Faith Based Organizations in Zimbabwe

Thus, these worded questions have not been included in the appendices however as the responses are varied. However, my third question proposed “How important is religion to you?” The general consensus was that religion is only partially important, with some respondents replying that it has no bearing on their lives while a minority stated it is vital. Moreover, respondents were asked to give a concise summary of religion’s and spirituality’s differences. The most notable statement provided entailed “Religion shares beliefs between many human beings, spirituality is personal - only a connection between yourself and serenity”. This is imperative to religion since its role in society is to express common beliefs practiced by a collective community, whilst many believed spirituality is where the moral values and guides an individual lives by is reflected in their lives fulfilling

What these examples show are that people strictly follow “obligations” in order to fulfill their religious ideology. Religion, in my opinion, is confined too strictly to regulations and a process that is not externalized to an individual. The conception of faith is more personalized than religious practices with the open mind and “free-lancer” aspects. When an individual looks up or ponders the word “faith” they find explanations like immense support of God. When I ponder the word “faith” I think of something that supports a purpose either in a negative or positive way.

Bratton Michael, and Nicolas Van De Walle. Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Print. Coleman, James S. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism.

African Security review. 16(2): 26-37. Williams, P 2006: The African Union: Prospects for regional peacekeeping after Burundi and Sudan. Review of African Political Economy, Vol 33, N 108 [Accessed 3 April 2014]. www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/07/egypt [Accessed 2 April 2014].

Another major difference between the two terms is community versus self. Like said before, Religion entails a community of people or a parish. In comparison, Personal Faith is not community based, but self based. It is many people believing in a system of beliefs versus one person with their own beliefs. Obama said in a speech, “Faith reminds me that in spite of being one very imperfect man I can still help whoever I can, however I can, wherever I can for as long as I can” (Gilgoff).

It is more about what they get, not about God. We all know that even if something looks great for its appearance, if it does not glorify God, then the purpose of doing it becomes meaningless. C.S. Lewis talks about the true meaning of charity and how service truly should be done in his book, Mere Christianity. Also, we are able to get a true earthly perspective of what we perceive service as and why we are doing service through Adam Davis’ work, What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service.

The Holy Bible is not made by God, but instead made my humans, with claim of messages and stories in which give us another point of view to consider while dealing with people and life. Politics and the Bible go hand-in-hand, as they both give account and references to how humans have lived and organized since the beginning of time. By completely eradicating the Bible from all things government-related is not practical at all. Nevertheless the reason for the separation of church and state clause in the development of the United States... ... middle of paper ... ...e us all, instead of being cowardly obsessive in getting rid of the physical differences that barely divide the people that make up the country. The Bible itself provides a binding of old teachings and principles that can be used even to this day.

Some religions believe in the supreme God, some believe in other gods, some do not believe in God or any other god. Religion is such a vast topic that instead of attempting to define the differing philosophies from each specific religion, the definition of religion should be left up to the individual. Instead of trying to limit what religion should be, instead allow each individual the limitless options to define how he or she sees religion. I personally define religion as one’s values and beliefs as predicated by one’s relationship or lack thereof with God, a god, or an entity higher than one’s self. Christians have values and beliefs based on their relationship... ... middle of paper ... ...framework for my opinion that humans are naturally cooperative and good.

Faith-based organizations mentioned above are more likely than not to contain explicitly religious elements in their activities. “The Roundtable staff developed and refined a Faith Integration Scale that places faith-based organizations along a continuum ranging from those that are indistingu... ... middle of paper ... ...ions provided love, nurture, and help which my provide long lasting support to an individual who was once ready to dive into a state of depression. Faith- based organizations work could be viewed as inappropriate in our current time, although little is known about the role that “faith” plays in bringing about desired change in the lives of social service recipients. In my eyes the services provided are in no way inappropriate. Religious or not, I believe most people have a sense of a higher being which is in control of our lives.

Udogu,E.(1992). In search of political stability and survival: toward Nigeria’s Third Republic. Retieved from http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Udogu_Ike_1992_In_Search_of_Political_ORIG.pdf Uzoechina,O.(2008). State fragility and the challenges of development in West Africa: Moving from reaction to prevention. Retrieved from www.africanleadershipcentre.org