By Farayi Mungoshi

AT a time when most churches across the nation are either fasting or praying for blessings and mercy to follow them throughout 2017, I find myself trekking back to see how I got to the stage I am today.
In all my 11 years as a church-going Christian and participating in church events, I have never had as many questions as I did in 2015 and 2016.
Reality sank in as I discovered that there are more blacks in the Bible than I have been led to believe or anticipated since birth.
Why someone would paint a people white when in actual fact they are black sounds very sinister.
Articles of blacks in the Bible were printed quite a number of times in The Patriot in recent years.
I therefore find it understandable when the blackman who is well-researched in black and white race issues finds it difficult to trust or believe the whiteman even in as far as the writing of the Bible is concerned.
The spirituality of the book and its essence has been tarnished and re-invented to own and control the minds of people and to make blacks feel inferior.
Does God support this?
Yet for such actions, the church has repeatedly been attacked.
This was done, not for the glory of God, but for personal gain.
For them to take time and sit down to discuss how Jesus was to be made white and to make the whole world believe he was white tells us that they are envious of what they are not.
They want to own what is not theirs.
It didn’t take much time for Africa to be invaded in the name of a white God. Whether all the missionaries who came here were for God, only God knows, but what we do know is these lies are the very reason why brother goes up against brother this day with one accusing the other that he is of the devil because he does not go to church and the other saying he would rather go to the bar than worship a white God.
Indeed for an artist like myself, it does get complicated but in the end, it all boils down to one thing: What do I believe in and what makes me believe in that?
Is the message that black is beautiful getting through to the intended recipients and if so, has it made any impact and changed the lives of people?
Decolonisation of the mind is essential, yet I, at 40, after having been presented with enough evidence and proof that Jesus was not white, but black, am still having difficulties picturing a black Jesus.
I am just wondering about the many people who still don’t know this and actually believe that their ancestors were evil and are in hell today because they were taught that in church.
Why is it there is so much emphasis on separating us from our past, when it is our past that brought us to this day?
Hence it is important for people to know and understand why they go to church.
The struggles we have undergone as a nation (perpetrated by those who supposedly brought the ‘good news’) have led many to church, not to seek spiritual growth, but substance, (money, husbands and wives).
In his teachings, Jesus once said one cannot serve two masters at once, either you love one and hate the other.
He was referring to God as one master and mammon (money) as the other.
Thus going into 2017, there is need for one to check him/herself again before partaking in causes that stand against everything he/she believes in.
We all know about the number of churches sprouting up in our country.
Not all are on solid ground even though they all profess Jesus.
Although the truth seems hidden, time and again, there are those who bring it out for the world to see and evaluate.
There is no denying that the weapon that was used to conquer Africa is the Bible.
The same Bible is also used for good and is a teacher to many.
The movie, The Book of Eli, is a good example of the power the Bible possesses.
The film is set during a period when the world has destroyed itself through nuclear war and the few who remain alive are now struggling for food and water.
God and prayer are forgotten, religion is dead and there is only one Bible left on the whole planet.
We find the protagonist (Denzel Washington) and antagonist (Gary Oldman) in the movie fighting for one thing, the Bible.
While Washington’s character wants to retrieve and preserve the book for re-print in order for people to find salvation again, Oldman’s character wants it for personal gain; power and wealth.
He believes it possesses the power to control peoples’ minds and make one rich.
“It’s been done before,” he says in the movie.
While others might dismiss it as a mere movie, it is presenting to us the reality that there are some among us using the Bible to manipulate others in order to make money.
There is no doubt the Church has become big business in Zimbabwe and the major question is: Are these so-called prophets, prophetesses, pastors, men and women of the cloth using the Bible for the right reasons?
Food for thought!