The Influence of Christianity in Political Contests: A Perspective of the Seventh Day Adventist Church of Zambia

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to assess the influence that the Christian religious beliefs and practices of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (hereinafter SDA) in Zambia’s nascent democracy. To this end, it highlights religious underpinnings that ideally influence participation of members of the SDA in political voting. Additionally, it identifies secular factors that affect their civic engagement as well as emerging trends that have come to define SDA political participation. In this light, the chapter affirms the overlap of religion, ethnicity and politics that exist in Zambia. Based on this, it argues that secular factors have increasingly become more predominant than Christian stimuli in SDA members’ political involvement. To substantiate this development, the chapter discusses the 2021 electoral results in the Southern province of Zambia, a stronghold of the SDA Church. Thus, the chapter recommends, among other things, clarity in the Church’s teachings on members’ participation in politics as well as recalibrating their religious education on civic matters in order to give clear and consistent guidance.