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To say that most Zimbabweans are angry, frustrated, and hopeless is an understatement. People are tired of politics. They feel betrayed, lied to, and taken for granted. They have lost the energy to fight. At the election, they had painfully gathered all their remaining energy to clearly signal their rejection of a status quo characterized by political repression and economic decay, but once again all their hopes were dashed. All they want is genuine political change that will give them back their dignity as a people.

In one sense, Christians are just as hungry and angry as everybody else. In another sense, churches have risen up to the mission challenge and have become feeding centers for the poor and a refuge for victims of political violence. In Bulawayo, the second largest city, a number of churches have pulled their resources together to provide health care to thousands of residents who otherwise would go without medical assistance.

We have some church leaders who are known supporters of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF, his political party. Such leaders have obviously been isolated from other church leaders, but they don't seem to care.

Their support of Mugabe is perhaps because they have also benefited from the crisis, especially from the fast-tracts land reform initiative of 2000. Many of us agree that land reform was inevitable. There was an urgent need to correct colonial imbalances, where 95 percent of the arable land was in the hands of 5 percent of the population. Our economy is agrarian and for that reason, land reform had to be handled sensitively and decisively so that the majority of Zimbabweans would have received the maximum economic and social benefit. But Mugabe went about doing this for personal political gain.

In the recent past, Mugabe targeted pastors and the organizations of pastors. He hosted "spiritual rallies" that endorsed his party and made veiled threats. The rallies promoted a general spirituality in which Mugabe is both a political and a spiritual figure — the kind of spirituality promoted by a notorious, ousted Harare Anglican bishop who claimed Mugabe was like Jesus Christ.

This has not continued, but there are some pastors who continue to be used to legitimize Mugabe's presidency. For as long as Mugabe holds onto power he will use any means possible to achieve this objective.

Church leaders who support Mugabe and ZANU-PF have tended to discourage people from speaking against the president by referring to Romans 13. However, most Christians believe that Romans 13 is about leadership that upholds God's law or is at least sympathetic to it — not leaders who murder, starve, and steal from those they are meant to serve.

Leaders who have gone bad need to be rebuked for abuse of power, authority, and the trust of the people, instead of being celebrated and praised for bringing peace when there is no peace. Christians are called to fear God and not man, to penetrate and expose darkness by allowing the light of Christ to shine. That is why Christians cannot be popular with unjust governments.

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July (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52