By Eunice Rukundo
Sunday Monitor
May 31, 2009
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sun_news/Lies_sex_and_hypocrisy_in_Pentecostal_Churches_85741.shtml
A story currently doing the rounds in the intelligence circles goes like this: that around 1988, with the National Resistance Movement government trying to lay down its political roots after shooting its way to power two years earlier, senior regime officials were approached by a young religious preacher.
The preacher had a proposal; in exchange for financial and other support, he would strengthen the Pentecostal movement in the country and use it to break or reduce the influence of the Catholic Church over the largely Anglican new government.
The idea, the story says, was quickly snapped up. The preacher received facilitation and went on to form one of the churches that was at the heart of the growth of the Pentecostal movement in the country. The pastor, like many others, remains close to the government and the Pentecostal movement remains firmly pro-government.
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This story cannot be independently corroborated but the anecdotal evidence – of the pastor's close links to the regime, and the political stance of the Pentecostal churches – is self-evident. While religious leaders from the traditional Catholic and Anglican churches often criticise the government when it errors, most Pentecostal churches are stridently apolitical, preferring to preach a gospel of economic prosperity rather than dabble in politics.
The Pentecostal Movement now finds itself in a public scandal that appears to go to the very core of its foundations. Pastor Robert Kayanja, arguably the richest, most-influential and most visible patriarch of the Pentecostal Movement stands accused of sodomy. His accusers include a handful of young men who have sworn affidavits to support their accusations and are backed by other senior Pentecostal pastors including Pastors Solomon Male, Martin Ssempa and Michael Kyazze.
The allegations and counter-allegations have played out like a third rate Mexican soap opera; some of the alleged victims have changed their statements faster than one can say 'Hallelujah' and publicly accused their backers of offering them money to frame their alleged defiler. Pastor Kayanja's side has not acted entirely honestly in the matter either; police sources indicate that claims of one of their own being abducted appear to be false and an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
The police, too, are not beyond reproach. Senior officials have been frantically fighting off allegations that they bent over backwards – an admittedly poor pun in light of the current allegations – to dismiss the allegations against Pastor Kayanja. The corridors of the police headquarters at Parliamentary Avenue are awash with claims – vigorously denied – that money might have changed hands.
It is not clear what will come of the current allegations. A senior police officer told Sunday Monitor that investigations had been concluded and that it is now up to the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine whether Pastor Kayanja should defend himself in court or whether the accusers and their backers should be charged with giving false information to the police.
Whichever way it goes, the current scandal is only the latest in the Pentecostal Movement. Two other pastors, Grace Kitaka and Isaac Kiweweesi denied public allegations of sodomy while Pastor Jackson Senyonga, 41, of Christian Life Centre was questioned by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigations over allegations, which he denied, that he had fondled a 13-year-old girl aboard a United Airlines flight on August 16th in 2008.
It is not just sex scandals, though. The Pentecostal churches have been awash with scandals involving lies, extortion, smuggling and all sorts of nefarious allegations. Pastor Kayanja has been here before, when it was discovered that his incomplete house on the shores of Lake Victoria was being used to smuggle alcohol into the country but he pointed out – and authorities accepted – that it was a scam run by the private security guards at the house of which he had nothing to do.
Other scandals have revolved around a core belief in the Pentecostal churches and one of their main attractions; the ability of pastors to perform miracles. In May 2008, Grace Kushemereire accused Pastor Imelda Namutebi of paying her to testify that her prayers had cured her of HIV, the virus that causes Aids and for which scientists say there is no cure.
The deal, Ms Kushemereire said, had been struck back in 1999 for which she was receiving a monthly stipend of Shs350,000 and protection for her false testimony. When the payments stopped and Ms Kushemereire threatened to spill the beans in 2005, goons turned up and beat up her daughter to try and gag her.
The most bizarre miracle scandal, however, involved a foreign pastor, technology and some shocking revelations. Pastor Kojo Obiri Yeboah, a Ghanaian 'expatriate' pastor based in Uganda was arrested at Entebbe International Airport on July 5, 2007, with a device that administered electric shocks which authorities said was probably used to hoodwink members of the congregation that they had been filled by the Holy Spirit. The deadly device, the pastor said, was a birthday present to his children.
Other churches, of course, are not without scandals but the Pentecostal churches appear to be the worst run. Apostle Alex Mitala, who heads the National Fellowship for Born Again Pentecostals in Uganda, an umbrella body of sorts, puts this down to differences in the way such scandals are handled.
"The only difference is that we on our part operate openly, allowing each person to report wherever they think they can get help, whether it is police and not the churches' board charged with resolving such issues," Mr Mitala told Sunday Monitor. He added that even when a case is handled by the board and the accused is found guilty, the offended is allowed the liberty to forgive or pursue the case with the courts of law.
"When it is a criminal case/allegation, the police have the right to get involved and since as Pentecostals we don't have anything to hide, we let them."
Father Nicholas Sendagala of the Catholic Christ the King Church says Christianity requires that such controversial issues are handled internally in order to aid the reformation of the accused rather than let it degenerate into a public spat.
It is a view shared by Reverend Emmanuel Mwesigye of the All Saints Cathedral who says that if he was suspected of wrongdoing, the hierarchy in the Anglican institution would require that his cases be solved by higher authorities within the Church and not be made public as if they were gloating over his errors. It is this lack of hierarchy in the Pentecostal churches, he says, that explains why most of the dirty linen is washed in public.
"Without hierarchy, accountability becomes shaky and I have heard even the Pentecostal pastors like [Deo] Sserwada admit that one of their biggest weaknesses is the lack of a hierarchy," says Mwesigye.
The lack of hierarchy and the absence of any formal education or requirement mean that anyone with some knowledge of the bible, a booming voice, a good translator and the ability to move large crowds with words can start a church any day. While the traditional churches have oversight institutions and are governed by the Trustees Incorporation Act, many of the Pentecostal churches are a power unto themselves and only answerable to God and their pastors.
Amidst this shaky framework, the prosperity gospel, which celebrates the acquisition – and, if the behaviour of several pastor's is anything to go by, the flaunting – of wealth, sparks off stiff competition for congregations and the offertory that they carry with them.
Almost all accused pastors dismiss the allegations as smear campaigns by their rivals and this, Rev. Mwesigye says, might be a symptom of a clash for cash. "You will notice that the more prominent the pastor involved at the time, the louder the scandals," he says.
The youthful 'victims', Nicholas Sengoba, a social critic and newspaper columnist argues, are attracted to the Pentecostal churches by this glamour and celebration of wealth and prosperity.
"For the pervert sex, it could be because this whole thing is a struggle for power right from individual basis," he says. "Reputable persons will need a manipulatable (sic) victim who can keep their misdeeds under wraps which could be why the younger congregation is falling victim more than say adults of the pastor's age groups."
The incessant scandals have sown some doubt among believers with some either changing churches or moving to smaller, less flashy ones although the evidence here is more anecdotal than scientific.
In many cases, though, the Pentecostal church and many of the accused pastors have remained resilient and, in a few cases, even using the allegations against them as evidence of the devil trying to derail their good deeds.
On Pastor Kayanja's Rubaga Miracle Centre website, a believer posted the following note of encouragement: "Pastor whatever is happening to you in this today's world... it is the Satan trying to shake this world... The devil doesn't attack nobodies...the opposition is a indication for a new position God is taking you...Dogs never bark to parked cars but moving ones...yours as a driver is to put the next gear and sojourn by faith."
The best example of this can be seen at Holy Fire Church in Namulanda on Entebbe Road.
After the church leader Pastor William Muwanguzi disappeared amidst fraud allegations – the Hummer-driving, high flying pastor said his Congolese wife had gone back to Congo with the cash in question – the congregation picked itself up, regrouped under the leadership of one of the church's junior pastors and started all over again.
Others, however, remain doubtful like the proverbial lost lambs.
"Honestly I have tried to ignore these rumours but have now started to be confused," says one believer from Kampala Pentecostal Church, one of the oldest in the country.
Another from Rubaga Miracle Centre who also refused to reveal her identity says she somehow had suspicions when these rumours about her pastor started and now she doesn't know who to believe.
What next?
Although the scandals will leave several reputations in tatters, Apostle Mitala says the Pentecostal movement will remain strong.
"Such religious scandals have been on for years in every sect but they never stopped people from joining up," he said. "Are there no people becoming Muslims because of scandals or Catholics after all the wars, rumours and allegations against them? No."
While some members of the congregations might become disheartened, the Pentecostal churches will continue to bring in the numbers. "Pastors are only human and can error," says a member of the Rubaga Miracle Centre, speaking anonymously so as not to offend other members of the Centre. "It is those people who go to the churches for the pastors and not God who are in trouble not me who comes for God and only consider pastors as His vessel."
Another believer, who only gave her name as Eleanor, says she has shifted from the big, glamorous churches to a smaller one. Mostly, though, she has taken the matter of her faith into her hands, literally. "I don't know who is right or wrong anymore so I buy as many books and recordings of the gospel as I can and try to do my Bible study at home," Eleanor told Sunday Monitor. "But you have to fellowship sometimes so I go to one of the smaller churches. If I don't trust their character, how can I trust their gospel?"
Robby Muhumuza, a born-again believer working with World Vision, East Africa, a Christian NGO, says although he agrees that the allegations may not cause too much damage to the Pentecostal Movement but are a source of great embarrassment to the individuals involved.
"I don't believe that one person's sins should be paid for by the whole church but they are embarrassing the Pentecostal church especially the intrigue of kidnaps, forced confessions and all that," he says. Specific damage on these individuals and whether it would extend to the whole church however would depend on whether the allegations are found to be true or not. None of the pastors named in these allegations is yet to face court or conviction.
Sarah, who goes to KPC, says although she is glad her church is not involved, she would rethink her options if one of her church leaders was accused. "If he apologised, I would stay in the church. I would however move if he remained adamant and even worse tried to justify his actions," she says.
Muhumuza says the consequences would go beyond whether people went to church or not to maybe a split in the Pentecostal Movement if there were pro- and anti-homosexual pastors like was the case with Church of England's openly gay reverend, Gene Robinson.
For an institution that goes back more than 2,000 years, the church has had its fair share of trials and tribulations. The Anglicans broke away from the Catholic Church in protest against the dogmatic teachings while many Pentecostals broke away from the Anglican Church to preach a hopeful gospel of wealth and prosperity. Only time will tell whether the scandals that perennially besiege the Pentecostal Movement will lead to another breakaway.
The current fight in Uganda, which has pitted the most powerful pastors against one another, might provide some clues about which way the Movement will evolve.
It will also help reveal who of the accused and the accusers are telling the truth, the hypocrites who preach water and drink wine and the professionalism of the investigators themselves. In the meantime, the grass will continue to suffer and young boys are best advised not to share beds with their pastors. The Lord might work in mysterious ways, but the Devil often works at night.
erukundo@ug.nationmedia.com
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A general wave of discomfort had started to spread throughout the country by 2006 about allegations that Pentecostal pastors were amassing wealth by fleecing their impoverished congregations through tithes, offertory and payment for blessings and favours from God.
In April 2006, Pastor Solomon Male accused pastors Simeon Kayiiwa, John Kakande and Prophetess Imelda Namutebi of using witchcraft to perform miracles and keep people in their church in a bid to continue collecting tithe and have many people paying for blessings. The two male pastors apparently got powers from John Obua, a Nigerian Pastor who died in Uganda and is believed to be the founder of the Born Again Christian churches in Uganda.
That same month saw an HIV+ lady, Frances Adroa heading to the courts of law alleging that the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) had not delivered on their promise to miraculously heal her of the virus as promised for which she had offered her car in July 2005.
Around the same time, one Julius Lukyamuzi came up accusing Pastor Grace Kitaka of sodomising him and Pastor Imelda Namutebi of covering up the sex offences in the name of protecting the church. Somewhere in the midst of these sodomy allegations featured Pastor Leslie Handel of Abundant Life faith centre as one of the pastors accused of being gay, again by Pastor Male.
A Ghanaian Pastor, Kojo Obiri Yeboah's July 5, 2007 apprehension at Entebbe airport for possessing an electric touch machine he was being suspected of shocking believers with, claiming it was the Holy Spirit, was as amusing as it was absurd.
And then in October 2006, Pastor David Kigganda made headlines when he publicly divorced his wife Hadijja Nassejje for allegedly cheating on him with a Chapati baker. He also revealed plans to take all their children for DNA testing.
Then in May 2008, 55-year-old Grace Kushemereire also came up with a shocking revelation of how Pastor Namutebi had apparently approached her in 1999 to partner with her in a deal where the former falsely testified that Namutebi's prayers healed her of HIV in exchange for a monthly pay of Shs350,000 and protection. Namutebi had also been accused of 'stealing' the man she is currently married to, Tom Kula, from another woman who had allegedly come to her for counselling.
A few months later, 41-year-old Jackson Senyonga of Christian Life Centre was arrested for having allegedly fondled a 13 year-old girl aboard a United Airlines flight on August 16th in 2008.
ln May 2008, Pastor William Muwanguzi of Holy Fire Church along Namulanda was arrested over the disappearance of a reconditioned 4-wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser which he later claimed had been taken by his wife to Congo.
Around September 2008, Pastor Isaac Kiweweesi of Kasanga Miracle Centre was also accused of using small boys sexually. One member of his church David Arinaitwe aged 28, claimed that the pastor had sodomised him for years.
Rubaga Miracle Centre's Robert Kayanga currently battles sodomy allegations by two boys claiming they were sexually abused by the pastor. In 2006, the Uganda Revenue Authority was reported to have impounded smuggled wines at the same pastor's House in Gaba. He denied owning the wine, saying the house was not inhabited and could have been used by smugglers to hide their merchandise.
In the spot
Mr Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre
Cathedral
The first most Ugandans of earlier generations ever heard of the Pentecostals after T.L. Osborn was Robert Kayanja. The eye catching 10, 500 seat edifice that is miracle centre cathedral started as a papyrus reed structure with Mr Kayanja and a few other young ministers having a 'congregation' of just one.
Powerful, rich and charismatic, Mr Kayanja has managed to amass one of the largest congregations while maintaining a clean reputation, until there were allegations that there was smuggled wine hidden at his home in Kawuku, near Kampala.
Of the pastor's biography, the Church's website, http://kayanja.org, tells a unordinary story of a miracle baby that should have died in place of its mother at birth but survived to be called to ministry at 17. Mr Kayanja is said to have fully launched into ministry at 22 to head Miracle Centre Cathedral. He oversees a bible college, and children's outreaches.
Mr Solomon Male of Arising for Christ
"I will not rest until the church is free of such decadence" is how Mr Male responded when he was accused by fellow pastors of washing their dirty linen in the public. An outspoken critic of corruption, deceit, false miracles, extortion and the prosperity gospel in born again churches, Mr Male was converted in October 1987, becoming one of the ministers of Mr Kakande's Church (The Synagogue Church of All Nations) but denouncing it in 1992 as a cult. Not attached to any particular Church for a while, Mr Male was at one time attacked and referred
to as an imposter by fellow pastors who argued that he couldn't be a pastor without a Church. To this, Mr Male had argued that he didn't need a Church to comment on the ills being done against Christians in the born again churches. In 1999, he founded the Arising for Christ Ministries (ARCH), as an umbrella organisation of pastors and preachers and evangilists who want to restore "the sanctity of Christ and to rid the Church of fake and selfish people posing as pastors.'
The organisation said in January 2008 to have compiled a list of 300 believers who accuse born-again pastors of extortion, fraud, sex slavery among other crimes
Mr Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church
Mr Martin Sempa is not new to scandal and usually surfaces in times of sex-related controversies like homosexuality and pornography. The youthful pastor, who concentrates his ministry amongst the youth is based at Makerere University.Mr Sempa's core message, abstinence until marriage and faithfulness within marriage as the key solution to HIV prevention, is delivered with compassion and humour. The pastor endeavours to stoop to the youth's levels making them comfortable and attracting more to him.
Mr Michael Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre
The senior pastor at the Zana-based Church is known to his congregation as a man of integrity, intolerant to sin and down to earth. Having just moved into his own house in Kajjansi recently, his congregation defends him as an honest pastor not interested in amassing wealth. Omega Healing Centre, in existence since 2005 has close to 2,000 members now, about 80% youth, and still stands in a semi-permanent structure still under construction. Mr Kyazze is also in charge of doctrine and discipline at the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda and has not been implicated in any scandal before. He is most popular for intiating the mass wedding tradition.
Mr Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre
Cathedral
The first most Ugandans of earlier generations ever heard of the Pentecostals after T.L. Osborn was Robert Kayanja. The eye catching 10, 500 seat edifice that is miracle centre cathedral started as a papyrus reed structure with Mr Kayanja and a few other young ministers having a 'congregation' of just one.
Powerful, rich and charismatic, Mr Kayanja has managed to amass one of the largest congregations while maintaining a clean reputation, until there were allegations that there was smuggled wine hidden at his home in Kawuku, near Kampala.
Of the pastor's biography, the Church's website, http://kayanja.org, tells a unordinary story of a miracle baby that should have died in place of its mother at birth but survived to be called to ministry at 17. Mr Kayanja is said to have fully launched into ministry at 22 to head Miracle Centre Cathedral. He oversees a bible college, and children's outreaches.
Mr Solomon Male of Arising for Christ
"I will not rest until the church is free of such decadence" is how Mr Male responded when he was accused by fellow pastors of washing their dirty linen in the public. An outspoken critic of corruption, deceit, false miracles, extortion and the prosperity gospel in born again churches, Mr Male was converted in October 1987, becoming one of the ministers of Mr Kakande's Church (The Synagogue Church of All Nations) but denouncing it in 1992 as a cult. Not attached to any particular Church for a while, Mr Male was at one time attacked and referred
to as an imposter by fellow pastors who argued that he couldn't be a pastor without a Church. To this, Mr Male had argued that he didn't need a Church to comment on the ills being done against Christians in the born again churches. In 1999, he founded the Arising for Christ Ministries (ARCH), as an umbrella organisation of pastors and preachers and evangilists who want to restore "the sanctity of Christ and to rid the Church of fake and selfish people posing as pastors.'
The organisation said in January 2008 to have compiled a list of 300 believers who accuse born-again pastors of extortion, fraud, sex slavery among other crimes
Mr Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church
Mr Martin Sempa is not new to scandal and usually surfaces in times of sex-related controversies like homosexuality and pornography. The youthful pastor, who concentrates his ministry amongst the youth is based at Makerere University.Mr Sempa's core message, abstinence until marriage and faithfulness within marriage as the key solution to HIV prevention, is delivered with compassion and humour. The pastor endeavours to stoop to the youth's levels making them comfortable and attracting more to him.
Mr Michael Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre
The senior pastor at the Zana-based Church is known to his congregation as a man of integrity, intolerant to sin and down to earth. Having just moved into his own house in Kajjansi recently, his congregation defends him as an honest pastor not interested in amassing wealth. Omega Healing Centre, in existence since 2005 has close to 2,000 members now, about 80% youth, and still stands in a semi-permanent structure still under construction. Mr Kyazze is also in charge of doctrine and discipline at the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda and has not been implicated in any scandal before. He is most popular for intiating the mass wedding tradition.
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