Should the church be involved in politics?

It was a boxing duel that sent ripples not only in the church establishment, but in the political world too. In the blue corner was the Catholic Church and in the red corner was a minister, who’s facing a battering from Parliament and the public alike.

The genesis of this duel started out last week when the Catholic Church weighed in the current oil scandal that has gripped the country. After the conclusion of the second Catholic bishops’ bi-annual meeting on November 11, a position was reached by the church concerning the oil saga that involves ministers Hilary Onek, Sam Kuteesa and Prime Minster Amama Mbabazi.

The chairman of the Episcopal Conference, Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama, read a statement that said that the Catholic Church backed the resolution that calls for the ministers named in the bribery allegations to step aside. That was a blow that Minister Hillary Onek wouldn’t take. He responded.

“Some of the bishops, for example, Archbishop Odama, came up with the statement that we step aside,” Onek commented during his appearance before the parliamentary Rules Committee that’s investigating allegations of contempt of Parliament by the above ministers that are named in the allegations of bribery in the oil sector. Onek wasn’t done.

He offered his two cents on the dicey issue of politics and church. “I respect my Archbishop because he is my spiritual father, but in the bible somewhere when issues where being meddled up between Caesar’s side and God, God said give Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” To put it more crudely, Onek’s advice to the church was to keep their noses out of politics.

Onek is not the first political figure to advise the church to tread carefully when it comes to their comments on political issues. In April 2011, during a conference that was organised by the Inter Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) held at Hotel Africana, President Museveni blew a fuse when he attacked religious leaders and political commenters who accused him of subtly promoting corruption with his practice of donations to religious institutions that normally came in hard cash or cars.

“Why should religious leaders go to get donations from homosexuals from Europe, when I’m here President of Uganda?” Museveni was quoted saying. “You are insulting me by accusing me of bribery and although I’m a Christian, I don’t want to be insulted.

If I gave a vehicle to a bishop or a sheik, is it a personal vehicle or a pastoral vehicle? If the religious group gets a donation from the government of Uganda, that money is from the taxpayers of Uganda. I’m not selling my cows to give you gifts. I can use my discretion to contribute to the church because by contributing to the church, you are contributing to society,” the President reasoned rather in a biter tone.

It’s been a thorny issue for decades. Should the Church ever add their voice on a political issue and if so, when and how should that be done? Or like Onek and President Museveni vainly put it, the church shouldn’t get it twisted. They have their place in society and being political commenters of sorts isn’t one of them.

There is a school of thought that argues that it isn’t that the church shouldn’t engage in politics- it is that it must not do so. It sidetracks her from the true mission here on earth. They argue that the Church is God’s Kingdom on earth and its duty is to glorify God and teach about him with the scriptures as the sole authority and that done properly this should be enough to inform the average churchgoer what is morally right and wrong.

“For example, it is wrong for the church to say to its congregation that, vote for this person or vote for this party,” says Pastor Joshua Mugabi, a pastor at Watoto Church, North District. “The role of the church is to speak prophetically pointing out the right direction for society in matters of morality.

The Church as an institution shouldn’t be involved in politics per se, but can for example call for ministers to step aside because those ministers, remove their official positions, are like you and me, and they need counsel like any other person. I don’t see that as an act of political interference by the church,” he adds.

Some politicians believe the church’s involvement in politics needs to be cautioned. “The church leaders like any of us have political views. However, airing out those views in public shouldn’t be done in a way that portrays them as the elected voice of society,” says Alex Ruhindi, state minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. “The church in its involvement with politics shouldn’t be partisan and diverse.

It shouldn’t supplant the role of the politician, but it should instead supplement that role. I can’t for example walk into a church, take the pulpit and start making all these religious denunciations and preach to the congregation! Why? Because that’s not what am cut for. That’s not my lane. However, as a Christian, I can voice my concerns over a disturbing issue in church to the relevant authorities than taking to the pulpit,” he argues.

So is the church right in asking Ministers accused of corruption to step aside? “I cannot comment on that,” the state minster buckled out. However, some Christians accuse the church for being hypocritical when it comes to politics and it’s that hypocrisy that has led to divisiveness in society and has eroded the moral authority of church as an institution.

“Take for instance the case of Gilbert Bukenya. This is a man accused of corruption, has been pictured leaving shrines and has women claiming to be his lovers, yet the Catholic Church has stood by him and has largely saved his political career. How can that same church turn around and claim that “out of doing the right thing”, those said ministers should step aside? Where does that Church get the moral standing to authoritatively preach righteousness yet they don’t practice it?” says Richard Galiwango, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Nakulabye.

“There are a lot of double standards in the relationship between politics and church. You find a politician known to be corrupt, being the biggest contributor, money-wise, in that church and the preacher will shower praises to him every Sunday, yet ignoring the fact that the man is corrupt. You find church leaders queuing up to take the president’s Pajeros as donations, and then turn around and criticise him for being corrupt! If he’s corrupt, why don’t you as a church then return his Pajeros as a symbol of your disagreement with him over corruption,” he says, adding, the church is morally bankrupt, spineless, motivated by money and has no place commenting on political issues.

The Church over the years has had a nasty experience with its involvement in politics. Several church societies were involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide with two Rwandan nuns, known as Sister Gertrude, who was a Mother Superior of the Benedictine Convent of Sova, Rwanda and Sister Marie Kisito who were found guilty in a Belgian court for participating in the massive genocide.

The Mother Superior, Sister Gertrude was found guilty of turning away hundreds of ethnic Tutsis from the convent, who were fleeing the genocide and for those who managed to hide in the convent, the Sister called the Interrahamwe who then hacked them to death.

However, it’s not only Christianity that’s having that fog that’s between politics and religion. Osama Bin Laden killed thousands all in the name of religion. One of his missions and to this day is still a main goal for Al Qaida, the terror group his party formed, was the overthrow of the current regime in Saudi Arabia. He claimed the regime was pure enough to lead Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam. Now for many people, both Muslims and Christians, condemned Bin Laden’s acts and philosophy, yet in equal numbers, many have embraced his philosophy and the methodology he used to export it throughout the world.

“This is an issue whose debate frankly is useless,” says David Muhumuza, a Christian. “That divide that existed between church and politics diminished a long time ago. The amount of politicking from the pulpit is done in the churches of America to my small church in the village and sadly, society cannot do anything about it.

In America, politicians have to have a cozy relationship with the evangelicals by promising to support their views that range from prayers in school, to abortion laws, to stand a chance of winning an election. Same goes in our society where politicians have to play to the Church’s woes in order to have any luck in their political career,” he says.

Should the church get involved in politics? Some say, no arguing that the principle of separating the church and state should be upheld and it’s catered for in the constitution. However, some argue that the only protector of the people especially in matters corruption and institutional state wrongdoing is the church. But the church too has got it wrong, others will say.

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