When religious beliefs clash with journalism principles- part 3

I was stunned when one of the church elders who had witnessed the prophecy told me about it. Even some church elders were baffled. Things were bad in Zimbabwe and everyone was praying for an end to the misery. We were all asking: How could God allow the suffering and humiliation that the people of Zimbabwe were going through to continue? How could God justify the brutality that the people were enduring?

It did not make sense at all. It was only when the Bishop landed in Boston on August 14, 2003 and there was a huge blackout that affected 10 million people in Ontario, Canada and 45 million people in eight states in the North-East of the United States that the prophecy, which had been made two months earlier, dawned to one of the elders who had gone ahead and was about to drive to the airport to pick up the Bishop.

He realised what the blackout was all about. But he could not explain this as a miracle to anyone in the United States. No one, except perhaps fellow church members, was going to understand or believe him, that is, if he was not called a lunatic and assigned to a mental institution first.

This was not new to the elder. Scientists have always battled to explain things that God has done. Some are even challenging creation itself. He had experienced a glaring example of how scientists could explain miracles away in 1976 when the founder of the church Rev. Samuel Mutendi died.

Before his death Rev. Mutendi had told church elders and his followers that his time was up. He had quoted from 2 Timothy verse 7: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”  

He told his followers that if nothing extraordinary happened three days after his death, they could forget all that he had taught them about Jesus Christ and go back to their heathen ways of drinking beer and consulting n'angas (traditional healers).

Samuel Mutendi died on July 20, 1976. Three days after his death, a bright star with his picture was seen gliding across the sky for all to see. Scientists explained it away as an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). The local daily papers carried the story about the UFOs. But his followers realised that Samuel Mutendi had indeed been a Man of God and each July they trek to Defe in Gokwe, his resting place.

That was the same with the blackout in the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said lightning had struck a power plant in northern New York.  Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum blamed it on an outage at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. New York State governor George Pataki blamed the power outage on Canada. The list of speculations went on.

When the elder told me about the prophecy and the blackout on his return from the United States my curiosity overcame my journalistic cautiousness. I wrote the story and posted it on my website in September 2003. But some doubt still lingered at the back of my mind.

I watered down the prophecy and left out details about Howard and Bush, concentrating on Blair:

"Just over half of the people interviewed in a survey by the Mass Public Opinion Institute have said they want President Robert Mugabe to retire now and pave way for fresh elections," I wrote. "But The Insider has heard through the grapevine that someone has predicted that though under increasing pressure, Mugabe is likely to outlast his biggest adversary, British Prime Minister Tony Blair."

The Insider was the name of my publication. I had launched it in December 1990 as a monthly confidential publication available only to those who subscribed a year in advance. I had managed to publish it for 13 years, though it was not making enough money for me to work for it full-time. But I stopped printing after the April 2003 edition because of inflation. Revenue for the entire year’s subscription was no longer enough to print even a single edition because the money had lost its value. I had therefore decided to switch to the internet and launched my website – www.insiderzim.com- also under the same name- The Insider.

The story was a mixture of fact and prophecy but I did not disclose that the so-called prediction was prophecy. I was in a catch-22 situation. I could not ignore the prophecy because my teaching told me: "Mwari haazi munhu, haangarevi nhema". (God is not man, that he should lie). But facts on the ground told another story that I could not ignore either.

The main reason why I wrote the story was that, despite my doubts, I felt somehow that the prophecy would be fulfilled one day so I had to write the story so that I would not be accused of fabricating things when the prophecy turned out to be true as it now has. I wanted to have something to fall back on.

This is the third chapter of my kindle book: When religious beliefs clash with journalism principles,which is available only through Amazon. The book is not about the church or about Mugabe but about my experiences in the Zion Christian Church. If,  in the process, this helps to spread the word about the ZCC then I would have done my part because the church and its leader Bishop Mutendi are not only preaching the Word of God in Zimbabwe and across the World but they are also promoting the development of Zimbabwe, which former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere said was the Jewel of Africa. As it is said in Isaiah 2 vs 2 "that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it" so will the ZCC and Zimbabwe. For my fellow Zimbabweans who have no means of buying this book online, I will be serialising it on this blog, bit by bit. So follow this blog.