A vociferous leader whose religiosity cannot be vouched for has advanced the argument that contributing to the church is giving back to God and urged clerics to respect elected leaders.
His call draws strength from the book of Romans 13: 1, which says; “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God”.
There are two fallacies in this contention, which are debunked, first by Acts 8: 20, which says, “Peter answered: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!”
God has no need for money, which is why he commanded those who wish to be perfect to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor in order to have real treasure in heaven.
The second fallacy is debunked by Proverbs 29:16, which states: “When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes, but the godly will live to see their downfall”.
History is replete with leaders who could not possibly have come from God because he is the embodiment of love, compassion and peace. Joseph Stalin, a despot who ruled the Soviet Union between 1920 and 1952 killed more than 20 million people.
Chinese leader Mao Zedong murdered close to 6 million people in the first four years of his rule. Curiously, Kenya Kwanza’s bottom-up economic model mirrors Zedong’s ‘The Great Leap Forward’ economic and social campaign that sought to transform China from an agrarian society into an industrialised society.
The Great Leap Forward policy resulted in a humanitarian and economic disaster when close to 50 million people died in the resultant Great Chinese famine.
There was Adolf Hitler in Germany who engineered World War II in which more than 50 million people died. He masterminded the holocaust, a genocide against Jews that resulted in at least 6 million Jews losing their lives. There was Pol Pot in Cambodia who murdered more than 25,000 Buddhist monks.
These were leaders in every sense of the word who caused despondency and presided over both economic and social ruination of their countries. Can those who believe that everybody in leadership was ordained in heaven vouch for these killers as God chosen?
Did they, in their time, and even now, deserve respect? These were merchants of death who broke one of the 10 commandments, ‘thou shall not kill’, with abandon. It is inconceivable that God would enthrone such leaders.
While our country has never sunk to such depths, we have had our hellish moments too. The 2007 post-election violence is one such. In addition, the hopelessness and terror Kenyans live in, the murders witnessed every other day, and of course the extra-judicial killings that are gaining currency, cause despondency.
As a matter of fact, leadership, in the Kenyan context, is so godly. During election campaigns, it is alleged that black magic is elevated to a whole new level as some of the contestants seek to vanquish opponents.
It is during such times that witch doctors get in vogue, called upon to prepare all manner of herbs, charms and concoctions to fortify their gullible customers. Some politicians become nocturnal and those who eventually win are guilt-ridden.
Politics in Kenya is the gateway to primitive wealth acquisition, which alienates those involved from God. No less an authority than the Bible says it will be easier for a camel, as humongous as it is, to go through the miniscule eye of a needle than for a rich man to go through the wide gates of heaven.
Jesus spent most of his time challenging false beliefs, corrupt systems, and hypocritical leaders. We must do the same today by unmasking those who want to hide behind the church for political gain.
