What about ‘immoral’ church leaders?
By John Blanshe
Musinguzi
“This applies to the Levites: from twenty five
years old and upwards, they shall come to do duty in service of tent of
meeting. And from age of fifty years they shall withdraw duty of service and
serve no more…”
Politicians are always ‘immoral.’ Most of them are
corrupt, don’t want to leave office- want ‘ebissanja,’opposing
political parties cannot agree on what is the wright or wrong decisions to be
taken. Politics has been branded a dirty game. Currently, for example Museveni
and his group want to show Lord Mayor the exit route, they claim the process is
democratic. On the other side Lukwago is fighting to retain his office. I am not
sure whether the latter will survive as the former group has all the weapons to
shot the latter, a defenceless group.
Today, religious leaders are following the footsteps
of political leaders-they are ‘immoral.’ Most of them are corrupt, selfish, some
practice sodomy, commit adultery and above it all most of them want ‘ebissanja’
During the biblical times these religious were the
most important. They would mediate between God and people. They were used by
God to anoint political leaders and condemn them whenever they went astray of
their promises. They would also pronounce God’s punishment upon these leaders.
However these leaders have been deprived of the role to choose and advise
political leaders.
Daily Monitor started the story on Tuesday 19th.
Makerere University St Francis Chapel Chaplain Rev Can Johnson Ebong- Oming is
refusing to leave office upon clocking retirement age. In a lay-man’s language,
he want ‘ekissanja.’ He has too been accused of misappropriation of funds,
procurement scams, outbursts of anger, lies, misrepresentation of facts and
threat of violence. This is the type of church leaders we have today.
It is not too late for religious leaders to change
and once again become yardstick for our society. Why should a religious leaders
desire to cling to office like our politicians. Whereas the ‘good book’ does
not echo much about when church leaders should retire, in the book of Numbers
8:23-26, Moses called upon Levites to retire.
And the lord spoke to
Moses saying, “this applies to the Levites: from twenty five years old and
upwards, they shall come to do duty in service of tent of meeting. And from age
of fifty years they shall withdraw duty of service and serve no more. They minister
to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall do no
service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties.”
If this can happen, then we shall always press
political leaders harder to retire by referring to good and moral religious
leaders.
We always offer in church, such offertories should
to be used to do work of God such as helping the poor. However church leaders
are using these offertories for their selfish interests. Most of them use them
to purchase expensive cars, venture into lucrative businesses. If they change
we can use them as example to criticize this corrupt this corrupt
government.
Church
leaders are meant to serve but not be served. We need leaders who can serve under all
circumstances. They should condemn corrupt political leaders other than joining
the band wagon. We deserve a better Uganda and such leaders can start it
thorough preaching the gospel and spreading the word of God and more
importantly living by what they preach.
Paul in his letter to Timothy layout what should be
characteristics of church leaders. Their sayings must be trustworthy, a husband
of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to
teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of
money and many more. I hope they know them more than we congregants know.
It is becoming hard to distinguish behavior of
church leaders from those of political leaders. We need those leaders who
behave and work like the old biblical prophets such as Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah,
Nathan and those they know that I don’t know. They tried to mold better
societies during their time and condemned greedy, corrupt as well as selfish
politicians. This is what we owe from our church leaders, they have not
delivered at all. It is not too late for them to change.
John Blanshe Musinguzi
is a Journalism and Communication Student at Makerere University
Tweet: johnblanshe_m
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