Opinion: Christians in authority should oppose mandatory vaccination

By Wisdom Peter Katumba

At the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world assumed total control usurping all human freedoms (mostly religious freedom).

Sooner than later, the controversial measures they had imposed were no longer tenable and normalcy was restored.

They then embarked on a new scheme called “Build Back Better” presented as a frame work for reviving the global economies. But the policies that come with it are meant to slowly and ‘legally’ rob mankind of their basic freedoms.

Recently, the Minister of Health introduced the Public Health Amendment Bill 2021 to parliament.

Among other things, the bill seeks to legalise mandatory mass vaccinations while indemnifying the government and its agents in case of any vaccine adverse effects reaction.

Worse still, this bill authorises government agencies to punish its offenders without judicial prosecution even to the tune of four million shillings, roughly half the average Ugandan’s percapita income.

The bill also gives the minister of health full discretionary and regulatory powers to solely declare epidemics and order mass vaccination drives while it reduces the time frame for vaccination of children from five years after birth to twelve months after birth.

One would wonder what business a religious leader like me would have in matters of national health policy.

According to the January 2020 Afrobarometer Dispatch No.339, more than 9 in 10 Africans (95%) identify with a religion. This therefore calls for deliberate consideration of religion’s say in matters of policy.

In Africa, religion is the last standing time tested barrier against immorality and a seared conscience among the populace.

This is why the proponents of these ‘copy and paste’ policies from the West will do anything to compromise religious consciousness in the population even if it means hiding behind something as noble as vaccination.

Being conscious of this, as a spiritual leader, I am on the constant lookout to flag any such policies that are merely smokescreens of human freedoms violations.

This is why every Christian any place of authority ought to be interested in all upcoming post Covid-19 policies and their likely impact on the sanctity, and integrity of religious freedom.

If mandatory mass vaccination is legalized, it will facilitate government’s long hidden agenda to secularise religion, curtail religious freedom and clandestinely curb the influence of religion in facilitating the right to life and determining the moral standards of our nation.

While this would sound like a big and an unfounded accusation, let me refresh your memory with two incidents.

In 2017 the government developed a religious policy to among other things turn religious institutions into state agencies that run government programs and give the politician final say in qualifying religious ministers.

When this pursuit failed, the government sought to use the covid-19 pandemic to enforce the same agenda by imposing unreasonably stringent restrictions on places of worship. They found it scientifically sound to cap numbers in places of worship while numbers in market places remained uncapped.

Mandatory mass vaccination also neglects faith as a core cog in the decision making process of many people. “Believe the science” so they have preached. But not everyone buys into this notion.

Besides, there is no law in the constitution that gives science precedence over religion or vice versa.

Of course many people discredit religion because they cannot verify its processes and because some have relied on it and lost their lives and loved ones.

But scarcely do the same people ever seek verification of the scientific processes that produce the medical interventions they espouse.

Besides, they too have lost life and loved ones under the best scientific interventions. It is clear thus, that just like religion, science is followed by ‘faith’, and one’s right to rely on religious interventions by ‘faith’ should not be taken away.

As Christians we know through prophecy (Revelation 13:16-18) about a time to come when world governments will seek to impose a mark on everyone determining who can buy and sell.

This will be effected by implantation of biometric chips in the human body by which governments will not only remotely access all your private information and transactions but also control your financial prosperity. We are seeing bits of this currently implemented in China.

Please understand that this is the kind of thing governments cannot do without enabling laws. With today’s advancing technology, what is to stop them from presenting it as some form of vaccination when that time comes?

While we might be concerned about pandemics we should not pass blanket laws that will only serve to jeopardise the future of religious and other human freedoms.

As a matter of fact, it is now public knowledge that big pharma in the West are the leading proponents of draconian policies such as mandatory mass vaccinations.

With all these powers vested in the minister, what happens if the big pharma buys her off? May be the current minister has some level of morality; as a Christian leader, you do remember that there was a time when the Jews thrived in Egypt because the successive kings knew about a one Joseph that had turned the Egyptian economy from grass to grace. However this was so until there arose a king that didn’t know Joseph.

Giving power to government agencies to exact punishment without judicial prosecution is grossly dangerous.

It facilitates corruption by those who cannot afford the penalties, and makes it easy for holders of authority to unfairly persecute and or haunt their political and religious opponents.

We all know that the history and current state of Uganda is no stranger to religious and political fights.

This begs many questions; while they always told us to follow the science, why is the politician now carefully leaving out the scientist and taking the place of the scientist?

In a country where neither Ebola nor Covid-19 are the leading cause of death, shouldn’t government focus on more pressing public health challenges like road accidents, Malaria and HIV that have higher mortality rates?

Why are they in a hurry to vaccinate children without sound scientific justification? Could it be that there is some form of deadline they are working around?

What is the scientific rationale in copy-pasting Western policies and making vaccination mandatory?

Shouldn’t true science evoke curiosity in the West to come and investigate why Africa was least affected by Covid-19?

The author is a minister of the Gospel