EFZ MEMORIAL STAND RAISES QUESTIONS ON CONSISTENCY AND GRATITUDE
EVANGELICAL Fellowship of Zambia’s (EFZ) ban on churches observing former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s memorial exposes a troubling inconsistency.
The Fellowship now says it’s “morally inappropriate” to remember before burial. Yet Christian tradition is full of prayer vigils, thanksgiving, and memorial services held while burial arrangements are pending. Remembrance is not an interment.
What makes EFZ’s position harder to defend is history. In 2016, President Lungu restored the Ministry of Religious Affairs and National Guidance. EFZ welcomed it publicly as recognition of the Church’s role. That ministry gave the Church direct access to government, resources, and policy influence.
So the question Zambians are asking is simple: if EFZ embraced the benefits of that relationship, why recoil from the responsibility of remembrance when the man is gone and the family is grieving?
EFZ is right to insist on consultation before any event uses “the Church” as a sponsor. But banning all voluntary prayer and reflection goes beyond procedure. It looks like selective gratitude.
Moral authority is built on consistency in both seasons of blessing and seasons of mourning. Anything less feeds the public perception that support was only there while the benefits flowed.
Will Zambians be wrong to conclude that the Fellowship’s leadership risks being seen as selective praise-singers of whoever holds power? Will it be wrong to conclude that they are just a bunch of bamushanima ubwali (nshima twerkers)?
Ends….