The Stage was set
I was astonished when I heard the speaker of the Parliament of Uganda carelessly parallel our president , his son and their supporters with the persons of the Trinity. The most fundamental doctrine of our Christian faith was belittled and made a mockery of by pagan like rhetoric . No matter how they spinned it, it was an ignorantly offensive remark from one that claimed an affiliation to the faith that upholds this doctrine in the most holy of places.
My astonishment wasn’t as much about the honorable speaker’s flippant bombast but more about the deafening silence of the church’s opinion leaders… the echelons of our beloved nation. A side a few clerics (and by few I mean about two or three) there is a very pastoral-shaped gaping hole left in the information spaces that are our social media platforms.
With this eloquent silence , no wonder the injustice, the impunity, the abuse of power are vociferously imposing in these here streets !
Even worse, there was a national welcome of a famous Tele-evangelist. His doctrine, character, and ministry exhibited questionable peculiarities under worldwide scrutiny. A simple search on the reliability of Benny Hinn is more than telling of the general skepticism. Uganda however, welcomed him like he was straight outta heaven and whose presence in our this here religious ridden nation graced us with “an open heaven”. As if…
Lights, camera, action
It was during this visit that the political atmosphere turned hyper spiritual with the attendance of the famous and infamous politicians at the center grounds for miracles , the “spirit slain” royalty , the televised conversation between the man of God and the president of the nation, to mention a few .
After watching all the theatrics and the barrage of social media content on the web, I took a keen interest in the conversation that transpired between the statesman and the holy man. Yes it does sound like the beginning of a potentially bad joke, but this is real.
Anyway, the main issue for me was that the president also made a generous comment about the value addition of Christianity summed up in the idea of the resurrection . A few moments later , our very own , the pastor at the center of miracles pronounced himself and appreciated the president saying “ thank you Mr President for resurrecting Uganda”
Now if you are like me, my head went screaming “ NOooo! Nooo!! He didn’t just say this!”
And before you get on your political high horses, My disdain for the pastor’s remark has nothing to do with his or my affiliation with any political party. Quite besides, I do not subscribe to a democracy but rather to a kingdom not of this world —micdrop* . I digress.
My disdain for the pastor’s remark was that it was far more than a political statement. It was a spiritual one. A Christian doctrine flippantly and carelessly used once again to parallel the very same man with our savior.
Blasphemy! Idolatry! Silence ?.
In the wake of all the politically charged blasphemy uttered by the speaker of parliament and supported by the eloquent silences of the majority of faith leaders, the Ssaba-PASTORs doubled down and used the term of the most centric event in Christian history to Praise the old man.
I waited for an outrage or at the very least a humble rebuke on this egregious claim and I have yet to find one. So let me speak now or forever hold my peace.
No, Pastor Kayanja. President Museveni , while having ushered in a peaceful reign for a time, is not the one who resurrected the nation. He is not the savior of our people. He is not the redeemer. Jesus is. He was simply a vessel , a conduit, a tool in the master’s hand to bring about a semblance of peace in an otherwise senselessly violent reality . If we easily forget who put him there — the same way the church usually forgets that it’s the Lord Jesus and not the lord Bishop that owns the church — we are very prone to christianized idolatry and sooner than later, Christian Apostasy.
We will put figure heads like the president or the bishops and the pastors on a pedestal only our master should have access to . Like the Israelites of old, we will forget the Lord our God who brought us out of a very real darkness and say to ourselves and our hearts, ‘our power and the might of our hands have gotten usthis…’(Deuteronomy 8:14, 17). Needless to say, this never goes well.
Pastors, Let’s be guided
As a general rule of thumb, We Christians would do well to reserve words like savior, “resurrector” , powerful , the Trinity — especially when describing a person— for God our father and father of our Lord, Jesus the Christ alone! This is especially so for those of us that believe we are called by this master to shine his light in this idol riddled word. I mean the pastors and faith leaders in every community.
Bishop Esteban of the Catholic Church in Mexico reflects upon his conversion and says the most profound statement I have yet listened to in the recent years.
“The great sin is not greed, lust or any other sin the church can confess… the great Sin is allowing the radical and transforming message of Jesus Christ to be Domesticated, diluted and transformed into a human strategy.”
Paul the apostle says to those God called to himself :
““Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”(Ephesians 4:15 ESV)
This is our primary and most important task as faith leaders , Christian witnesses, disciple makers. We are to reveal in every way, the glory of him who is our head. Christ. This is the thrust of every true believer.
For in this pursuit , we will see the genuine transformation of individuals, whole communities and even nations… yes… even our own.
“We betray our Lord Jesus not with our words but with our pragmatism, our blind obedience to men and our conniving silence“-Esteban (2025)
Diane Langberg said that The silence of leadership and the denial of the abuse further silences victims, mutilates faith, and destroys hope.
I choose to not stay silent. I Choose Christ. So help me God!
Eloquent Silences 