Sunday 18 February 2018

THE COMING DICTATORSHIP AND THE CHURCH'S LOUD SILENCE

My afternoon read today was about the rise of Hitler and the totalitarianism that engulfed Germany under the Nazis and swept the whole world into war for the defence of democracy. In particular, the book analyses the role of the church in Germany which remained largely silent as this existential threat to human freedom spread in Germany unchecked.
The book notes, "... the Confessing church as a whole, despite the courageand suffering of many of its members, was too compromised and concerned about its own survival to fulfill its early promise. Most tragically, it remained silent on the persecution of the Jews."
The Kenyan church has remained largely silent as this government has escalated its violence against the poor through extra-judicial killings, mass unemployment of the youth, misguided curriculum reforms, and the displacement of the poor through the destruction of their dwellings in informal settlement. It has remained silent as the government has blatantly violated our Constitution, assaulted our fundamental freedoms, and set our country on the path to economic ruin through reckless borrowing of money that mortgages our children's future while most of it ends up in the black hole of corruption.
Like the church in Germany, the Kenyan church has remained silent because it is "too compromised and concerned about its own survival to fulfill its early promise," the promise of the church of Alexander Muge, Henry Okullu, Timothy Njoya and David Gitari.
But the same chapter has a warning for the church. Despite its caution and complacency, "Hitler and the Nazi leadership regarded it as a political threat. Any organisation which sought to retain its own autonomy, especially one which had such a large and widespread membership, was an enemy," which had to be dealt with accordingly. However, by the time the church fully appreciated the nature of the threat, it was too late.
And so, I have a simple message to the Kenyan church today as it sits on the sidelines and watches silently as Jubilee rolls out its dictatorship: First they came for the media, civil society, jobless youths, and I kept silent because I was none of these. Whey they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.
Change is coming. On which side will you stand?

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