Writer: Alan Tacca. PHOTO/FILE
As you probably already know, I have some interest in religious matters. That is because I am God’s dog.
I am also interested in drinking. Perhaps because I am a teetotaller, I am fascinated by people who find drinking alcohol a necessity.
Finally, I am interested in madness, especially the kind of madness associated with excesses. Obsession, fanaticism and addiction: the states that send signals about a brain that has got to some degree ill.
Many of us have our brand of madness. We do not like to hear it. We deny and fight the suggestion. Our tendency is to think that we are all right; that other people do not understand us; or that it is them who are ill; or at least that they are more ill than us.
This became clearer to me recently when I was listening to a couple of preachers talking about Uganda’s record-breaking drinking ways.
The two men were making it a very big deal that Born Again Christians, like the Muslims, did not take alcoholic drinks. So, I suppose, they are not impressed that Jesus extended his wizardry to winemaking at a wedding.
Not that Uganda’s drinking industry needs any miracles. Ugandans make and import enough alcoholic beverages to indulge themselves to reach the status of champions.
Various international surveys consistently put Uganda in top position on the continent. Globally, she is usually among the top five alcohol consuming countries.
Although some people maintain that excelling in notoriety is better than excelling at nothing, it is a rather dubious achievement. And the preachers apparently cited it so that they might shine above the drunkards.
The other achievement cited was that Pentecostals are rapidly growing in number. Traditional church congregations are growing very slowly or even shrinking.
Because the alleged source of this demographic pattern is the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), I cannot be sure that the preacher’s claim is not a fiction.
Among Pentecostals, drinking is a sin. Lying is not. Manipulative extortion is not. Hypocrisy is not. When asked about the abduction and torture of various Opposition politicians, most of these ‘men of God’ reply that they have not been following the bizarre stories.
Anyway, our top drinkers and top church-goers are now in the frame. Why this coincidence?
Many people agree that the wide availability of alcoholic drinks (the crude and the refined) in so many places is a factor. Bars, clubs, shops, restaurants, homes; you can sell, buy and drink the stuff almost anywhere, and round the clock. There are no drinking time restrictions.
The carefree, the depressed and the semi-redundant who want to indulge themselves, or to mask their sorrows and find solace, or to occupy themselves; all have the space and time they need, if they can find the money.
Ironically, the non-drinking church operators have learnt something from bar operators: Exploit the absence of restrictive laws on churches. Fabricate reasons for special prayers, oil smears and intensive interaction on the church premises every day.
Lure the jobless, the semi-redundant and the depressed. Give them hope with lies that today or tomorrow they will get a miracle if they give God (or the pastor?) the little money they have now. Ram it down their throats that they cannot reap where they do not sow.
The traditional weekend for secular leisure and Christian worship is now a mockery. For seven days, and on some days for 24 hours, many bars and churches are traps waiting for today’s addicts and fanatics, and a lure for new clients.
The writer, Alan Tacca, is a novelist and socio-political commentator.
