Two Rivers Baptist to Advise Zimbabwe Regime

A delegation from Nashville’s Two Rivers Baptist Church will leave next week for the Southern African country of Zimbabwe to advise the government of President Robert Mugabe on election tactics—specifically how to reverse the outcome of an election that appears to be lost.Mugabe, the dictator who has ruled the formerly prosperous country since 1980, is in an electoral fight against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe’s party henchmen have been widely accused of violence and intimidation directed against opposition supporters, and are suspected of already attempting to rig the upcoming runoff election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.“We read about the recent election at the church and thought we could benefit from their way of doing things,” says Mugabe party loyalist Bright Matonga.Matonga was referring to Two River Baptist’s ongoing battle over church finances and the members who want to see the books. On May 11, Two Rivers voted to throw out 71 members who had demanded to see the spending accounts of the church’s pastor, the Rev. Jerry Sutton. That followed a vote held a week earlier in which the dissident members were allowed to stay at the church. As members of the church, the dissidents participated in the first vote, but they lost the election—and their membership—when their votes were disallowed in a second election.“We have a situation here in which our president lost a preliminary vote and seeks to reverse that result in a runoff,” notes Matonga. “It’s clear that the Two Rivers Baptist people know a thing or two about reversing a vote that didn’t go their way,” he adds approvingly. “They cleared that nest of vipers from their church, and that is what we seek to do in Zimbabwe—to clear out those who believe in democracy from getting a foothold in our government. Too much democracy is a bad thing.”