Ten days symposium: Law and order, #EndSARS, BLM, anti-lockdown and "peaceful protests" - Day 2

Ten days symposium: Law and order, #EndSARS, BLM, anti-lockdown and "peaceful protests"- Day 2

26/10/20

As Christians we are protestants and our protest is never to be silent till we shall overcome the sinful giants and their imposed "status quo" which is unbridled injustice, war, destruction and tyranny. So we stand in solidarity with protesters and their right to peacefully protest although we may often disagree with their cause. We are now living in tribal world and the rights afforded to some may be unlawful for others. Recently we have witnessed the allowance of BLM protests in the middle of the pandemic and yet with horror the anti-lockdown protesters have faced the fury of the law as if the virus is a respecter of political affiliation. In Wales, Australia and other countries, people are waking up to a realisation that the Covid19 policies have gone too far in their infringement of their civil liberties. The naturally totalitarian mindset of many politicians have tested blood and will not let up until another era of civil rights movement wrestles with the ever moving pendulum. The truest protest cannot be nonsensical hysteria like the pink hats "#me too" protests which hypocritically ignored the pedophilia of Jeffrey Epstein while using a hammer to attack unfounded accusations against Justice Kavanaugh. As a Christian, we have countless heroes of the Great Protest against the seed of the serpent; "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" Daniel 3:16-18.

"Opposition is the lot of all whom God employs to present truths specially applicable to their time. There was a present truth in the days of Luther,—a truth at that time of special importance; there is a present truth for the church today. He who does all things according to the counsel of his will, has been pleased to place men under various circumstances, and to enjoin upon them duties peculiar to the times in which they live, and the conditions under which they are placed. If they would prize the light given them, broader views of truth would be opened before them. But truth is no more desired by the majority today than it was by the papists who opposed Luther. There is the same disposition to accept the theories and traditions of men instead of the Word of God as in former ages. Those who present the truth for this time should not expect to be received with greater favor than were earlier reformers. The great controversy between truth and error, between Christ and Satan, is to increase in intensity to the close of this world’s history" GC88 143.3.

The freedom of expression and the right to protest should not be suppressed, we are in solidarity with those who make a stand against encroachments on civil liberties in any country around the world. It's unfortunate that some protesters abuse this right and use it as means to riot and loot. In Nigeria, there has been anti police brutality protests under the #EndSARS hashtag which have reminded the government that they can only govern the people by their consent although there is stiff resistance from the executive branch and it's instruments of the state. "What began as a protest against the hated police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars) has become a conduit for the youth to vent their anger with the people who have been in charge of Nigeria for decades, and demand change.Former President Olusegun Obasanjo warned in 2017 that "we are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder" when it comes to the young" BBC news 23/10/20. This movement is similar to the BLM protests that rocked America early in the spring, the protests were about the racial injustice towards African Americans and the heavy handed dealings of the police. The anarchists who also join these protests do not necessarily help the cause by carrying their agendas similar to that of the Jacobeans who brought France to ruin. The Christian protest enhances the fabric of society than destroy it, the examples of righteous protest is like that of Luther nailing his theses on the Church doors in Wittenberg and the civil disobedience by the there Hebrew boys in Daniel chapter 3. 

Protestant theology has revolutionised the law in the Western world and has similarly influenced the legislature of the developing world. The chipping away of indivisible rights by governments without the required consent is ushering in the new age of totalitarianism only to be conquered again by our 21st century civil rights movement. Only the few, poor and unpopular remaining Protestants who haven't compromised with ecumenical alliances with the Fascist Church and state will be able to challenge the tyranny of modern populism and it's influencers operating under the garb of holiness. 

"Calvinism has also had profound effects upon the development of Western Law,and especially upon American law. The Puritans carried forward the Lutheran concept of the sanctity of individual conscience and also, in law, the sanctity of individual will be as reflected in property and contract rights... Seventeenth century Puritans, including men like John Hampden, John Lilburne, Walter Udall, William Penn and others, by their disobedience to English law, laid the foundations for the English and American law of civil rights and civil liberties as expressed in our respective constitutions: freedom of speech and press, free exercise of religion, the privilege against self-incrimination, the independence of the jury from judicial dictation, the right not to be imprisoned without cause, and many other such rights and freedoms. We also owe to Calvinist congregationalism the religious basis of our concepts of social contract and government by consent of the governed" Berman, The Interaction of Law and Religion, 66-67 in Robbins Ecclesiastical Megalomania Pg 22-23.

It's sad to witness riots and looting which instead of bringing change of policy from the government through peaceful protests the change they get through violence is the blue lives matter agenda which is the enhancement of state power over the public under the law and order mandates. Law and order agenda as we know it is an anti- insurrection stance from the authorities that will quash dissent with fury. If we believe we can successfully protest online via our social media platforms, we are greatly deceived, the freedoms of expression and of speech which we surrendered to the social media giants can without notice be censored and subject to cancel culture. While doors are still open, let the thesis and voices be heard until freedom reigns.

"But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines, and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority,—not one or all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept, we should demand a plain “Thus saith the Lord” in its support. - GC88 595.1

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Tarisai P Ziyambi