by Tanonoka Joseph Whande SW Radio Africa

One thing I appreciate about religion is that it is a personal thing between a believer, a worshipper and their god.

No one can come between the two, even if they tried.

God cannot be manipulated by anyone and for that, we are thankful.

Politicians would have loved it if they were able to take God to a corner and whisper something into his ear.

Imagine if ZANU-PF had as much access to God as they have to Jacob Zuma!

The world would long be dead.

I mean, can you believe these people?

What would Robert Mugabe be today were it not for the role played by the Church, especially the Catholic Church, in his education and upbringing?

I am also reminded of Jean Bertrand Aristide, a one time Catholic priest who went on to become a brutal and murderous dictator in Haiti.

I am reminded of Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a Catholic who fidgeted with Islam for a while, and who rivaled Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada in brutality and murder of own citizens.

Like Amin, Bokassa was also accused of cannibalism.

Men who grew up in God’s shadow turned against God because of the taste of political power they experienced.

I cannot understand Mugabe’s behaviour against the Church and how he reconciles his beliefs with what he is doing.

It’s no longer just politics; it is now the perpetration of evil.

Some years ago, a colourless praise singer, Tony Gara, now late, stood up in parliament and said that Mugabe was “God’s other son”.

The nation expected Mugabe to censure this old fool for blasphemy but, instead, Mugabe rewarded him with a cabinet post!

It was an admission by Mugabe that he felt big enough to consider himself at par with Jesus Christ.

Time after time, Mugabe has grudgingly used the church for his own ends and never felt guilty that he abuses God’s name in a futile attempt to elevate himself to God’s level, if not higher.

Ndiko kunonzi kufarisa uku!

Mugabe sees our God as a competitor, not as his master. He has become so mentally corrupted that he feels he must sit at the same table with God.

It is painful to see a human being so lost and stupid.

Then there is the sad issue of how he has always used the church of the Vapostori to prop up his waning political fortunes and hoodwink illiterate people into supporting and voting for him.

I sit here wondering if some of these churches are genuine or if they are proxies for the devil. How can anyone not see the evil that Mugabe and ZANU-PF are reining in Zimbabwe?

How can any church leaders bow down to a political leader who has been on a war path against Christians as much as Mugabe has been?

Then there is Mugabe’s friend, defrocked Archbishop Nolbert Kunonga who tried to use the Anglican Church as an extension of Mugabe’s power base.

Kunonga, along with some staunch Mugabe supporters on the legal bench, is allegedly the beneficiary of farms violently seized from their owners.

Failing to deliver the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe to Mugabe, Kunonga did several things that caused his church to censure him and eventually excommunicate him.

He resisted expulsion and influenced some worshippers to stand by him.

During the religious and legal battles that followed, Kunonga was able to use church funds to pay lawyers who were instructed to obtain a legal directive to bar some parishioners from entering and worshipping in the church.

His role became that of stopping people from worshipping, not to find lost souls and bring them to church.

Seeing his friend on the ropes, Mugabe weighed in with the CIO, police and army to ensure that only those who supported Kunonga in his battles with the church had access to the church to worship.

Violence erupted and unchristian words were thrown around as the army stood by in support of Kunonga.

Thus, Kunonga became the center of conflict within God’s church.

This long-running conflict in the Anglican Church Diocese of Harare hit a new low last Sunday when Kunonga’s supporters prevented the burial of a long-time Anglican parishioner because he belonged to a rival faction.

Kunonga loyalists blocked the burial of lifelong church worker, seventy-year-old Edward Rinashe, at a cemetery just outside Harare.

The late Rinashe had refused to recognize Kunonga’s authority and attended services led by church-recognised Bishop Chad Gandiya, designated head of the diocese by the Province of Central Africa.

Over the years, Kunonga has been supported by the police in gaining and maintaining control over church property, just like Mugabe and his war veterans did with private property and farms.

Witnesses said that after skirmishes at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Rinashe’s coffin was taken back to the funeral home which had prepared him for interment.

Nothing could be more disgusting than a supposedly Christian president behaving in such a manner, deliberately getting into God’s way.

Mugabe has gone too far and, without doubt, will get his comeuppance.

Just last week, Mugabe’s men disrupted a church service in one of Harare’s suburbs because the church service was being held under the theme ‘Saving Zimbabwe, the Unfinished Journey’.

It was aimed at “praying for peace in the country that has been saddled with politically motivated violence, internal displacements of people as well as arbitrary arrests of human rights activists and politicians”.

Reports say the pastors and others were arrested when baton wielding police stormed the Church of the Nazarene in Harare’s Glen Norah suburb and threw choking teargas inside the church to disperse the worshippers.

Parishioners, among them old women and children, were forced to break through the church windows to escape the menacing police.

The service also intended to commemorate the events of March 11, 2007, where Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, human rights activists that included Dr Lovemore Madhuku were brutally attacked by police at a ‘Save Zimbabwe’ prayer meeting.

As long as anything is done in his support, Mugabe will not stop it.

He will not admonish those who kill in his name.

He won’t criticise those who commit acts of vandalism in his support, especially when they destroy property belonging to members of other political parties.

It’s always as if Mugabe is daring God.

The heart of the matter is that our fight with Mugabe and his ZANU-PF is no longer just a political fight.

Zimbabweans are fighting state-sponsored evil and it is therefore the responsibility of every Christian to fight Mugabe and ZANU-PF at all fronts so that we can retrieve our children who have been corrupted by Satanists masquerading as political nationalists.

Send me your comments to tano@swradioafrica.com.

In Genesis 16:12, we are warned that: “He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility towards all his brothers.”

Mugabe has led a crusade to kill our people.

He has gathered our sons and daughters to murder their relatives on his behalf.

He has not given Zimbabwe anything but has taken just about everything Zimbabwe has.

Yes, Christians have watched as this wild donkey of a man killed people, abused the elderly, starved the children and now defiling our churches because Mugabe considers himself a warrior who can go toe to toe with our Lord.

Our God remains untouched because we are not defeated.

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF have raised the stakes by clearly making God part of their targets.

There cannot be any compromise with any Christian.

We cannot continue to watch as Christians are abused by thieves and murderers who have ruined a nation so much blessed by God.

Christians must fight this crusade because there appears to be no bigger Satan than Mugabe and his ZANU-PF.

Mugabe knows who his judge is and moronically believes that getting rid of the judge will enhance his chances of avoiding punishment.

Soon, Mugabe will meet his Maker and there won’t be any gnashing of teeth. Mugabe will just be put in his rightful place.

I am made to understand that hell is hotter than hell itself. That’s very good because the one who deserves hell more than any other Zimbabwean is on the way.

Christians must not tolerate this defilement of their faiths anymore. We are the custodians of our faith and God will punish us for not stopping Mugabe.

We, as Christians, must fight off Mugabe’s evil defilement of our churches and religion.

The old song: Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war…comes to mind.

Let Christians stop evil; let Christians stop Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday, April 14, 2011.