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Love the down-trodden, villains, Bishop Kakobe tells Tanzanians
2007-12-26 09:48:58
By Judica Tarimo
As Christians open boxes containing Christmas gifts today, Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church (FGBFC) Bishop Zakary Kakobe yesterday urged Tanzanians to cultivate a culture of extending love to the rejected, underprivileged and excluded members of the society including bandits, thieves and commercial sex workers.
``Almighty God loves us, he embraces, forgives and gives salvation through his only son - Jesus Christ - to all in the world despite the sins we commit. Tanzanians need to show love to sinners,`` the bishop said during a mass to celebrate Christmas.
Because of love, he said, God created the world and everything in it, for everybody - sinners, witches, bandits, thieves and God-fearing persons - so he urged Tanzanians to emulate God`s example of love.
The cleric decried indiscriminate killings of people with disabilities and other innocent people in Tanzania, acts he said are perpetuated by individuals bent on fast-tracking to own immense wealth.
Kakobe, one of the outspoken bishops, cited examples of people seeking instant richness, who are directed by witchdoctors, to sell organs of persons with disabilities such as Albinos, to generate quick and good money.
``This is totally against God`s spirit of love. What witchdoctors and rich-seeking individuals are doing is wrong and should not be accepted. We are duty-bound to show love to the disabled, to the deaf, the albinos, and other disadvantaged,`` said the cleric.
Kakobe appealed to government authorities to institute stringent legal measures against witchdoctors who instruct people to collect organs of albinos and other disabled people to become richer.
The bishop suggested a countrywide and extensive crackdown against witchdoctors involved in such malpractices.
``They are committing sins by misdirecting Tanzanians to kill persons with disabilities and take out their organs. Authorities should not take it for granted,`` he said.
Kakobe also criticized Tanzanians who take law in their hands to kill suspected thieves and bandits, describing the tendency as a clear demonstration that love is lacking amongst members of the society.
``It`s unreasonable and inhuman to stone people suspected to be thieves or bandits. Some of these are stoned to death for offences which they had not committed, and would turn out innocent if people held their restraint`` he insisted.
``If we really love each other, as our Lord father (God) did by giving out his only begotten son Jesus Christ, we should stop taking judgments unto our hands by stoning suspects but allow the law to take its course.
I humbly appeal to my fellow Tanzanians not take law in our hands,`` said Kakobe.
``We need to build a culture of loving those who are not loved by the society,`` he summed up.
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