Quarterly Bulletin

I can feel very qualified to comment on this topic of religion and corruption at this time because a prominent member of the ruling party and influential member of the Cabinet of the President of Zambia has recently indicated that I come from a Church which harbours the majority of plunderers in the country today.  

Well, I  don’t know  the accuracy of his census count but that fact, as a good Jesuit colleague of mine recently advised me, should  not come  as  a  great shock.  Rather it should merely be a reminder that we are indeed a Church of sinners, sinners who seek salvation in Jesus Christ.  Were we not sinners, we would have no need of salvation, no need of Jesus  Christ, no  need  of belonging to our Church!

Be that as it may, are there really “religious teachings” that can contribute to the struggle to stamp out the cancer of corruption?  I believe there are and that they can be found in what we call the “Church’s Social Teaching” (CST).  This is the body of social wisdom about the human person – woman and man – in community and about those structures and activities that enable the human person to become fully alive, fully representing the God in whose image and likeness she or he has been made. 

This religious teaching, this social teaching, is found primarily, of course, in the Scripture, the Bible, the revealed word of God. Secondarily, it is found in the reflections on those Scriptures offered by our theologians and in the statements (encyclicals, pastoral letters, etc.) offered by our Church leaders.  To be honest, sometimes this social teaching is called our church’s “best kept secret”!   At least we Christians seem to know more about our church’s sexual teachings than about its social teachings.  We all know “Thou shalt not commit  adultery,” but do we believe that also central to our religious spirit is the mandate: “Thou shalt not commit corruption”? 

CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT

For me the basic contribution that our religious teachings can make to the fight against corruption is two-fold:

First, to make clear that corruption – the misuse of resources or authority for personal advantage -- is not simply a political issue or an economic issue, but that it is profoundly a moral issue, an ethical issue, indeed a religious issue.

Second, to make clear that corruption kills, that it is as deadly as an AK-47 in the hands of a criminal, because it diverts, distracts and drains resources from life-giving activities like necessary medicines, good schools, safe roads, effective constitution-building, etc.

Let’s be very unambiguous, this two-fold contribution will, from the very start, mean that the Church must  challenge  itself and must challenge those in civic authority.  It must challenge itself to fight against corruption in its own midst, because who can believe   calls   to   end corruption coming from some individual or institution that people readily perceive as corrupt.  Moreover, it must challenge those in civic authority because its task must be to fight against corruption in government, to work to promote the common good of all the people. 

I emphasise this last point because there still exists a pernicious heresy in some church circles that true Christians should never challenge civic authority.  I call this view pernicious – harmful, destructive, insidious – because it would silence, shut up, the voices of Desmond Tutu against apartheid in South Africa, Martin Luther King against segregation in the USA, John Paul II against communism in Poland, and the mother bodies of Evangelicals, Protestants and Catholics (EFZ, CCZ and ZEC) against “third-termism” in Zambia. 

And I call it heresy because it deliberately mis-reads, mis-interprets, scripture.  In taking up the famous passage from Romans 13, it focuses on verses 1 to 2, that speak of authority being put in place by God and that whoever opposes authority opposes God.  But it ignores the key phrases of verse 4 that make very clear, very clear indeed, that the one in authority is God’s servant “working for your own good.” (Good News version)  In other words, if the ruler is not working for the good of the people, is not promoting the common good, is not  serving the national interest, she or he simply loses legitimacy, no longer has authority and should not be obeyed.  Certainly he or she should not be respected!

This point is necessary to make in the context of our discussions about corruption and public policy because this pernicious heresy is being prominently promulgated even today in Zambia.  This was recently evidenced by a recent article  on  the  front  page  of   the government newspaper, The Times of Zambia.  The article reports that a Mr. Emmanuel Musonda, vice-general secretary of “a newly formed church motherbody,” the International Ministers Fellowship and Affiliated Churches (IMFAC), has criticised what he considers the current disrespect being shown to the government of the day.  He strongly   states   that Romans 13 commands us “as a country to respect the Government of the day regardless of the reasons we might hold and faults committed.”  But surely such a confused view is not only scripturally incorrect but politically dangerous!

HONEST ACKOWLEDGEMENT

So what contribution practically can the religious teachings of our churches make to the fight against corruption?  Let me suggest six rather obvious points that we who belong to various communities of faith should really pay priority attention to.  If we did so, then the struggle against this evil of corruption would be strengthened, would be heightened, and would be successful.

First, our religious teachings must acknowledge that corruption of a very serious nature does indeed exist today in Zambia.  We do not need to cite the Transparency International index, honest yet controversial as that might be (a ranking of 11th most corrupt country in the world!).  We can simply quote the State Counsel who currently occupies the highest office in the land.  On 14 March 2002, at the launch of the National Movement Against Corruption (NAMAC), President Mwanawasa stated very passionately, “The impact of corruption is ghastly if not contained, and contained timely….Left uncontained, corruption threatens to undermine the credibility of government, and the very existence of Zambia as a nation.  Therefore it is not HIV/AIDS, it is not poverty, but corruption, which poses the greatest threat to our people and nation.”

Our religious teaching must be no less passionate.  To ignore corruption, to belittle its significance, even to accept its inevitability, is to contribute to its destructive nature, a cancer eating away the moral fibre that must hold a national together.

Second, our religious teachings must hold up the values that counter and militate against, the spread  of corruption: honesty, justice, responsibility, community, solidarity, concern for the poor.  We must not be shy to proclaim these and other values that are found so strongly in our Judeo-Christian scriptures.

Hear the Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah criticise the apamwamba of his day: “Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice.” (Jeremiah 22:13-17) Or the New Testament prophet Jesus Christ who challenges the religious leaders of his day: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you frauds.” (Matthew 23: 1-39)  Or Peter who challenges Annaias and Saphhira over their swindling of land sales (Acts 5: 1-11)

WITNESS AND ADVOCACY

Third, our religious teachings must be witnessed in our actions, our mode of operations.  If the faith communities – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, whatever -- are to be effectively heard in our teaching then we must be authentically demonstrative in our activities.  Honesty, transparency, and full accountability must mark what we do and how we do it.  Otherwise our teachings against corruption will not be taken seriously.  Indeed, such teachings would not deserve to be taken seriously!

Fourth, our religious teachings must advocate for social justice in Zambia, supporting laws and programmes that curb corruption in practice and eradicate corruption in causes.  By that I mean that we advocate for stricter legal restrictions on matters such as conflict of interest (e.g., a government official using her or his position to secure contracts in a company that they have shares in), preferential treatment (e.g., special considerations given for government favours in return for special gifts), accepting bribes to speed up processes, large or small, in bureaucratic procedures (e.g., passport procurement, land title papers -- though I am told that today in Zambia we do not have any “bribes” but only “facilitation fees”!), etc. 

Moreover our advocacy must address not only the symptoms of corruption but also the causes.  For example, we need to ask if one of the causes of corruption is the poor wages paid to civil servants, wages that cannot meet the minimal standards of the JCTR monthly Basic Needs Basket.  Such an observation is by no means to offer an excuse for corrupt activity but only to try to understand its breeding ground, its contributing factors.  Once identified, these can be worked on to lessen the spread of corruption.

SUPPORTIVE ACTIONS

Fifth, our religious teachings must support the institutions that are in place to curb corruption in this country.  These are public institutions such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Task Force on Corruption, the Drug Enforcement Commission, the Office of the Auditor General, the Permanent Rights Commission, etc., and non-governmental organisations such as Transparency International, Integrity Foundation, Afronet, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Oasis Forum, etc. 

We all know that the public institutions are frequently under-funded and understaffed and the non-governmental-organisations are often over-stretched and over-harassed.  Moreover, our media needs to be supported, especially when attacked as it uncovers gross instances of corruption and plunder of our national resources.

Sixth, our religious teachings must minister to those who have been caught up in a web of corrupt activities and find themselves in jails and prisons. Yes, even that – the compassion that Jesus himself showed to sinners.  Just as we minister to those who have been hurt by corruption, so should we minister to those who are the agents of corruption. 

Compassion can lead to conversion, and conversion can lead to a corrupt-free society, which, after all, is what our religious teachings really do aim for in the long-run.

MARTYRS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION

To conclude, let me note that in our Catholic liturgical calendar, we recently celebrated the commemorative feast days of two important saints who have messages for us about fighting corruption.  One was is the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist, the    one    who   proclaimed   the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist was known as confronting head-on the ruler of Israel, King Herod, challenging his corrupt and immoral life style.  He paid for his courage by his life.  Surely he provides a model for us. 

The second commemoration was the feast of St. Thomas More, the English 16th century scholar and martyr.   He went to his death rather that give in, as Chancellor of the Kingdom of Henry VIII, to the King’s corrupt designs.  Pope John Paul II called Thomas More the “patron saint of politicians.” 

One of More’s well-known phrases was that public trust is held like sand in our hands.  If we open our fingers only a bit, to be only a bit corrupt, the sand of trust flows out quickly and is completely lost.  A beautiful image, I believe, to remind us that indeed, today here in Zambia, our religious teachings have much to contribute in the fight against corruption.

Pete Henriot, S.J.
JCTR Staff
Lusaka

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