"Let he with no sin cast the first stone."
This Bible paraphrase read so flawlessly amid the censure press statement that saw Foote, US envoy to Zambia out.
Two men, Japhet Chataba and Steven Samba sit within the cells of Kapiri. '15 years’ imprisonment for crimes against the order of nature?' Foote’s uncontained reproval was only met by the nation’s nearly ubiquitous approval.
Here, in my Christian Nation, the notion of short skirts carrying the blame for sexual abuse is championed by our first lady. Here, the murder of a university student by an armed officer is met by the deafening silence of our leaders. In my country, the ministry of religious affairs — yes, a legitimate entity — calls for a day of prayer, just so we can ask God to increase the tenure of those in public office. She is giving a deaf ear to a people crying foul; a massacre is happening on the Copperbelt province, people are being slaughtered in their homes. But first, we must pray.
This is my Christian Nation.
Love your neighbour as you do yourself, is immensely dependent on your neighbour’s social-economic class, and especially their sexuality.
We are staunch, blameless Christians here.
The chatter on my feed carries a heavy dark demeanor. It draws me in on a slow Friday evening. Scrolling down the comment section of a leading local news blog: Mwebantu, I peruse through hateful comment after hateful comment.
I have never seen such a public show of immense rebuke and sheer disgust. And to say it is all in the name of a theological conviction?
This can't be right. It shouldn't be.
On a bus ride home, I attempt to engage my friend, herein referred to as X in a related conversation.
"X you know, I’ve been following the case of the sentenced gay couple, and I’m quite saddened by the hateful treatment from the general public, I mean if our argument is based on Christian values..."
Heads turn, one after the other.
"Shouldn’t we handle it with godly love?"
From the far front murmurs echoe my way. At this point, the tension is nearly palpable. I disengage.
Government officials denounce Ambassador Forte in the papers. Persona Non Grata dominates the headlines.
Such people?
President Edgar Lungu vehemently speaks, various government officials follow suit. Their decry is fixated on the homosexual bit of the ambassador's statement, it is clearly a prefix to derail the predominantly Christian public from the real issue at hand: theft. Theft of public funds, in all its shapes and disgusting forms. The very thing we should be angered by.
Yet, the public's disgust is explicitly packaged in a homophobic furore.
'Regarding the position of Zambia as a Christian nation in view of the Court’s decision on this matter of homosexuality, the Ambassador may wish to confine himself to matters that are within his competence.' - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Malanji.
Like the president's, the majority of government comments barely addressed or denied Foote's allegations.
In the year 2018 $41 million went unaccounted for. The social cash transfer fund awakened quite the scandal. Would you be surprised to know that it didn't generate the same public outcry? There is something about homosexuality that instigates action in Christians that theft from the most vulnerable doesn’t.
Remember friend X? That very year, she obtained an internship with the social welfare. X told me a legion of heart-rending stories. Those of mothers, senior citizens walking many kilometres to retrieve their bi-monthly payment of $10, only to be told there aren't any funds available, for three months in a row. Abominable.
We should first and foremost, be unable to find rest at the thought of trusted officials stealing from us, from the vulnerable.
As a Christian people we could all benefit from some introspection, why do Japhet and Steven rattle us way more than a vulnerable woman; Ms Purity Chomba in Kaputa district?
And perhaps further ask ourselves:
