By Pr Moses Solomon Male
I commend the campaign against corruption in public offices in Uganda spearheaded by the media and taken on by the 9th Parliament. However, of concern is the growing anticorruption rhetoric by clerics coupled with demands that they must be the recommenders for public appointments. Bishop David Kiganda specifically put it, ‘An appointee’s church address must be known.’
With due respect to all clergy and bearing in mind that many Ugandans may take their rhetoric as divine revelation, I feel there are issues ignorantly or deliberately ignored which must be addressed before alter voices can be taken seriously.
Foremost, much of the preaching promotes corruption: In churches are versions of the prosperity gospel (gospel of extortion) which discards Biblical principles of repentance, integrity, hard-work, good character and love, and emphasizes payment to ‘God’ for economic, material, social, health, intellectual, career and other breakthroughs responsible for ruthlessly fleecing needy ignorant followers of their money, fixed and movable properties and wrecking their lives.
The faithful have ‘sown’ or sacrificed their cars, houses, land, school fees, borrowed monies, household properties, business stocks, etc in return for empty promises. Many former landlords are now landless, vehicle owners walk on foot, students dropped out, business people are now paupers and many deeply indebted in the name of religion.
It not only wrongly portrays God as working for the money loaded, but as stinking bribe and money hungry divine, contrary to what He is.
It also spells ruthless religious merchants in alters whose hearts are far from their followers plights and spiritual destinies, focused on enriching themselves through exploiting followers.
In some churches, believers are commanded to name, touch, believe and receive (kitoole/kitwale) what they want no matter what and who owns it; whether other peoples’ money, property or spouses. Beside claims and receipts of empty air, some have proceeded to steal what they named, touched and believed to be theirs!
Some clerics shamelessly connive with followers to fake up and make false miracle claims to hoodwink the public. The genuinely sick, blind, crippled, poor, etc who aren’t delivered are labeled faithless as if the onus of faith is on the seeker, not the claimer of deliverance powers.
This is corruption of the gospel to defraud people in their times of need, warned of in 2 Peter 2 all.
Secondly, in many religious fraternities, material possessions define godliness. Rich thieves are praised as godly, faithful, blessed and wise, accorded special status, given special seats, titles and responsibilities, and specially visited and prayed for while the honest poor are castigated as sinners, cursed, fools and faithless, and are neglected. And contrary to Biblical teachings, pastors’ powers are defined by wealth owned. So, the faithful pursue wealth hook or crook!
Thirdly; though many evils, human rights violations, abuses and abominations like sodomy and its promotion, rape, pedophilia, marital and family breakages, spouse snatching, forgeries, fraud, extortion and murders thrive with impunity under guise of religion, clerics deny, defend or cover them up and, silence or betray victims.
In mainstream religions, while a cleric may be defrocked, in most cases mere transfers are effected. In some cases offenders defended by their own to protect the church, victims get framed up, ex-communicated and / or incriminated, harassed and traumatized further using state machinery: Police, DPP, judiciary, the military and politics (‘order from above’) just like it happens in the Pentecostal movement. Many victims painfully live in closets in a world of their own which the ‘caring’ and vocal clerics don’t want to admit or know of.
The vocal clerics, rather than stand with the hurt, weak and voiceless continue indifferently like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37). Some like Dr Joseph Sserwadda, Robert Kayanja and Luwaga have had courage to castigate those standing with victims as ‘accusers of the brethren’ just like Jews castigated Jesus and preferred Barabbas!
Surprising is that even clerics involved with impunity in bribery, smuggling, fraud, sexual perversion, abuse of systems and other improprieties can claim moral authority to address corruption!
Fourthly, despite God’s protection Biblically assured in Psalm 23.4 ‘Even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou are with me; your rod and staff comfort me,’ and Psalm 20.7 ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God;’ the public witnesses ‘greatly anointed’ (mafuta) clerics who, like tyrants and Bad Black are armed and tightly guarded by armed security rings and stoutly built men (kanyamas) even when in pulpits and toilets. People wonder why the guns, commandos and kanyamas for clergy who claim direct access to the Almighty God they preach!
It all defines a breed of mafia in a country where martyrs blood was shed, founders defined faith in God as basis for the nation, over 80% and 15% of the people subscribe to Christianity and Islam respectively, in many work places are vibrant fellowships and, untold blood was shed to restore the rule of law and respect for human life and dignity!
Clerics’ evils have not only compelled many to follow wicked clerics’ lifestyles but have disillusioned and compelled many people whose consciences hate evils to quit religions and lose ‘religious addresses’ prescribed by clerics. Therefore, mandating clerics to vet public officers may not only deny the honest outside known religious confines opportunities to serve the nation, but give wicked ‘church address’ providers greater powers to commit evil with impunity and spells disaster for the country.
Addressing corruption: In Ezekiel 3, God obliges religious leaders to fight evil. In Jeremiah 8.4-17, He vents his anger toward hypocrisy.
In Matthew 7.3, when Jesus teaches, remove the log in your eye to see the speck in your brother’s eye, He defines the moral authority principle that to deal with social decadence, first clean up the rots in your life.
In Matthew 21.12-13, when Jesus drives religious merchants out of the temple with a whip saying “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers,” he defines that moral transformation must start with cleaning the rot within the alters.
In Matthew 23, When Jesus castigates the scribes and Pharisees for pretense, hypocrisy, winning converts and corrupting them instead, defrauding the desperate under pretense of lengthy empty prayers, extortion, injustice and indifference, among other evils, he defines that to fight evil in society, purging must start with the clerics. He doesn’t condemn politicians and political strugglists, clamor for power to vet public officers or seek government recognition, but concentrates on the decadence of the clerics.
Therefore, if the media has shown the way and the 9th parliament followed suit to fight corruption, prudence dictates that rather than clamor for power to vet; would be custodians and icons of morality; clerics no matter their faiths should embark on the daunting task of purging the rot from their lives, colleagues and alters responsible for hurting and corrupting society so as to gain moral authority to address corruption in society if moral authority really means influence to compel people in the right direction because they consider your beliefs and conduct right.
But as long as clerics deny rottenness in the alters and existence of victims of clerics, cover up wrongdoers and take offense against Good Samaritans addressing the rot; claiming moral authority to fight corruption is rendered a sham, manifestation of arrogance and hypocrisy, and a shame. The most advice to them would be what Apostle Paul gives us for each one not to think of self more highly than they should because people see, hear, know and understand.
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