In contradistinction with the times when the Christian Church came to Namibia, evidence abounds that today we bear more knowledge just about everything! We are more aware of so much than any other time before. We understand more than before. We question more than before. In many ways we live better than before. Science and technology are going places never before imagined. Travelling is faster and more efficient, and distances seem much shorter. There are more medicines and drugs for diseases and ailments than ever before. We have access to evidence of our successes and failures in just about every aspect of our endeavours than ever before. We think we have reason to question God and be skeptical on the basis of the amounts of information at our disposal. More people can afford vacations, purchase houses, and buy brand-new cars. Life, overall, seems comfortable for many of us.
Yet life as such remains an enigma and complicated. In spite of the knowledge we have about life itself, we still cannot figure out how it begins and how to prolong it. Most of the world’s problems are in the domain of human relationships, not technology. When life is good, most people tend to forget about church, until something happens that turns their lives upside down. When uncertainty hits, when disaster strikes, is the time when people remember and need the Church, and indeed they flock to church in droves, to find meaning. The Church becomes meaningful in times of tragedy and hardship, and not so much in times of peace and prosperity. This is a double standard all communities suffer from. The fact of the matter is that the Church keeps people grounded, flushing out the burden of life by providing a bedrock of faith and answers to humanity’s deepest needs.
The role of the Church in the life of a post-independence Namibian believer remains relevant if not critical because it fills a void which only the Church can fill, as the hospital has a function to fulfill in the lives of the sick and the unwell.
Like the hospital or healthcare facility provides a curative service; the Church is there for people in need of spiritual attention. In our case as the most Christian country on the Afrikan continent, the Christian Church is a unique organization that should instill the right and necessary attitudes, values and ethics of leadership in our societies today.
Whether it is one year or twenty-five years before and/or after independence, the role of the Church had not changed save in and for certain contexts and circumstances. One of the fundamental functions of the Church is to remind consistently those in power that God placed them to exercise oversight over resources intended for the wellbeing of all the people who are on this planet in His likeness. The Church has an obligation to steward fallible people’s hearts to remember that we have a duty of care towards one another and towards those who cannot take care of themselves: the aged, the sick, and the little ones. The Church has an unavoidable duty to ask questions of political leaders in so far as the stewardship of national resources goes.
The Namibian Christian Church has failed to acquit itself in a manner that the Founder of the Church would have liked to see. The place of the Church is to prophesy deliverance, to bring good news to those in distress, give hope to the weary and prepare people to be upright relative to and critical of the principalities of the present time. This is NOT to suggest that the Church must be antagonistic towards the authorities, the government or the state, but to work together with those entrusted to regulate and execute the laws in accord with the golden rule, that is, that those in power ought to treat those they have power over in the same manner they would have liked to be treated if they themselves were on the receiving end of power.
To put it more problematically, following the euphoria and honeymoon after independence, the Church’s voice should have been heard much more loudly and forcefully in the following areas of political and socio-economic development:
The state did not produce sufficient results in its fight against corruption;
If it is true that members of parliament and cabinet also took from the veterans’ funds that were intended to assist those men and women who sacrificed life and limb in the liberation struggle and who, due to circumstances beyond their control cannot be gainfully employed;
The nation’s state of education which continues to ill-equip and ill-prepare the Namibian child to survive in the modern and changing world;
The top-heavy government bureaucracy at the levels of ministers and deputy ministers that continues to get bloated in relation to a small population such as ours;
The rate of teenage pregnancies and other associated ills in our schools and communities that cannot augur well for our steadfast move towards Vision 2030;
The increasing levels of political intolerance of differences, tribal and other, accompanied by ill-informed and self-serving loyalties at the expense of the nation’s growth and cohesion;
The deteriorating work ethic in our enterprises accompanied by a sense of entitlement that deter and impede sustainable economic growth;
The mental illness we suffer from that we are victims whereas we are in power and in charge of the affairs of the nation now;
Our collective betrayal of the spirit that fuelled the struggle for national freedom and independence as we celebrate wealth by any means necessary; and
Our lack of a moral compass to navigate our march forward in tandem with Vision 2030 and Ubuntu, regardless of our differences, real and imagined.
If it is true that we are the most Christian country in Afrika, it means that from us is expected a different way of treating one another first, and looking after the things that we have and own as custodians of a better place for all, with rights and obligations that are distributed fairly: to each according to their needs and from each according to their ability to contribute to the improvement of our story as an Afrikan nation at peace with itself, at peace with its neighbours and at peace with the rest of the human family. The Christian Church has to play its part on this road less travelled without fear or favour as it is the closet to Vox Dei, the Voice of God.
By Joseph Diescho