God’s envoys, please speak whole truth to power

Dear men and women of God, Peace be with you. I come to you as a brother in Christ and an apostle of the Christianity faith.

So, kindly and humbly accept this as an epistle from a loyal congregant.

I write to you as fathers of faith and the face of the Church. God has anointed you to that office, by His grace. You are an authority I can’t ‘touch’ as Psalms 105:15 and I Chronicles 16:22 instruct. The chief priest, who commissioned you, will judge you in the fullness of time.

Clerics, our motherland is headed for a crisis, if not in one already, and you, the present-day prophets, have a role in righting the wrongs.

You serve at a very crucial time; when citizens, a majority of whom submit to your spiritual authority, cry Monday to Saturday, wipe their tears on Sunday morning to assemble in church and resume their misery after the service.

You live in this nation and must be aware Kenyans are heavily laden with taxes, weighed down by the high cost of living, oppressed by corrupt national and county leaders, often denied justice at the time of need and despised by the leadership. Life is gradually becoming unbearable for a majority.

As God’s ambassadors and ministers in our land, this desperate lot expects you to speak for them as John the Baptist would when the Herods choose to be rogue. Shelve any misplaced interests and stand for them.

Your intervention may be their only hope. Don’t let them down.

Speaking of misplaced interests, a friend shared with me situations that twice made him feel uncomfortable in his church of seven years. He considered them infiltration of politics at places of worship and which could compromise the sanctity of the pulpit.

First, the preacher, a senior cleric, themed his sermon around ‘embracing the Kenya Kwanza administration’. He summarised the sermon “whether you voted for it or not, it is the government God installed in August 2022.”

Nothing wrong with the message! But my friend wondered why the preacher chose the theme more than a year after the administration had been enthroned.

He later learnt they were being prepared to receive President William Ruto the following Sunday in a church fundraiser. This was at a time dissent was palpable among Kenyans due to unpopular government policies.

In the second incident, on the same altar, another cleric asked the faithful to pray for the warring Judiciary and the Executive. The two were (and still are) on a collision path over judgements the latter deems an impediment to its development agenda.

The call to prayer, which he says had insinuations the courts were to blame, left many with unclear praying points. Those holding mics at the altar could be heard fabling and mumbling without substance.

My friend asks: “What exactly were we to tell God given it was public knowledge the Executive was attempting to bully and interfere with the courts’ mandate and authority? Wasn’t time clerics called out errant State officials instead of calling for prayers?” That was his dilemma.

Men of the cloth, this is the time you need uncommon wisdom and the neutrality of the plumb line prophet Amos talks of in Chapter 7. Lace spirituality with reality and take uncompromised stands. Kenyans expect to see you at press conferences to, like John the Baptist, check the excesses of the king without fear or favour.

It’s for a reason God has erected you watchmen over Kenya (Ezekiel 3:17). Stand to be counted and inspire in us the pride of the ‘pulpit power’ exhibited by the likes of David Gitari, Alexander Muge, Henry Okullu, Timothy Njoya and Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki of yore.

I rest my case with the words of Mordecai in Esther 4.14: “If you remain silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise (for Kenyans) from elsewhere…” but the damage will have been done.

May the peace of God dwell among us all. Amen.

—The writer is an editor with People Daily — [email protected]