The Lord’s Prayer is obviously a cornerstone of Christian devotion and worship; offering a powerful and meaningful way to connect with our Creator.
Part of it instructs, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Without mincing our words, we’d like to put it to Archbishop; you’ve disappointed our nation….you’ve let the Lungus down, let alone a bad example to the Christian community that we even wonder why the Pope is still tolerating your presence in that prestigious office.
As we are not in the habit of speaking from without, we shall give you a practical example. Somewhere within the borders of this nation, there was a fairly affluent man who happened to have disowned his biological son for unbecoming behaviour, and expunged him from his WILL! He had reportedly bequeathed all his earthly possessions to the church.
As misfortune would have it though, death came knocking on his door. As his dear life precariously hung on a thin thread in a hospital, some important visitors called on him.
“It would be ideal for you to make things right with God…” one of them suggested, solemnly.
“What do you mean Father?” he wheezed and coughed, struggling to draw a breath. “I attend church every Sunday…..more over I contribute to the parish, generously.”
The priests were at pains to make him understand he stood no chance of making it to heaven if he went to his grave pregnant with bitterness and grudges, particularly for his son!
“We’re urging you to consider forgiving your son….” they pleaded with him. “Revise your will…..leave everything with your son, and apportion something little to the church you love.”
Now, this is where the Catholics dwarf ‘ba pente’ to greater extremes as they tend to practice true religion.
Anyway, the rest as they say is history. The man patched up things with his son before the cold hand of death could take him away. And today, his son stands tall as a “big bwana” employing hundreds of people!
This brings us to the impasse surrounding former president, Edgar Lungu who, as we all know, passed away on foreign soil a while ago. Archbishop Banda was obviously close to the former president. The current gridlock as to where he should be put to rest is a serious indictment on the part of the Archbishop; he has lamentably failed in his duties. As a believer, a senior cleric for that matter, we expected him to prevail upon the family or convince them to have a change of heart from the Biblical point of view.
Family spokesman cum lawyer, Makebi Zulu keeps on reminding us that ba Lungu left a WILL he never wished President Hichilema anywhere near his coffin! How is ba Lungu expected to approach the gates of heaven with his heart pregnant with bitterness and hate for a fellow human being?
Matthew 6:14-15 say, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
One would only guess the path ba Lungu has crafted for himself if we are to go by what the Bible teaches us. Worse still, his family and, of course, his lawyer aren’t helping matters. Recently, Zulu shocked the nation when he insisted the family of the former has vowed to challenge government in court over the burial of the former president, even if its takes a year.
Where’s the heart of God in this? Did ba Lungu even leave behind such a strong wishe or this is simply the work of selfish individuals hell bent on abusing his corpse for political expediency. Archbishop Banda, you can definitely do better than this!
Untill next time…..
Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
Burial of ECL any where has absolutely nothing to do with Bishop Alick Banda or anybody else including the government. The family wishes and ECLs wishes must come first, the family is the final authority. And the family must never be verbally harassed for their choice. Just like any funeral ,whether the deceased was a former President or an ordinary man, the family must have their choice respected
Infact the family has not broken any law for having their choice where they want to bury him. ECL was sick for 6 months in a foreign land, you did not check on him not a single day as government and he dies and you should chose were to bury him, just how. And you even claim to be church elders
Arrangements were made to repatriate ECL to Zambia, and agreements were put up between family and government abrogates its side of the agreement, just as it has abrogated it’s election campaign promises and just clutching to the straw of free education which nobody really appreciates; as people voted for bread and butter issues as clearly elaborated by state Counsel Kabimba on Diamond TV last night and here you are writing long articles blaming an innocent Bishop.
And have you apologised publicly for publicly calling Bishop Banda as Lucifer. And has the supervisor of the person who called Alick Banda admonished and cautioned his subordinate to demonstrate leadership, or its part of the many leadership lapses that we daily struggle with in Zambia
Zambians, Babtista joss and Kangaude, read the article again and again and again. You certainly do not get the message. You are dull.
He is not fit in the position.
All these above commenting are from the same grouping where reasoning is a big problem. They are just bitter people who lost the election in 2021.They can use whatever means to undermine our government.Note that they don’t know peace and they don’t have it in their hearts. Ba Lungu was the president of 20million people who want to see their former leader given a decent burial.He was also the Chief Commander of the armed forces who want to salute him in death. Thats protocol. Civilians and tribalists full of hatred will never understand this but thats how it works. They are here commenting but we don’t care
You expect alick banda a staunch PF cadre and lungu supporter to talk sense to the family? He is probably in the forefront enticing them to go against the government.
Exactly my thought. I doubt his Christianity. Thats the problem of allegedly being a clergy while at the same time u are a cadre. What is more in Alick Banda is careerism and not Christianity. What would u say about a Christian that fails lamentably to reconcile two parties or even mediate for the dead for God to forgive them after settling the dust left by the late.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Christians perish in hell looking at the hate which is very visible on their face.
Who brought this nonsense of “open letter”? Why not just address the letter to the person you want to communicate with?
Has the president only been wanting to confirm Lungu’s demise or it is out ot duty that he does attend the burial without ever visiting the funeral house in Chifwema first?
Has any UPND ever visited the funeral house or they just can’t because the president hasn’t allowed it?
Has the government even donated amenities or provided assistance at the funeral house?
Did the Belvedere mourning site proposed unilaterally by grz help matters or was it done in conjunction with the family’s blessings?
When government went to sue the family, was the church or any bishop consulted for us to keep blaming them?
What has changed now that GRZ wants the matter sorted outside court when before sueing it actually was outside court but failed reaching a consensus?
Why is the blame about this matter only on the family excluding the president and entire upnd?
Upnd arrogant behaviour towards the first family during the funeral is no difference than when that man was alive: the reason for the deadlock.
This article is misplaced just as the writer is hypnotized with lies, pretence and self induced ignorance.
You need deliverence from some overbearing york, Prince.
Guess you are still sleeping.Wake up!Which arrogancy are you talking about here?The Lungu family stole money from the treasury and we are not here to glorify them…You are the only one who doesn’t know that money was being swindled everyday (kasaka kandalama) from the government. This is the reason Zambia will remain behind for a long time because we have people and *****s like you without sense of accountability.
Let’s just move on The fact is it’s between 2 people one has departed leaving the other and the family
Let them sort it out as we have other issues that concern us
That so called ” Archbishop” Banda is a Cadre in catholic robes with a wretched heart is nearer to heaven than Banda is