The misguided billboard and the Christians reaction


On the billboard issue that carried a controversial religious message, i have noted several dissenting views...

1. Some are of the view that we must allow religious competition through negative marketing until the most negative wins against the meek.

I find the above as naive and analogous to stirring a religious fight in a generally peaceful country. This is bad advice.

2. Some think the best is to leave those who provoke others alone, because in heaven God will punish provokers....


I find the above as ill advised. What would happen is that non action would pass as tacit approval of the provocation and over time these would multiply and a confrontation would become inevitable. We do not want such an avoidable future strife of a religious nature. We are a peaceful and tolerant nation yes and that is why we even elected Muluzi as president at a time when his religion accounted for under 9% of the nation's faiths. But this peace must be guarded to avoid it spilling away.

What i think

In my view, the starting point is adherence to a number of legal norms

1. Within the constitution and indeed the international bill of rights, everyone has the right to belong to any religion if they so desire
2. and over that, they are free to express their love for such freedoms and choices as they see fit

3. But as a rule, every right ought to be exercised in such a way that such an enjoyment does not infringe upon the rights of others.

4. The rights we enjoy are often not absolute, and they are derogable /limited in line with legal norms as outlined in your section 44 of your constitution. One fundamental principle for such a limitation to be in accordance with the law is that one's exercise of own rights must not impinge on the ability of others to enjoy their own rights. Every right has as its correlate, a duty ..

In the end, it is easy to see that by referencing the old and new testament in the manner the others did, they were undermining the enjoyment of the rights of others to enjoy their own choices. Since religious issues are fluid the world over and they have been the cause of many wars and continue to do so, that error was fundamental and material. It needed to be corrected


Going forward, we should be desirous of a Malawi in which people from any religion accepted within our society, can enjoy worship without the necessity of having to defend such. If such an order can constitute the norm, it wont be necessary to debate these issues.


Religion can be marketed, but let us be considerate that in so doing, we do not infringe on the ability of others to market or enjoy their own.

The tradition is also applicable in marketing of many other goods and services in the civilized world

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