Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Antiochus IV Epiphanes was known as the ‘madman’ because of the terrible crimes he committed against the Jews. Down the ages there have been other leaders of nations whom people have also called madmen. Read Daniel 7:9-28 and 12:1-4 once again and express your opinion on why Christians should be hopeful even when such leaders terrorise and oppress people today.

The madman who holds top-of-mind awareness for me today is Robert ‘Zimbabwe-is-Mine!’ Mugabe. He’s not only committing terrible crimes against ‘outsiders’ in his country – like the white farmers who he equates with colonialist imperialism, or the opposition politicians he accuses of being Western puppets – but against his own suffering people who as a result of his terrible leadership are dying in Zimbabwe of starvation, AIDS and cholera; or who are fleeing their homeland for any country they can get into, even xenophobic struggle-boys-club SADC member South Africa, because anything is better than the extreme suffering they are experiencing at home.

The situation in Zimbabwe is heartbreaking, and it certainly appears as if God must be absent while this evil prevails! Even some religious congregations seem to have given up hope and have closed houses there, or handed the cathedral parish in Harare over to the local archbishop after 115 years of service.

However, Christians should remain hopeful even when the likes of Bob terrorise and oppress people today, because – as the book of Daniel shows us – while earthly powers will come and go in time, God’s authority is supreme, unchanging and will last eternally. God will rule over all nations, and over all of creation.

While it’s important to remain hopeful by looking forward to the day when the coming of God’s kingdom will liberate all people from oppression, I think it’s also necessary that Christians recognise and accept that they should not merely sit and wait while they count the anticipated number of days until God’s kingdom comes (as though it were a Soccer World Cup or the last big Mathematics Olympiad!), but to step up and actively play their part in ushering in the coming of God’s kingdom: by living God’s law of love and being present to the needs of the world, and in so doing being a sign of God’s love for all people.

I believe that in time God will give back to Zimbabwe the years that the locusts have eaten! In the meantime it’s up to us to fast and pray for the freedom of Zimbabwe, and to do whatever we can to raise awareness about the injustices, and to pressure our country’s leaders to act more responsibly towards our neighbours instead of shaking hands with a ‘smiling damned villain’ (to borrow a phrase from Hamlet).