Museveni to meet religious leaders over qualifications

What you need to know:

Promise. The President pledged that he would have a discussion on the matter soon and later meet the religious leaders.

President Museveni has yielded to pressure by Born-Again pastors, who are opposed to the requirement of minimum qualifications before preaching the word of God.
Mr Museveni has now pledged a meeting with all religious leaders in the country to iron out the issues.
The President made the pledge yesterday during a meeting with Born-Again pastors at Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala.
The Ethics minister, Fr Simon Lokodo, has been at loggerheads with pastors from Pentecostal and evangelical churches after he proposed that their pastors should have a minimum of a diploma in theology in order to preach.
Fr Lokodo said while Article 29(1) (c) of the Constitution gives Ugandans the freedom to practice any religion, government did not put in place a regulatory framework on how the freedom of worship should be exercised. He said as a result, the public is being misled by some religious and faith-based organisations, who manipulate and exploit followers.
During the meeting, Pastor Robert Kayanja, the head of Miracle Centre Church, asked President Museveni to intervene and ensure that the policy does not see the light of day.
“We have one disturbing issue which is scaring all these pastors. It is the Fr Lokodo policy document. These pastors keep saying “Mzee” has abandoned them. We have read that document and believe it doesn’t represent you at all and we wonder why they bring it every time we are going for elections? Why would an RDC sit on the committee of a church?” Pastor Kayanja asked.

Biblical perspective
Responding to the pleas, President Museveni said the issue would be looked into. He said he had never discussed the matter with Fr Lokodo.
“The Lokodo issue, we shall discuss it biblically. I have not had time to discuss with Lokodo and I don’t know why he is wasting his time. Simon Peter did not go to the seminary when Jesus called him,” the President said.

Way forward
‘‘His proposal should not be blown out of proportion, but can be discussed in a round-table with all the other religious leaders.
“We shall discuss because I don’t see a big issue here. Of course the Catholic and the Anglican church train their priests. You can look at the advantages that are there, but then what do we do with Simon Peter who was just a fisherman and Jesus told him, stop fishing and become a fisher of men?” Mr Museveni alluded to the Biblical verse.
“I will call all of you, Lokodo, the other religious leaders, the archbishops, the mufti, and we will talk and see what is good for the word of the Lord,” the President added.
About Wealth creation
Unconditional support
The Born-Again pastors asked the President to include them in the government’s Operation Wealth Creation programme and pledged their unconditional support to him.
“We thank the President for granting us the freedom we needed. Pastors and evangelists have something common with the NRM government. NRM has the correct ideology and we have the correct theology,” Pastor Kayanja said.
He claimed that the population of Born Again faithful stands at about 3.9 million and more are being recruited.

“If we can move this population of 3.9 million people to middle income status, we can do that by working with you. We want to ordain you the chief puritan,” Pastor Kayanja added.
Mr Museveni’s pledge
The President said he will closely work with the pastors to fight poverty and ensure Ugandans live decent lives.
“I am glad that Pastor Kayanja and others are now emphasising that Christians should be involved in wealth creation. We shall work together and support you,” the President said.