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Cameroonian troops in a file photo. (Credit: George Osodi/AP.)
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YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon - Every Christian is a “rebel against
evil,” according to Cameroon’s lone cardinal.
Speaking during a program on Cameroonian state
television, Cardinal Christian Tumi also called on Christians to become more
involved in politics.
“Every Christian is a rebel against all that is not
good-that is morally evil. A Christian is a rebel against lies,” Tumi said.
“Politics is part of the world and Christ has told us: Go
into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel message. Wherever there is man
acting; the Church has to be present,” he said.
“We are therefore called to evangelize the politicians
and politics, because their activity also is preparing them for the kingdom of
God. There is no activity that is out of the region of the church,” Tumi
continued.
The program brought together Christian leaders from
different denominations to discuss relations between Church and State in the
West African country, which is currently experiencing a number of crises,
including a rebellion in the country’s two English-speaking provinces. Cameroon
is 80 percent French-speaking, and the Anglophone minority has long complained
about discrimination and marginalization by the Francophone majority.
Around 70 percent of the country’s population is
Christian, almost evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants.
During the program, the President of the Cameroon Baptist
Convention, Reverend Godwill Ncham, said he believed in the separation of
Church and State, but insisted it doesn’t mean that “the Church or Christians
cannot be involved in politics.”
“It is intended to create boundaries so that as a
Christian when you get involved in politics, you don’t turn the political
platform into a Church,” the Baptist minister said.
“So I believe the dichotomy of Christians not involved in
politics is not true to scripture, because the Christian life calls the
Christian to engage all of life. There is also the false dichotomy of circular
and sacred. I am first a Christian before a pastor; and my Christian life calls
me to engage the traditional sinful background from which I come unto
transformation, and I am supposed to engage others and bring them to
transformation as well .So to say that a Christian should not be involved in
politics because he would dirty himself is inadequate. A Christian should be
involved in politics in order to clean up the politics,” Ncham continued.
Tumi even said that if had not become a Catholic priest,
he would have become a politician.
“Politics is good. Take for instance; President Paul
Biya. He will answer for the role he has played as the head of state of a
people of God. The people in every country are the people of God, created by
Him. Every power comes from God, and therefore they must exercise power with
fear, and look at their power as occasions to serve,” the cardinal said.
Tumi criticized politicians for telling lies and making
promises they never intend to keep, and said Christian politicians should be
able to inject truth into politics.
“The Truth is the agreement between what I am saying and
what I am thinking. If what I am thinking contradicts what I am saying, I am
telling a lie. And we pastors have been called and sent by God to promote the
truth. Christ is the truth. ‘I am the Truth, I am the light, I am the way,’
says Christ. The truth is objective. If it is not objective, it’s not true,” he
explained.
Tumi said the Christian’s mission should also be to
sanitize politics, because “Christ came to save the sinner, not the saint.”
“So where sin abounds, the Grace of God also abounds. So
therefore, wherever a human being is found-be he or she good or bad, we have to
be there to try to bring the lost child back to the fold,” he said.
The Christian leaders were unanimous that the state was
“at war” against the Church.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rt. Rev. Samuel
Fonki Forba, accused the government of undermining religious studies.
“Religious studies in our schools should not be mocked
and treated as a side issue,” he said.
“What is happening in our country is because the morals
of our society have gone down the drain, and we must do something to keep those
morals. When things are bad, that’s when they (political leaders) call on
religious leaders to come and have an ecumenical prayer session for the
nation,” Forba continued.
“When things are moving the way they want them to move,
the Church is not recognized. And so we are saying that we have a lot to offer;
to partner with the state of Cameroon to change the present dispensation. They
must recognize the role of the Church in all of this,” he said.
Tumi was even more harsh in his criticism of the
government, reprimanding the state for excluding religious studies in
competitive examinations for professional schools.
“It’s a fight against us. It’s a fight by the government
against us,” the cardinal said.
“You are telling the children that religion is not so
important, and it betrays your ignorance. The highest university in England is
Oxford University and the highest degree you get in Oxford University is DD -
Doctor of Divinity, and that’s religion,” he said.
The animosity of the Cameroonian government against the
Church reached a head in 2017 when the Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua of
Bamenda, his auxiliary Bishop Michael Bibi, Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo, two
priests - Fathers Michael Kintang and William Neba - and ministers from other
denominations were dragged to court for statements made in connection
with the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions.
Ncham said such extreme measures by the state are to be
expected.
“The Church being taken to court is expected, because if
you look at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,
blessed are those who thirst after righteousness’; and he says those who are
peacemakers and who thirst after righteousness will be persecuted. So we
consider the being taken to court as being part of the persecution of the
Church trying to fill its role in the community,” the Baptist minister said.
“And it shouldn’t hurt us to produce wounds that will not heal, it should
fortify us to be resilient to continue to play our role in the community.”
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