Religious leaders both for and against President Emmerson Mnangagwa have entered the political fray ahead of the general elections, accusing each other of misreading the Bible.
Among them is one of the country’s most popular preachers, Tom Deuschle of Celebration Ministries Church in Borrowdale, Harare, who criticised the Pastors4ED group that supports President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“We are seeing today pastors being manipulated by the state to support political ideologies that often speak and do things contrary to the word of God,” said Deuschle in a sermon that went viral on social media this week.
“This Pastors4ED is an abomination — I dare to say it out loud. It is ridiculous. You cannot be a pastor for ED.”
However, the founder and chair of Pastors4ED, Apostle Idirashe Dongo, said Mnangawa was the ordained leader of Zimbabwe and those who criticised her organisation did not understand the Bible.
“Pastors4ED is a biblical mandate from God for the servants of God and all the people who live in a certain land to support the governors of the land — and in this case the governor of the land is comrade ED Mnangagwa,” she said.
“It has nothing to do with campaigns or elections. But it has everything to do with the biblical mandate … for people to support the ordained leader of their land.
“As Pastors4ED we took it upon ourselves as the servants of God to support the ordained leader of the government of Zimbabwe,” she said.
Pastors4ED is a biblical mandate from God for the servants of God and all the people who live in a certain land to support the governors of the land — and in this case the governor of the land is comrade ED Mnangagwa
— founder and chair of Pastors4ED, Apostle Idirashe Dongo
Dongo, the leader of Deborah Lady of Today church and a ward councillor, said Pastors4ED represented more than 10,000 church leaders.
“Pastors4ED is the servant of God across all denominations, whether archbishops, prophets, evangelists, pastors, according to their titles and their churches.
"We are doing it openly, publicly and unapologetically because we are basing our work on the word of God,” she added.
However, Bishop Ancelimo Magaya of Christian advocacy group Zimbabwe Divine Destiny dismissed Pastors4ED, saying it is a “political grouping meant to brainwash ordinary Zimbabweans”.
“When you begin to hear a group calling itself Pators4ED it is very clear that this mantra is an art perfected for repression, meant to shut the brains of the people so they become unthinking and go with the bandwagon.
"I am sure you have studied Animal Farm by George Orwell. This is exactly what we are seeing in our country.
“So for any pastors in their right mind, or any pastor who reads and studies the word of God, to not only support such a regime but also threaten and coerce others is the clearest indication of how these pastors have become tools of oppression,” he said.
Magaya said the main reason the group was formed was because of fear and failure to understand the word of God, which “doesn’t say the church [should] support a wicked regime”.
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