The Declaration as a Means of Preventing Social Change

As I have been writing these posts I have tried to deal with each of these issues briefly. Being a social scientist there was a temptation to look at this academically and in depth. Being a Christian with some interest in theology I was also tempted to do a full theological discussion of the issue. I did not take either route because the preparation of those papers would take way too long. I instead opted for my current approach, of briefly introducing each dimension, briefly looking at the main pros and cons and advancing the discussion through the comments. I hope you have found the series helpful so far.

The perspective on the declaration of Zambia as tool in a Zambia’s current cultural battle. Just in case you do not live in Zambia let me tell about these battles briefly. In Zambia, cultural conservatives, mostly older Zambian’s oppose the cultural changes being seen in urban Zambia. These changes include the priority of the nuclear family over the extended family, sexually suggestive dressing, perceived increase in sexual promiscuity and the disuse of local languages. The cultural conservatives argue that younger urban Zambian’s should have pride in their culture and oppose the westernization of Zambia. So how does this become a Christian issue? A lot of the cultural conservatives are professing Christians (sorry Chola) and see an overlap between Christian interests and the interests of the cultural conservative. They believe that the declaration can be a means of opposing western ideas that undermine Christian and conservative cultural values. An example of such an idea is the tolerance/acceptance of homosexuality.

So is there anything negative about this strategy? Well once again I would argue that using this strategy would give the impression that the Christian faith advances its agenda through political means. However, we know that Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world and its interests are not advanced by political means. Rather Christ advances his holy nation through the proclamation of the word of God. In light of this the Church’s legitimate response to anti Christian is to preach the gospel.

This is however, not to say that Christians in their individual capacity can not use political means to oppose anti Christian developments in Zambia.