Religion has left Zambians stuck in life, says Siamunene
By Ben Mbangu in Choma
RICHWELL Siamunene says religion has left many Zambians stuck in life owing to outdated teachings.
Welcoming the new dawn government’s plans to overhaul the school curriculum, Siamunene observed that the manner in which religious education was taught in schools had no meaning in terms of complimenting other subjects.
He said the subject should be realigned with sciences since there was an act of transformation involved during the process of prayer as opposed to only talk about Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago.
“Majority Zambians are stuck in life because of the outdated religious education teaching we have continued receiving in schools and churches about Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago. Let’s now talk about what that attitude of Jesus can bring about in our lives so that the spirit becomes science as it is written in the book of Romans 12 verse 2 where Paul says be transformed by renewing your mind,” Siamunene suggested.
He proposed that religious education be relooked from the aspect of change it can bring about to other subjects or skills training.
“For example, let it be a science because we engage into prayer in order to be answered. For the answer to be given there must be a transformation on the person who is praying. Instead of being religious it must be turned into a spiritual science subject,” Siamunene suggested.
He said religious education teaching must bring about renewal of people’s mind so that they can create or innovate good things that they envision.
“The major problem is on the religious teaching we get from our churches, homes and schools and we are stuck with the teaching that it’s only Jesus who was given the power by God to change things. Yet Jesus is telling us that there is power in us as human beings,” he said. “So if we teach people that there is power in them it means that as we are going to reintroduce skills training subjects they are going to say ‘I can do anything’. But as things stand now we are stuck because the religious teaching we have tells us that only when the kingdom comes that’s when we will enjoy and this has a psychological bearing on us.”
Siamunene said the government particularly the Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima and his team must be supported in their quest to overhaul the entire school curriculum by giving them more ideas on what to change.
“You can train people about life skills and entrepreneurship but if they don’t change their mind, if there is no mind transformation that they can achieve anything, they will still be workers to those people who owns companies related to skills that they have undergone. And this is why we are suggesting that even RE should be looked at as they overhaul the curriculum,” explained Siamunene. “Let it be a science because it deals with change of mind. It brings about change just like multiplying two by two which is four. If we add science to it people will appreciate change. We must change the way people think. We must not look at the aspect of skills training only but also how we teach religious education.”