Mwanawasa Baptised
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
February 28, 2005
Posted to the web February 28, 2005
PRESIDENT Mwanawasa yesterday recounted how his wife Maureen was hounded out of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect after he decided to return to politics to contest the Republican presidency.
In a moving testimony shortly before he was baptised at Twin Palm Baptist Church in Lusaka, Mr Mwanawasa said his wife who was a baptised member of the church was asked to choose between him and the religion before she was ex-communicated.
He said he felt compelled to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses, his church of six years. He had joined the Jehovah's Witnesses after retiring from politics.
He said the Jehovah's Witnesses had a lot of influence on him, but somehow he started questioning the doctrine of a church, which did not allow its members to play any role in politics.
Mr Mwanawasa, who quoted from the book of Romans on the need to fear civil authority in order to spread the word of God, said it was at that point that he decided to leave the church to contribute to the development of the nation.
But when he left, elders from the Jehovah's Witnesses visited his wife questioning why she had allowed him to contest the presidential elections.
"It was unfair that because of my political career my wife was ex-communicated from the church. My wife was given a choice to leave me or continue with the church. Thank God she chose to remain with me," he said.
Mr Mwanawasa, who was baptised at a colourful ceremony conducted by Pastor Rodney Masona, said his life had been a cycle as he had previously congregated in different denominations that included the Catholic Church and the United Church of Zambia (UCZ).
The president said he had started a new life with Christ adding that he was struck by light just like what happened when Paul was converted to Christianity on his way to Damascus.
The president said when he served as Republican vice-president, he was disappointed with what the leaders were doing.
He said leaders had promised the people of Zambia good governance once they were put in office, but later on, the leaders abandoned their promises.
Mr Mwanawasa said he was forced to resign from Government and decided to leave UCZ where he was a member to join the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The president said that his purpose in life was to provide leadership though that walk had been punctuated by many problems. He said he was human and prone to mistakes.
He cited how he spoke strongly about the Catholic Church and former president, Kenneth Kaunda, but afterwards saw that he was wrong.
"When I looked back at the video, I thought I should apologise for what I said. Believe me this apology is coming from the bottom of my heart" he said.
When delivering the homily, Pastor Masona said that baptism was an act of worship where an individual publicly demonstrated that he belonged to Jesus Christ.
Pastor Masona then challenged the congregation to turn their lives to Christ and warned them of the dangers of clinging to earthly materials.
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Then a group of clergy from different churches and diplomatic corps led the president to a baptism pool where he was immersed in water.
Meanwhile, Mr Mwanawasa leaves today at 08:00 hours for Kasempa to go and drum up support for MMD candidate in the Kasempa March 4 by-election, Kabinga Pande.