When the shepherds fight

Conflicts. News of conflicts between religious leaders have become common place. This has affected believers in different ways. Many, no doubt, have a story on its impact, some share theirs.

Anxious to spread her faith, Anne, a born again Christian, invited her friends to church one Sunday. But for all her enthusiasm, none of them was interested.
“They told me they could not come to my church because of what was going around in the news,” she says. The Christian from Rubaga Miracle Cathedral makes reference to the recent conviction of four pastors over the defamation of Pastor Robert Kayanja.

Fearing that non-believers have started to mock her faith because of the conflict among Church leaders, she says, “In Christianity, people are supposed to lead by example. One of the main virtues for any believer is forgiveness. But if our leaders have not forgiven, how do you expect a mere believer to forgive. Truth is, people always imitate their leaders.”

Moses Kayizi, a born again Christian, has since resolved to concentrate on building his faith. He says, “At least 80 per cent of the pastors in our country have been involved in some kind of controversy. Even in cases when the general public would not have learnt about these fights, another pastor comes out and airs the other one’s dirt. I do not think this is a right thing to do.” He simply goes to church to listen to the word of God but does not think many of the church leaders are leading an exemplary life.

A rift
From time immemorial, there have been conflicts among the religious leaders. While the issues are always solved, new ones keep sprouting. Whereas the Anglican and Catholic clerics have somehow tried to keep their “dirt” to themselves, the Muslims and Pentecostals have not done well in this field.

Among the Muslims, the conflicts have gone as far as creating a rift amongst the believers which created two factions, the Kibuli based faction and the Old Kampala faction. Abdullah Kigozi, a Muslim, says since most of the conflicts are as a result of property, it seems to confirms people’s allegations that Muslims are materialistic yet this is not necessarily the case.
“Most people think that Muslims are very money minded. So, if our leaders create a divide among the believers on the basis of land, it creates a picture that we are really materialistic and in the process makes it hard for people to convert to Islam since our leaders are not leading by example.”

The fights aside, the issue at hand remains, is this bickering making or breaking believers? While the Pentecostal leadership consider most of the fights to be between individuals and thus will not affect the church, the believers think otherwise. John Stevenson, a theologist wrote in his essay on Quarrels and Conflicts, “The only place where conflicts ought not to occur is within the church. That is because the church is a body. It is a single organism.”
The president of Muslim Centre for Justice and Law, Jaffer Senganda, says the conflicts do not reflect the true brotherhood manifested in the Islamic faith. “It disheartens to see members of the same faith fighting one another leaving the guidelines of the Holy Scriptures on how to solve such misunderstandings.”

He recommends that as the Muslim community, “We should champion intra-faith dialogue. We must understand, mediate and respect one another in this process as laid down in the Islamic culture; a heritage to which we attach a great importance and above all, make painful compromises for the good of Islam and Ugandans in general. This will enable us build bridges, discuss the truth about ourselves and see how mutual concerns can be solved.”
Pastor Mark Kingsley Jjuko of We Are One with Christ Ministries says bickering among the pastors paints a picture of lack of unity. He explains that it makes non Pentecostals mock their born again brothers/sisters.

He advises Pentecostal leaders to revert to the Bible for guidance. “I believe that since the fighting is instigated by the leaders, it is important that they always refer to the Bible because it has guidance on what to do in whichever situation even with misunderstandings like the one the church is facing today.”

stumwebaze@ug.nationmedia.com