Church, like social media, should be monitored by NCIC

With just under a month to the General Election, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission has its work cut out. This time, however, I am of the opinion that NCIC should keep a keen eye on the church, with worrying political undertones creeping onto the Pulpit.

First, religion is important for Kenyan politics because religion is important for Kenyans. My mother whispered the Lord ‘s Prayer in my ear as a child, and equally said to me that the world will end soon; 28 years later, I still hold the two in high regard and wait for the ‘end of the world’ with the fear of the Lord.

There is a reason why on that fateful day January 1, 2008, a group of people in Kiambaa village while dashing away from death, locked themselves in a church, at the feet of God: They believed they were safe there. In his book ‘The Sacrifice of Africa’, Emmanuel Katongole, a Ugandan associate research professor of theology, demonstrated the real potential of Christianity to interrupt entrenched political imaginations and create a different story for Africa.

Concern

That said, my mother called me to ask me when I would be coming home. Worried, she asked me to think about travel plans because a certain popular pastor in the country had prophesied that the country would plunge into violence right after the g elections. You could hear the belief in her voice while she explained herself and her understanding of the vile, if not alarmist religious declaration. This particular clergyman has quite a huge cultic following. It all left me thinking deep about how every Sunday this remaining month will play out.

Every Sunday, the church attracts a crowd no political outfit can pull. How many churches are there in your county? How many congregants attend the first, second and third service? Now count that every Saturday or Sunday for four weeks, depending on the denomination. Do then ask yourself who checks what is said in these churches. One way of looking at it is imagining that with churches taking the pious tag, nothing wrong can come of it.

But while we tolerate that ignorant thought, we remember the tale of ‘Kupanda Mbegu’ and the controversy of Quincy Timberlake’s finger of God. Churches single handedly attract Kenya’s largest audience in their congregation on a single day. Preachers address large and small congregations, but the importance with which they are taken should make this coming month a busy one for NCIC.

Church power

While writing about Political Theology, Jürgen Moltmann, a German Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen, said that the church can no longer ask abstractly about the relationship of ‘the church and politics’, as if these were two separate things which must be brought together. Rather the church must begin with a critical awareness of its own political existence and its actual social functions. 

The church affects our political temperature because of how much we believe in churches. The word of a preacher is taken as the Gospel truth. In that way, while the church is allowed to wade into any subject including politics, they must and should be treated as political players, especially when disharmonious sentiments creep from the men in robes. Ideally, peace at all costs should mean just that, and that we cannot ignore anyone. No, I am not saying the church is doing something wrong, I am saying we cannot risk ignoring the church and how it affects the dynamics of our politics.

The matter here is not to stop what comes out of the pulpit or regulate how the Bible is flipped and preached. Hardly so. But if we can put checks on social media which reaches only up to 10 million Kenyans so much that the NCIC announces it is monitoring people’s posts and tweets, it would be extremely shortsighted to imagine nothing happens in church.

This pastor’s declaration is just one church, and a single example of what happens every Sunday. The effect is debatable, and we can only wait for August 10 to see how true his prophecy is. But then, it is a Pandora’s Box. A lot more could be coming out of churches while we sit and imagine them as harmless. NCIC would rather not ignore it.

Mr Mureu is a teacher.murepack@gmail.com