The American Connection

[Its Sunday, so, I am into Christian bashing.

Ok, not true. But here is an interesting article into the Christian religion in Uganda. No wonder we want to, as Archbishop Orombi says, throw off the colonial roots of Christianity! It is an interesting read. How the hell did it get into the New Vision? I dont know, but it is interesting.

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Ugandan pastors’ love for America

The recent arrest of Christian Life Church’s Pastor Jackson Senyonga is no doubt a thorn in the flesh of the Pentecostal churches in Uganda, which have been battling tantalising stories about wayward pastors.

Pastor Senyonga may well be innocent of the charges that he behaved lasciviously with a minor while on a flight from Denver to Oakland in the US. Senyonga has explained that he was only inching away from a snoring man, which caused him to lean more toward the girl on the other side. Ugandan pastors have expressed confidence in his moral character, even those who have disagreed with him in the past over different issues. Senyonga is simply being maligned by the oversensitive American culture where many men, even of the cloth, have been found guilty of immoral acts.

But there is an element to this case that Pentecostal Christians rarely get a chance to dissect. Among the Pentecostal pastors fraternity there is a tendency to make America their frequent base, if not home.

For instance, it is amazing that Pastor Senyonga has been away preaching since February and will only return in November, according to his church aide. His wife Eva is also currently in the US. Senyonga’s website lists a US ministry as one of his ministry activities, and he “travels to nations and cities to address key churches and events to stimulate spiritual transformation through prayer, personal transformation and evangelism for church growth”.

Over the last 20 years, it has been a trend for Ugandan preachers to cast their visions overseas, with the pressure to label their ministries ‘international’ following almost every Pentecostal preacher. A visit to ‘outside countries’ is the desired springboard for most pastors. Many pastors spend more time at airports and in planes, and have become pastors of the air, as one top Kampala pastor once quipped.

Some of the powerful churches in Kampala are actually run by assistant pastors, as the heads are busy with ministry in America and other countries. Congregations go for months on end without seeing the man of God and only receiving greetings from their pastor through phone calls relayed by the associate pastor. There are many doors that are opened with a visit to the US. Education opportunities, financial partners and opportunities to widen the preaching circuit abound.

Pastor Simeon Kayiwa has been moonlighting as a professor at the Latin University in California and is to start a university here. Pastors can build networks with willing donors and other pastors, which benefit the orphans and the poor. Others, including Senyonga, have invited volunteer teams on medical missions or to help build schools. There is also a movement that sees Uganda as a missionary base and the fact that there are American congregations eager to listen to them is a positive sign.

All this would be well, if there were not a number of issues arising out of this trend.

Behind the drive to flock America is the lure of the image-is-everything prosperity kind of gospel. There is competition to have the most beautiful church structure, the best dressed choir, a televised programme, website, the most modern musical and public address equipment, sometimes a media house and other expansions. On a personal level, pastors must have a modern car, suits, a mansion and a contingent of bodyguards. All these things cost a lot of money and there are only so many ways a pastor can get money out of an average congregation.

Many pastors have to become resourceful in attracting donors to sponsor their plans. Usually, it starts with a visit to the United States of America, where many rich people are touched by the stories of AIDS orphans and poverty. Unfortunately, some pastors take advantage of this situation to hoard a lot of money, only a fraction of which ends up in a hastily set up orphanage. Sometimes, the physical structures are put up after news that the donors will be visiting to tour the projects. Almost every church has an orphanage or school attached to it. Although many of them are genuinely meeting the needs of the community, some are mere conduits for collecting money. A number of pastors have got into scraps with the Police and parents over orphanages or study-for-free schools that are run on crooked principles.

Many American Christians have been led to believe that President Yoweri Museveni is a born-again convert, when the President himself has said he long abandoned the faith.

A Kampala lawyer told this reporter of a ‘pastor’ who ingratiated himself with an American couple and told them of an orphan he had reportedly rescued from Rwanda during the genocide. The couple used to send money, clothes and other types of assistance to ensure that the child was well taken care of. He also convinced them to donate money to a church over a number of years. When they decided to adopt the child the pastor went into some dubious methods to try and smuggle the child out of the country, but those attempts failed. 10 years later, the couple came to Uganda and was so heartbroken to discover that the ‘pastor’ had been feeding them on a pack of lies. The girl’s mother was not dead, although she was mentally unstable and had abandoned the child. The child’s grandmother laughed at the fantastic Rwanda genocide story and the church they had been sending money to was non-existent.

It turns out that the man used to be a preacher, but had become a businessman in Kampala and America, and as time proved, a terrible liar and extortionist.

There are pressures in the US that many Ugandan pastors are not able to resist. Many try to imitate the swashbuckling lifestyle lived by American preachers and transport it to their home churches. Those who travel without their wives have been lured into intimate relationships with women who don’t mind the fact that the pastor is already married. Some preachers leave the country on a ministry mission only to get married to American citizens in order to become official residents.

According to Pastor Solomon Male of Arising for Christ, there are many such pastors who leave the country purportedly to preach, only to end up on kyeyo, doing odd jobs to make money.

“The church is just a business venture for some of them. They go and deceive that they have orphans and poor people they are looking after, then they come back and live lavish lives. They don’t implement what they solicited the money for.”

Male says a pastor like Stephen Ssozi was really running the church as a personal business and that is why he sold it to Pastor Frank Lutaaya. However, the bulk of the congregation moved out and placed themselves under the care of a more trusted pastor.

Sometimes, money is raised from different churches in multiple fundraising drives for equipment or buildings when only one project is being undertaken. Still, church members will be made to contribute towards the same when they arrive in Uganda or at least be asked to pay for equipment to be cleared at the airport.

There are pastors who double as importers, mixing donated items with their business stock and making quite a handsome profit, both from the donated stuff and from not being taxed.

When Sunday Vision spoke to Pastor Male, he reeled off a number of bizarre cases, some believable and some extreme. He is confident about his sources of information and says he has followed up some cases and found them to be true.

Male also alleges that some have ended up being trapped in homosexual tendencies after getting funds from gay donors indiscriminately. Many so-called pastors have sold their souls to a number of dubious causes, all in an attempt to raise money.

The principal of Kampala Evangelical School of Theology, Rev. Dr. Solomon Nkesiga, says there is nothing wrong with pastors spending a long time outside the country if they have congregations there.

and it goes on and on. Read it. It is enlightening.

For the sceptical, no, I did not write that article. Once upon a time, maybe I would have gone into the research. My ire at the Christian church has plunged, to the point where I do find this mildly amusing.