Let’s walk the talk: There might be tougher times ahead for Christianity

The talk of the nation and the world in recent times has been on Church of England accepting to bless same-sex marriages. Religious leaders in Uganda met recently to address the vice. They said homosexuality is on the rise in Uganda and needs to be curbed. 

They said the lack of a “stringent enabling law to tackle this vice is currently fuelling the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer and others (LGBTIQ+) movements in the country, adding that it’s high time they are stopped”. 

Political and religious leaders are talking tough; the vice must go and they all suggest “stringent laws”, but such laws often fail and they do not rehabilitate the offender, they become forms of torture and create fear in the community. When a law fails, which is common in Uganda, the law enforcement officers join the offenders and the crime is perpetuated. 

To solve this problem we must first and foremost identify what went wrong in our systems/policies worldwide. I want to be on record to suggest that there are two main causes of these crimes in world: namely inadequate religious education and foreign influence.

Inadequate religious education: Many people don’t have conscience of sin anymore. We don’t live by our conscience; we have formed the conscience of our living. Wrong things (sins) are so rampart that they have become right and ways of life.  The problems of homosexuality, sexual abuse, child marriages, abortion, violence, killings, rape, corruption etc are spiritual and are symptoms of inadequate spiritual education. Therefore, we need spiritual tools to solve them, not legislation or law enforcement.  

Research supports that there is a correlation between religious belief and behaviour. What the mind believes affects what the body will do. So if the mind believes in one God then the body will worship one God and if the mind does not believe in terrorism, then you will not be a terrorist. Crimes are planned in the heart (mind), hands etc, are only tools for implementation. 

I have written several times that our school curricula do not have room to teach adequate religion and are deliberately manoeuvred by foreigners.    Religion infuses ‘God-fearing’ element such as heaven-hell and salvation. To prove my view takes two major Christian denominations in Uganda: Catholic and Protestant. 
The Catholics have seven sacraments while the Protestants have two. The Protestant Bible has 66 books while the Catholic one has 73 books. Catholics have Mass, Protestants have Communion service. So ideally you cannot put these two categories of Christians in one classroom and teach them Christianity in the title Christian Religious Education (CRE). 

A colleague of mine is a Muslim and studied CRE for examination purposes only.  In the case of Christians, teaching catechism must be compulsory and examinable. This will create religious mindset and make students God-fearing. Once that is achieved, all other problems are catered for. Uganda is more than 80 percent Christian, which means they want to live Christian life and the State is obliged to provide enabling environment for them to practice their faith. Patriotism is not religion and does not create fear of God; it has been used mainly in the communist countries.   

Foreign influence: The white man presents himself as superior with superior knowledge and culture.  They take advantage of our dependency economically and ideologically to rule us. Most Africans have been brainwashed to believe so and they will go in for their culture! Religion does not appear in their programmes. They threaten to withdraw financial assistance or freeze our money abroad if we don’t comply. 

Sexual revolution started in Europe in the 1960s when we began to see marriage breakdowns and attitudes of ‘mind your own business’. Issues related to divorce began to emerge and laws strengthened to handle possible domestic violence put in place. 

The term gender changed to transgender with strong agenda for equality. This led to family breakups with new relationships emerging.  The only way to develop Africa is to refuse donation which have strings attached. Let us walk the talk of determination because there may be tougher times ahead for Christianity. 

Dr Josue Okoth is a concerned Christian and citizen     

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