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Sarah Nyathi OPEN HEARVENS
Responsibility and accountability is a trait that is necessary for one to make a success of life’s endeavours. Whether one is a professing Christian or not the importance of being responsible and accountable cannot be over emphasized. Throughout the record of the sacred writings of Christianity (The Holy Bible) it is observed that God expected His people to be accountable and responsible from the inception of the human race in the Garden of Eden to date. Responsibility has not become outdated or antiquated.

Being responsible infers taking care of your duties, answering to your actions, being accountable and above all being trustworthy. Accountability is also important if one is to be responsible therefore we need to define accountability. Accountability is answering to somebody else for your actions or whereabouts.

In the previous articles we have discussed Human Responsibility, Religious Responsibility and Personal Responsibility. We will look at Moral Responsibility as we conclude this series.

Gen 2:15-20

Vs 15 “And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it.

Vs 16 And the Lord commanded the man saying, you may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

Vs 17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, blessing and calamity you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Vs 20 And Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the air and to every (wild) beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.

Gen 3:12-13

Vs 12 “And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me. She gave me (fruit) from the tree, and I ate.

Vs 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled (cheated, outwitted and deceived me) and I ate.

Moral Responsibility

Moral responsibility has been defined as “the status of morally deserving praise, reward or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one’s moral obligations”. Your moral obligations would be concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour and the goodness or badness of human character.

It has also been defined by the Free Merriam —Webster dictionary as “holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct”, “expressing or teaching a conception of right behaviour”, “conforming to a standard of right behaviour”.

Deciding what you are obligated to morally is a principle concern of your ethics. An individual needs to possess defined ethics in order to develop a moral compass. The Bible refers to the moral compass as a conscience.

1 Tim 1:19 “Holding faith and a good conscience, which some have put away and made shipwreck as to faith”.

Titus 1:15 “To the pure all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled”.

The Moral Compass

Developing a moral compass is having an inner sense that distinguishes what is right from wrong, functioning as a guide. Every normal person should have a little voice inside of them that chides them when they wrong and affirms them when they have done well. The absence of this little voice is a condition referred to Biblically as a “seared conscience”. For a compass to function effectively it has to have a “true North”. If the North cardinal point on the compass is defective and therefore not “true North” it will automatically lead the user astray in the wrong direction. “True North” in the moral compass is represented by “integrity”. Our ethics and values determine our “true North”. Morally responsible individuals have a foundation of integrity.

Ethics

Ethics is the ability to distinguish between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of people. It is the basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. Our ethics and values are intertwined and one affects the other.

Values

Our ethics are influenced to a large extent by our values. Values are “important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture of what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable”. Values have a major influence over behaviour and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.

Who Is Responsible Morally?

We are free moral agents because God has given us a free will. God will not force you to do anything against your will, so it is your choice to be responsible or accountable. Many people ask why God allowed Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the “Tree of knowledge of good and evil” that caused the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Others will venture to also ask that if God is in control, why has He allowed the world to be in such a mess. Much of the situations we find ourselves in are a result of the decisions that we make. God created human beings to be free moral agents that have the innate ability to choose and decide for themselves as to the course of action they will take.

Moral Agents Are Capable Of:-

Reflecting on their situation

Forming intention on how they will act

Carrying out the action

They exercise their free will while carrying out these actions.

Adam and Eve existed in the garden and could choose to either follow the instruction and not partake of the fruit or disregard the command and do as they pleased. God still leaves moral responsibility in the hands of His creation. We have the free will to do as we please, that free will can be used to build a life based on integrity or on values that are not congruent with the will and desires of God for our lives.

It is my contention that Zimbabwe as a nation has allowed the “true North” in the national moral compass to be compromised. The result is the corruption and disorder that we witness in all spheres of life in the nation. The “true North” has also been altered in the church (I refer to the corporate Body of Christ and not any particular denomination), it has been altered in business, politics, the uniformed forces, the family and many other areas. Our levels of moral responsibility have been seriously eroded.

On sitting down to ponder why this happened, I realised (and I stress this is a personal opinion that is open to debate) that during the economic meltdown that took place between the years 2000-2010 the suffering and challenges endured by many, altered the “true North” on our moral compass. During this period the “formal economy” and business practices which had their roots in integrity were altered and disregarded as everyone fought for survival. Ethics and values were discarded as all and sundry dabbled in the so-called “parallel market”. Lines were in between which had previously been black or white, good and bad. Zimbabweans existed in a “grey haze” where there were no clear parameters. Right and wrong, good and bad were sacrificed at the altar of survival. Survival dictated the ethics and values of the moment.

Men and women of the cloth who should have been custodians of the moral compass of the nation were also caught up in the bid to survive. Few Christians can claim not to have “burned money”, “wheeled and dealt”, or “smuggled,” as all struggled to survive. In fact there were many believers who thrived, amassed wealth and gave great sums in offering baskets from “shady” business deals.

When Zimbabwe emerged on the other side in 2011 things were never to be the same again. The ethics, values and moral compasses of the people had been damaged. Integrity based “True North” had been altered and tarnished. Re-instating integrity in our moral fibre has proved very difficult indeed. Excessive hardships and the fight for survival had altered the Zimbabwean psyche.

It is during this period that we witnessed the proliferation of “the questionable prophetic” and fancy, “overnight success for little work” religion emerging. Broken families were also the order of the day. The preaching of the prosperity gospel went into overdrive as men of God tried to encourage people and give them hope during the time of darkness and despair. I will be the first to admit that this was important and necessary, as the Bible clearly states that “hope deferred makes the heart sick” and people needed hope. Sadly, the full counsel of the Word of God and balanced preaching was relegated as priests/preachers/pastors encouraged people to remain hopeful as a better day would soon dawn. Congregants developed an appetite for this type of gospel and now struggle to remain in churches where this exciting message is not churned out regularly each Sunday.

Other spheres of life were also tarnished, uniformed forces began unashamedly demanding bribes in public, civil servants offered their “free services” in exchange for bribes and gifts, increased incidence of “small houses”, older women preyed on younger men commonly referred to as “Ben Ten’s”, there is an increased appetite for pornography, illegal abortions are available for a small fee. Gays and lesbians parade themselves and their agenda openly whereas in the past they did so in the “closet”.

Unemployment, and lack of a moral compass has produced Ben Tens’ — young men soliciting through press advertisements and other means for rich older women to pamper and spoil sexually in return for financial favours . . . businesses were not exempted from the fight for survival, those who were willing to give “kick backs” and other favours for business deals and other privileges complied so that they could survive. Much more took place that I cannot chronicle in this short article, save to say Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans were never the same again. Her moral compass had been altered and her “true North” tarnished.

Did this phenomena exist before 2000? I contend it did to a lesser degree but has increased exponentially with the altering of the Zimbabwean ethics and value systems.

Can Zimbabwe regain her integrity again? I maintain she can. It will require all responsible citizens of this nation electing to restore their personal ethics and value systems where integrity is the leading and guiding principle. This can only be possible when we allow the transforming power of Jesus Christ to work in our lives. None of us can change ourselves, but only He can.

I will speak frankly to all men and women of God (being one myself) in this nation to examine our moral compasses. There was a time when the motivation to be in ministry, start a ministry, or any act of Christian ministry was purely a call of God and a vocation. Lately, many new entrants into the ministry have been motivated by financial gain and other selfish reasons. Let us return to preaching the “full counsel” of the word of God. Surely we cannot produce balanced Christians if we preach “prosperity” and “breakthroughs” all year round! While prosperity and breakthroughs are important and God does desire to see His children prosper, there is more to the gospel of Christ than “prosperity” and “breakthroughs”. I preach the prosperity gospel occasionally too, but have come to the realisation that Christians need a varied and balanced diet of the different doctrines of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6:1-2 refers to these as the elementary doctrines that all Christians should be familiar with:-

Repentance from dead works

Faith toward God

Baptisms

Resurrection of the dead

The great judgment

Laying on of hands

When was the last time preaching on the cross of Jesus Christ, His blood and His second coming were heard echoing from pulpits across the nation?

I urge my fellow Zimbabweans to take time and examine their personal moral compass, ethics, and values. Have these been altered? Are you the same person that you were before 2000 or have you allowed the harsh realities of life to change you, and create a new value system in you.

Remember we are free moral agents. God gave every person a free will and it is up to you to become a person of responsibility or not. Exercise your free will and become a person of character and integrity.