Christianity and Citizens’ Participation in the Electoral Process: A Case of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Southern Province of Zambia

Abstract

This article assesses the influence that the Christian religious beliefs and practices of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (hereinafter SDA) in Zambia’s nascent democracy. By employing a comparative theoretical approach, it highlights religious motivations that are meant to drive the levels of participation of members of the SDA in the electoral process such as campaigns and voting. Furthermore, it identifies secular factors that influence their civic participation as well as the emergent trends that have become characteristic of SDA political involvement. In this light, the article argues that secular factors have increasingly become more predominant than Christian motivations in SDA members’ political involvement. This trend was evidenced by electoral results in Southern province of Zambia, which holds the stronghold of the Church’s membership. Thus, the article recommends, among other things, that leaders of the SDA Church should offer clear teachings and consistent guidance on members’ participation in politics.  This will require, at least in the Zambian context, recalibrating the Church’s religious education on civic matters.