The ecumenical movements in the Eastern part of Africa, Uganda, are not so fond of the potentially new policies that their state could be implementing on religious organisations, and they are speaking out.
The Ugandan government is set to implement a new policy that will require all preachers in the country to have theological training before opening a church.
Fr. Simon Lokodo, Minister of Ethics and Integrity, says some Church leaders are deluding their followers to forsake medicine, knock out of school or sell their property for wrong motives. He told a state-linked tabloid that the new policy is now in the advanced stages of formulation and will also seek to enforce transparency and financial accountability in any religious and faith-based institution in the country.
The policy will require all religious institution to register under one institution to be distinct from other non-government organisation and will present a formal procedure for anybody who wants to start a Church.
“The person will, among other things, be required to declare their source of income, whether locally and internationally sourced,”
Fr Lokodo said, emphasising that government want to bring sanity to religious institutions and that this new policy does not seek to target any particular religion or church, or downsizing the freedom of worship enshrined in the constitution.
He told the New Vision some religious leaders in the country are taking advantage of “loopholes” in the existing laws to manipulate Ugandans and extort money from them.
Churches, natheless, are not so in rapport with the minister.
Popular television evangelist Apostle Alex Mitala said the new policy is being rushed and that the idea of having a certificate in theology needs time.
“There is no problem with accounting for the resources in a Church, but the problem is with the certificate of theology,” he was quoted as saying.
Mitala who is an elder at the National Fellowship of Born-again Pentecostal Churches in Uganda expressed concern that the new policy “appears to be targeting the Born-again Pentecostal churches.”
Amid criticism, the Presiding Apostle of the Born Again Faith Federation in Uganda, Dr Joseph Serwadda had come out to address the controversies saying,
“The state can and has the right to put in place guidelines for anything it considers useful to societal growth for common peaceful co-existence with others of like spirit.
There are scores of self-proclaimed and media-created pastors/”ministers” previously registered as NGOs which cannot point at a church they have established! These have turned into wolverine critics of Balokole Churches, but cannot point at a church they attend, let alone one they pastor!
Of recent, there are those who have ashamed Uganda in the outrageous incidents of infidelity, unchastity and theological error. Amazingly and so comforting, is the fact that these problems are not unique to Born again Churches, but spill over to other faiths as well. Only a formidable legal system can address these matters and cause order in Uganda’s religious chaos.”
Clapping back at Dr Serwadda’s remarks, Pr Michael Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre said:
“There is no manner of organisation or law that will regulate faiths and their practices without it becoming discriminative and oppressive. Whether the law is beautiful and acceptable today, I resist it because of what it is going to become and the resultant subculture, patterns and allegiances it will force us into in order to fit under it and to serve the political powers that will be existing. Good intentions can become bad mistakes.”
Uganda Christian News, an ecumenical tabloid, learnt that the same policy is not only limited to Christians but will extend to the Muslim community.
According to the New Vision, the Ethics ministry developed the policy in 2009 and was reportedly carried out with stakeholders including the SDA, Muslims, Orthodox Church, Church of Uganda, Catholic Church, Baha’is, and Born Again Churches.
Last year, officials had announced a Religion and Faith-Based Organisations (RFBO) draft policy by the government aimed at regulating churches.
With this latest development, Uganda seems to be picking up a petal off the Rwandan government who earlier this year enacted the same laws.
“We simply require churches to meet modest standards and all preachers to have theological training before opening a church,” Rwanda President Paul Kagame said earlier.
The new rules led to the closure of most Pentecostal churches where charismatic preachers draw huge followers. In response to the shutdowns, numerous worshippers conducted their worship services in their homes.
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