How top Ugandan clerics exhume ghosts of religious intolerance

MATSIKO GODWIN MUHWEZI

It is clear from our history that we have always had different views on politics and creed. When political power has been used to suppress religious freedoms, it has turned out to be a bitter phlegm for us.

We wish to forget Mwanga’s killings of the martyrs at Namugongo. When Idi Amin took over power in 1971, the decade that followed witnessed religious persecution of epic proportions. Janan Luwum’s coldblooded murder is a relic of the religious witch-hunt in our country.

To restore liberty of religious expression and burry the evils of Mwanga and Amin, Ugandans entrenched in Article 7 of the Constitution that Uganda shall not adopt a state religion.

This means, that such a position can only be reversed by a referendum and not just majority votes by Members of Parliament or another branch of government.

The Constitution provides a haven for incubation and debate of religious ideas, recognition of African Traditional practices in the main stream, a sprinkling of atheists; some visits from the papacy, different shades of Protestantism and Islam.

Our small country is a melting pot of many tribes, clans, cultures and beliefs. Tolerance and acceptance of diversity is the only way to make this shrubbery work out.

However, we have returned to that place where our leaders are using political power to revert this country to Amin days in terms of religious persecution.

Are we comfortable turning Uganda into another Syria or Afghanistan on religious grounds? If we choose selective amnesia of our history, we can at least channel surf on the television and learn from the mistakes being made in our day.

Where persecution from Rome may have united the disciples, an unholy alliance never helps the Great Commission.

Rather than get more lost sheep through the narrow gates of the sweet by and by, Uganda’s clerics have been caught up in a fight for influence over disillusioned followers.

Rather than put faith in the maker, they have become extensions of political ideology and their hope is in patronage by government.

It is said that some clerics have even given up preaching of the gospel and are running typical NGOs, social gatherings and business empires.

They now find issue with almost everything Jesus did: from healing the sick to prophesying and rebuking the tax collectors.  Preaching “good news to the poor” is now labelled prosperity gospel and ostracised.

What Jesus and his disciples did is now considered demonic and is being guillotined at the altar of science and secular humanism; even on pulpits!

These clerics are so in sync with social indulgence that they rush through the program so that people do not miss the beach bash or a Sunday pint.

What is left of the soul cleansing abandon sessions is a prompt catchup laced with a few verses from the Holy Book, some motivational pep talk and anecdotes; and nicely produced Karaoke segments.

Occasionally, there will be some bible labeled dramas and concerts. Apart from the lyric, all frenzy and after partying is like the run of the mill proggie.

Churches are now painting zebra crossings and growing trees; a mission no different from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of secular companies. Is that the father’s business which Jesus was always about?

Some religious leaders have been so inebriated with State endorsement that they are mini-governments running schools, universities, real estate empires and banking institutions.

This should not be a problem until they start getting cast in the Wolf of Wall Street in a class Machiavellian act. Some clerics have become so political that rather than being bearers of light, they are pawns for cunning devices to political ends.

The lines of their calling and sellout have been blurred beyond recognition. As it appears, some overzealous religious leaders are willing to stare into the abyss beyond conventional morality to upstage those they consider competition.

The irony is that despite the unholy alliance between State and Clerics, a wave of genuine seekers has continued to flock gatherings led by men whom the religious cartel did not ordain or anticipate.

Genuine seekers know in their hearts know what they want and no amount of regulation or stifling can change that. This reality is making most of the old guard irrelevant and insecure.

They have therefore embarked on an aggressive attack on fellow believers using state machinery in finance, taxation and regulation.

KCCA which is apparently led by a strong Christian was the first to ban street preachers. If Jesus preached on our streets, he would be behind bars by now at the hands of our religious leaders. How cliché!

Unknown to most Ugandans, laws and policies are being scribbled by a select few, exclusive meetings are being held at odd hours every so often to fine-tune the assault.

This has been going on for a while and despite the detour into age limit debate and other trivia, some clerics have made it their life mission to persecute other believers and will not rest until they do so.

Before long, hotels will be told to reject some religious gatherings or lose their licenses, churches will be told how to use their collections, to appoint and fire their leaders at the pleasure of clerics who do not even care about their beliefs.

Rather than preach what they believe, the unconventional believers will be required to recite manuals of dead theology and politically correct agendas crafted by the unholy alliance of the religious cartel and government.

These clerics have declared themselves conventional and therefore everybody else outside their social club is unconventional.

They try to massage the public image with anecdotes of religious excesses such as Kibwetere and holy rice but conveniently ignore holy water from Namugongo, sale of rosaries, endless construction projects and compulsory contributions to their organizations.

We already have enough Penal Laws and ethical codes to curb excesses and another layer of regulation is the last thing we need.

Foundational canons of our system are the presumption of innocence and fair hearing but it is convenient for these leaders to prosecute and convict citizens in the courts of public opinion to frame a regime that suits their ambitions.

It is public knowledge that some of the biggest patrons of conventional religious organizations oscillate between churches/ mosques and shrines where child sacrifice is performed. Yet these are the people sitting on a religious high horse and telling people how to pray.

To achieve the double purpose of testing the waters and chipping the crusts off religious freedoms, a few measures have been piloted in media and policy.

Some of these have been in banning of broadcast material, denying licenses and clearance to gather and stereotyping different gatherings in pigeon holes of acceptable and unacceptable based on flamboyance, average age of gathers, style of preaching and emphasis.

Religious freedom in Uganda suffers an existential threat and by the time these clerics are done, one will not be able to say, “Jesus is Lord” or pay tithe without express permission from this religious cartel.

It should be suspect to all of us that despite century old doctrinal differences amongst the Muslims, orthodox, Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Traditionalists; we see them captioned on a round table agreeing on religious issues.

If these clerics have warmed their way into the reigns of state machinery, we should anticipate a Crusade / Jihad that will make even Idi Amin rotate in his grave.

Maybe we have not always paid attention to the creeping erosion of our rights, but the tide is rising and it is rising fast.

The Writer is a Lawyer and Author.