Political researcher Dr Cephas Mukuka says Zambia is swiftly drifting from its proper Christian values into hypocrisy as can be seen from the way national affairs are being conducted.

And Dr Mukuka has insisted that there is need to sit down and iron out differences before rushing to have the National Day of Prayer scheduled for October 18 every year.

Meanwhile, Dr Mukuka says the Church should not allow politicians to bulldoze them, but should maintain their stance of speaking out against injustice and exposing evil in the country.

In a statement, Monday, Dr Mukuka, who is also the Dr Nevers Mumba-led MMD spokesperson, observed that Zambia was swiftly drifting into hypocrisy.

He questioned why the country should rush to hold national prayers without first forgiving each other.

“As a nation, we are swiftly drifting from proper Christian values into hypocrisy. This is clear from the way we are conducting national affairs. Why rush to hold national prayers minus forgiving ourselves? We are hurting, full of corruption, vengeance, bribery, thuggery, murder, stealing and full of falsehoods! The Lord’s prayer is straight, it says, ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ Is it true we have forgiven each other?” Dr Mukuka wondered.

And he stated that he hoped to see leaders move together in harmony as they focused on poverty alleviation, adding that it was wrong to rush into praying, while holding grudges against each other.

He further questioned what had happened to the so-called process of national reconciliation and dialogue.

“What has happened to the process of national reconciliation and dialogue? It’s a shame that we have spent time exchanging bitter words on who should lead the pending national dialogue. This we have done at the expense of the suffering majority, who are hoping to see leaders move together in harmony as we focus on poverty alleviation. It’s totally wrong to rush to praying whilst holding grudges against each other,” he insisted.

“This is the hypocrisy I am talking about. Moreover late president Dr Fredrick Chiluba declared Zambia as a Christian nation, but what is more pronounced and public is the October 18th – National Day of prayers. Again, you wonder at what point things changed.”

Meanwhile, Dr Mukuka observed that the Church’s voice had been gagged for some time now.

He explained that in most cases, the Church chose to sing praises to the powers that be and totally ignored the evil that was afflicting society.

“Majority citizens depend on the voice of the Church, whose voice is gagged for some time now. Our society is marred with hate and injustices right in the face of the Church. In most cases, the Church leaders have taken sides, hence misleading the flock. They choose when to speak and when not. In most cases, it’s to sing praises to the powers that be and totally ignore the evil, which is eating our society broad daylight,” he added.

Dr Mukuka insisted that the nation needed to iron out differences before rushing to pray.

“We need to sit down and iron out our differences before we rush to pray. Our hands are dirty, littered with innocent blood of silent majority; the majority crying for justice, which will never come. This is not to be against prayers, far from it. It’s to help us check ourselves and do the right thing before God. We have had innocent people denied entrance into Zambia, yet their mission was to preach the gospel, others was to enlighten our people, government inclusive,” he recalled.

“What type of nation are we? This is the hypocrisy we should cut off before we rush to pray. The voice of the Ministry of Religion and National Guidance has been on ice as well. This is the Ministry, which should be above issues and speak the heart of God and not that of man. We all need prayers, we all need God, and this should be in line with the Christian norms and standards, but this hypocrisy is taking us nowhere.”

He urged the Church not to allow politicians to bulldoze them, but maintain their stance of speaking justice and exposing evil in the country.

“The Church should not allow politicians to bulldoze them, instead should maintain their stance and position of speaking justice and exposing evil in our society. The prayers should have been halted briefly in order to attract as many people and groupings as possible. Christ came to attract people to himself so as to give them life after death,” stated Dr Mukuka.

“Some major stakeholders have decided to boycott the prayers, mainly because of our hypocritical behaviour as a nation. We need to reflect and check ourselves before many innocent people are misled.”