Rejoinder on “71 years of Scripture Union in Zimbabwe” The Scripture Union is a world wide organisation
The Scripture Union is a world wide organisation

The Scripture Union is a world wide organisation

Shingai Rukwata Ndoro : Correspondent

I seek to respond to your article in the Herald on 17 June 2016, on the Scripture Union Zimbabwe (SUZ). First, the article lacked an appreciation that the public sphere of Zimbabwe is not grounded in Christianity or any other religion. It was lamenting that the Christian colonial privileges and advantages are under threat by Minister Lazarus Dokora who is making the academic environment at primary and secondary education more fair, pluralistic and justifiable for a diverse society.Zimbabwe is a secular republic and a constitutional democracy not a theocracy. Its Public Sphere, for which schooling is a part, should not have a religious position and preference as long it does not impinge on the religious freedom or lack of it in the private sphere.

Second, in the article, there was a factual error by the SUZ Director, Titus Gwemende, that “Zimbabwe has an overwhelming Christian majority, at least 70 percent, whose beliefs agree with (the SU) mission…”

These are some of the claims unsupported by facts and evidence that have been used to claim a majoritarian and domineering position for Christianity. This unscientific claim has been used to discriminate and dehumanise non-Christians and the non-religious.

According Nick Spencer, writing on religious statistics, “religion (has a three-fold division which) involves cognitive elements (what we belief), social elements (how we define ourselves) and behavioural elements (what we do)… (It is) important to draw distinctions between belief, affiliation and practice…Take belief. …You cannot simply ask people whether they believe in (the Divine) or not. Putting aside the inevitable response, “What do you mean by (the Divine)?” (Something that can only be explored properly by qualitative research), belief is not a binary thing, like a light-switch. The interesting question is not so much whether people believe, but how strongly…” – The Guardian, 9 June 2009.

So far available statistics about how many Christians there are in Zimbabwe are based on manufactured data because measuring religiosity is a broad and complex matter. There are three elements about religiosity that can be examined – 1) cognitive elements (beliefs), 2) affiliation with a formal religious organisation and 3) behaviour (conduct/practices/observances). Which element of religiosity do the statistics measure? What are those statistics then used for in policy making?

Third, a religious preference, taste and affinity or lack of it is a domain of personal and private life not be used to discriminate or qualify against those who are non-Christian and the non-religious in the public sphere.

How is the discrimination and dehumanisation done? Because of majoritarian, domineering and monolithic tendencies, Christians are happy to maintain colonial privileges and advantages of Christianity over the diversity of Zimbabwe.

For example, 1) compulsory or mandatory public school assembly Christian prayers, 2) predominance and supremacy of Christianity and its proselytising world-view in the subject of Religious and Moral Studies in primary and secondary education instead of a critically-based comparative studies, 3) use of the Bible in taking oaths when swearing public officials and in the courts, 4) exclusive use of Christian ministers and prayers in public events and gatherings, 5) recognition of Christian events and observances as public holidays (Easter and Christmas) and 6) chaplaincy in the security services (army, police and prison services).

Despite such a colonial domineering and monolithic position of Christianity in the body polity of Zimbabwe, some Christians still feel very threatened and always play victims. Is that not being paranoid?

Constitutionally, Zimbabwe is secular but the cultural or observational outlook may provide a false basis for the argument that the country is Christian because of the unconstitutional and coercive conduct of the government with its discriminatory Christian bias. Secularism allows freedom of and from religion in the public sphere.

The same outlook ignores the fact that many Africans who are in the majority as a population conduct themselves socially outside Christian validation and framing in respect of the rites of passage – birth, maturity, marriage and death. It is not possible that a person is both a Christian and Moslem, or Moslem and Jewish, but Africans can belong to any of the foreign religions and still partake of the traditions and rituals in indigenous spirituality.

Fourth, in January 2016, I made a contact with the ZimStats to add my voice against a biased question “What is your religion?” by the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (2010-2011). The question wrongly assumed that the respondent has a religion.

Instead the questions should have been:

Do you know what it means to be religious?

Are you religious?

If “Yes” in #2, do you belong to any religion?

If “Yes,” which of these religions do you belong to: Indigenous Spirituality (wrongly called “African traditional religion”), Christianity (all denominations), Islam (all sects), Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Rastafarianism, Other?

How did you convert: 1) family/school childhood upbringing, 2) adult conversion, or 3) secondary (marital) conversion?

Are you familiar with multiple types of religions?

If “No” in #2, would you consider yourself: 1) Non-religious but spiritual, 2) Non-religious and Non-spiritual, 3) Secular/Humanist, Agnostic, Atheist?

Statistics on religion have been used to discriminate against other religions and the non-religious. They have been used as a basis to justify domineering advantages and privileges for those who are in the majority. This is the source of sectarian religious discrimination and even antagonism. It has been used as a justification for overbearing tendencies by some in the public affairs of the country.

Let us recognise and celebrate our human diversity without anyone domineering or feeling victimised in the public sphere.

Feedback – [email protected] or Twitter, @shingaiRndoro.

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