With this seemingly sound scriptural backing Chiluba was able to ask of his Christian supporters to endure hardships beyond those that brought the UNIP government of Kaunda to its knees. Calling once more on faith prosperity doctrines, "Chiluba admonished Christians to 'work hard and not to continue begging because there was not poverty in heaven'." Phiri questioned whether Chiluba's actions were in fact in keeping with his former beliefs as a trade unionist, "the characteristics of liberal democracy as understood by Chiluba were not put into practice when he declared Zambia a Christian nation." Because of his seemingly unassailable position the MMD threw themselves whole heartedly into an adjustment programme. Haynes comments that the programme "was so stringent that the local World Bank representative counselled caution and urged that greater concern be given to the issue of social instability, which he judged to be a direct result of too fervent an application of adjustment policies". The policy left many unemployed, raise the price of basic foods with the removal of subsidies (an action that had caused major riots under Kaunda) and increased the cost of education and healthcare. The application of this programme was to have a huge impact on the population and it was to finally cause a rift between Chiluba and the church. Phiri states it, "contributed to the worsening of the economic standards of 80 percent of Zambians". Once more as hardship threatened the population the church was compelled to take up an advocacy role instigating, "conflict between Chiluba and the churches… to the social impact of his economic policies" This was a crucial moment in the relationship between Chiluba and the church because, "the sustainability of economic policies depends to a large extent of the balance of power between groups supporting and those against."