nothing. Many people today crisscross the religious field but conversions are not dependant on the president’s perceptions. You do not abandon your religion simply because you have been elected president of a secular republic, nor does an ordinary citizen thrust aside his religious inclinations simply because the man in power may not subscribe to it.
A good president is one who tries to be nondenominational without abandoning his own faith. Yet the godliest president is him who can discern that people are variously endowed and free to pursue their personal convictions, including religion. No president, even if it were Rev Mtikila himself, should imagine that he is possibly nearer to God than an ordinary bloke like The Comrade.
Shouting about God, Christianity, Islam and blah-blah does not actually mean that we are building a godly nation. Ironically, godliness seems to thrive best in secular conditions than where everyone wears religion on their sleeves not as a sign of humility but pomp and arrogance. Religious enthusiasts should submit to political authority, knowing that to do so is to proclaim the superiority of heavenly sovereignty.
When the Nazarene advised people to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar (Matthew 22: 21), he possibly wanted to teach them the virtue of humility – and stress the timeless intercourse between religion and politics. Heavenly matters, though superior to earthly matters, do not abolish them. His other probable lesson was that spiritual matters are far above secular ones, thus to compare the two was to inadvertently equate them and, in the end, deprive the former of its worthy supremacy. So what was the strange sound at the monastery, knowledge of which was reserved for monks? You cannot know because you are not a monk!
By: Venansio Ahabwe
Source: The Comrade, The Guardian on Sunday