Ntagali to families: Focus on children, salvation

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali

Kampala- Church of Uganda Archbishop Stanley Ntagali has said the country’s problems are spiritual because people have allowed evil to flourish at all levels, including in families.

Archbishop Ntagali said transformation begins when individuals and families recognise that they cannot be their own saviour.

“This Christmas, I urge you to stop trying to be your own saviour and surrender your life to Jesus as the only one who can save you,” Archbishop Ntagali said in his Christmas message released last Friday.

“As we come to the end of the year and reflect on the past year, many of us can see how we have tried to save ourselves from the challenges we face in our lives. Have you realised that it does not work?” he added.
The Archbishop said many children suffer because of bad decisions by their parents, warning that abusive parents replicate the character of violence in their offsprings.

“We want to challenge parents to give more time to their children. There are many children who are left on their own or often in the care of maids and teachers. Parents have abdicated to others their God-given role of raising children,” Archbishop Ntagali said.

He said many orphans are traumatised and abused by step-parents and sometimes relatives.

“There are many cases of defilement that go unreported because many adults prefer to keep it a secret so as not to bring shame on the family. This is very bad because it further victimises the child who has already been a victim of defilement,” he said.

The Archbishop said teenagers undergoing physical changes receive little or no guidance on how to honour God with their bodies, thus ending in teenage pregnancies, early marriages, and victims of homosexual predators.

“In the end, we are perpetuating poverty and not breaking the dysfunctional dynamics of generational sin in our families,” he said.
He also denounced a donor-pushed plan to integrate sexuality education in the national education curriculum.