Guard against policies that serve self-interest– Bishop Banda

BISHOP Alick Banda has advised Zambians to be consciously alert and avoid being manipulated by systems that seek to deploy information, procedures and policies that would only serve the selfish interests of a selected class of citizens.   

Dr Bishop Banda, the said Zambians should be alert and avoid conditions that would lead them to changing loyalties each time there was a change of government.

In his Easter message captioned Good Friday, Bishop Banda appealed to Zambians not to get what he termed a sleepy condition for that would lead them to accepting those championing selfish interests at the expense of the common good.

He stated that it was the sleepy condition in humans that often lead obstructed citizens from the injustice, suffering and the ravaging of society thereby give way to evil and create a perception that things are not bad when not.

Bishop Banda said it was the complacency of citizens that had often resulted into abetting wrong-doing by those with the responsibility to ensure there was justice at all levels of governance.

“It is this sleepy condition of conscience that makes us hold on to evil of all shades, shapes, and sizes.  It is this sleepy condition of conscience which leads us to changing loyalties at every change of tide (ati sebana pakuti wikute).”

“It is this sleepy condition of the conscience that leads us to champion personal interests at the expense of the common good.  It is this sleepy condition of our conscience that leads us to participate in manipulating systems, information, procedures, policies just to serve our selfish interests.  It is this sleepy condition of our conscience that leads us to breaking promises we make to one another and to God,” Bishop Banda said.

Bishop Banda said in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God was revealing to humanity that society should turn from selfishness to generosity, hostility to friendship, hatred to love, vengeance to forgiveness and in deference to involvement.

“My dear brothers and sisters.  In the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, God invites us into a new relationship.  A relationship which is centred on God after the example of His only Son.  A relationship that turns: our selfishness into generosity; hostility into friendship; hatred into love; vengeance into forgiveness; indifference into involvement; hostility into friendliness; and apathy into interest.”

“Over and above, God offers us a new relationship with ourselves; where our weaknesses become our strength; our obstructions become our steppingstones to greater heights; our anxieties and fears become our peace and our serenity of heart and mind,” Bishop Banda said.

He said many had been a time when citizens had been in sleepy conditions of their friends, families, communities and society at large.

Bishop Banda stated that many had been a time when Christians had not cared about the conditions of single mothers, widows, widowers, orphans, prisoners, refugees immigrants, sex workers, marketeers the poor, old and the sick