Religion & Society Blog

Welcoming the stranger and challenging others, even leaders in my faith community, to do the same

June 18, 2013 by Giovanni del Autore
updated on June 23, 2013 “A core value of my faith is to welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced, the other. ..I will challenge others, even leaders in my faith community, to do the same,” begins joint declaration “Welcoming the Stranger: Affirmations for Faith Leaders”  that the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and ...

Understanding the prophetic gifting, office

June 10, 2013
A lot of people believe that when a prophet tells them what they already know, there is nothing prophetic about it. But this is a misunderstanding of the operations of the prophetic. This debate was stirred recently when Prophet Victor Kusi Boateng – the spiritual father to Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa ...

When China supports Harare Mayor’s ‘Christmas Cheer Fund’

May 11, 2013 by Giovanni del Autore
US researchers have launched the largest public database of Chinese development finance in Africa, detailing almost 1,700 projects in 50 countries between 2000 and 2011. According to UK’s The Guardian, researchers at AidData, at the College of William and Mary, have spent 18 months compiling and encoding thousands of media reports to ...

Street preachers take over

May 9, 2013
Not so long ago Harare’s premier street 1st Street was home to street theatre where different groups fiercely competed for attention from passersby, but that phenomenon is gone having replaced by let us call them street preachers. Under the scorching sun with pitched voices man clad in suits clenching bibles ...

Constitution embraces ungodly practices

May 5, 2013
The country’s new constitution, overwhelmingly voted for by 94, 5% of voters on March 16 this year, is an affront to the Christian faith. At face value, it would appear this “negotiated” governance charter was probably the best under the circumstances. Reading the fine print, however, reveals a more disturbing ...

Christian organisation says communities need to change hearts

April 9, 2013
A Harare-based Christian organisation has launched a movement seeking to encourage the Christian community to change its behaviour so that they uphold true religious values. The Christian Change of Hearts Movement mushroomed after some critics doubted the authenticity of a survey that had reported that 80% of Zimbabweans are Christians. ...

Fr Oscar Wermter SJ: We have to be very watchful to see if this Constitution will be honoured

March 29, 2013 by Oskar Wermter SJ
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP – national office), Heads of Denominations (an inter-church body which includes ZCBC) and the Evangelical Alliance, all put out statements urging people to vote YES at he recent referendum for the Draft Constitution. The Zimbabwean Catholic  Bishops  (ZCBC) and  the Bishops of  Southern ...

Zimbabwe’s Prophet Angel goes regional with his charity efforts

March 26, 2013
His critics say he is arrogant and extraordinarily opulent —attributes not associated with Christianity. They doubt his powers to produce money from thin air and his ability to heal the sick and the lame. But besides the hullabaloo of where he draws his miracles and powers, Uebert Angel’s life behind ...

The world waits patiently to hear about the renewal that Pope Francis is seeking

March 22, 2013
On March 13, the Catholic Church, whose global membership is estimated at 1.2 billion elected former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina as Pope Francis I. He became the first Latin American to head the Catholic Church. The new pope seems set on the revival and renewal of ...

This Zimbabwe is departing from the orthodox Christian search for spiritual transcendence

March 15, 2013
Zimbabwe has recently been experiencing some of the most bizarre and outrageous happenings rooted in the people’s deep seated beliefs in either the Christian faith or African Traditional Religion. From superstitious people reportedly fatally tempering with an anti-tank mine hoping to extract chemicals worth millions of dollars from within the ...