Posted on 08/04/2007 1:57:58 AM PDT by Republicain
At least 300 believers have so far come up to accuse born-again pastors of various crimes including extortion, sex slavery, fraud and manipulation. The growing list of the victims is being compiled by Pastor Solomon Male and lawyer John Kaggwa who are also recording their testimonies with a view to take the errant pastors to court.
"I have so far received more than 300 complaints and lawyer John Kaggwa and I are opening cases to bring these 'big men and women of God' to justice," said Pastor Male who runs a Christian counselling organisation Arising for Christ. He said many pastors even have military escorts whom they use for protection and intimidation.
"Most of the pastors in town are high level crooks in one way or another. They enjoy army protection, they are highly connected and can kill to cover up their sins," Pastor Male told Sunday Monitor in an interview on Friday.
The Pentecostal church movement in Uganda has been thrown into confusion following several complaints and testimonies of people who say they have been conned and sexually abused by their pastors in their respective born-again churches in and around the city. The matters have been made worse after reports that pastors use "electric machines" to shock their believers and fake miracles.
"The victims are usually scared of coming out. These people have military protection, they hold diplomatic passports and of course have what it takes to get anything done,' Pastor Male said.
However the UPDF on Friday issued a strong warning to whoever is providing army escorts to pastors.
"We have never officially offered any escorts to these pastors. Whoever is doing it is doing so on individual basis and we are saying that it should stop immediately," Amy and Defence spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said.
Some of the 300 victims who have given their testimonies to Pastor Male include a girl who was defiled by a pastor and says a similar fate befell many other girls.
Sex slavery
A 23-year-girl whose initials are A.K, accused one Pastor in Mengo (names withheld) of sexually exploiting and intentionally starving unemployed young girls.
"He convinced our parents that he was going to get us employment and he kept us in a hostel in Mengo. He did not give us food but he would come, pick one of us, take her in a nice restaurant after that he would demand sex. When I refused he beat me up badly," the girl narrated in tears.
Mr David Nsubuga of Bombo accuses his pastor and another church official (both names withheld) of taking his Pick Up truck by false pretence. "They told me that if I offered them my Pick Up Reg. No. 209 UAN, I would get blessed six times and in six months with a Pajero. It's now seven years and my car is nowhere to be seen. When I first came to explain my problem to Pastor Male, the pastor who took my Pick Up (names withheld) coerced me in retracting my story, but I could not continue being tossed around like that," Mr Nsubuga said in a statement dated July 11.
Soon after Pastor Male picked up Nsubuga's story, a UPDF lieutenant in military uniform came to his office and "tried to intimidate me into leaving that case, but we are not shaken." A former interpreter of a pastor accuses the "Man of God" of impregnating more than 10 young girls in his church in Kawala.
Pregnant girls
"He exploits girls who are desperate. He calls them for special prayers in his bedroom and forces them into sex. I have interpreted for him for years but two weeks ago when I attempted to expose him, I was jailed and tortured for several days at Old Kampala Police Station," says Mr Richard Mubiru.
He showed Sunday Monitor wounds and bruises which he claimed were inflicted on him during his detention. He was released after Pastor Male intervened.
Mr Robert Bukenya, a pump attendant in Mulago, accused another pastor of a church in the area (names withheld) of extorting Shs510,000 from him on a false promise that he would take him to the United States in 2005.
"The pastor told me he would take me to the US specifically Texas to work. So he asked me for Shs2 million. But I had to give him Shs510,000 first, for the visa and bank statement. After giving him the money he disappeared for several months," Mr Bukenya said.
"When I met him finally I asked him about the travel, but he told me that Hurricane Katrina had covered Texas in water so planes could not land. I asked him to refund my money, but he said he had already spent it."
Among Christians, such abuses and behavior are unacceptable. If true, and it seems likely, then I pray that some kind of Earthly justice sends them on to meet our Maker.
However, there is a religion or two out there... I’m not naming names, where such behavior is, if not condoned outright by their doctrine, it is permitted to occur with little or no outrage on the parts of their world wide members. Okay, perhaps I’m only referring to one religion here...
Hard to believe that one man with little or no assistance could do such dastardly things to so many people.
African churches and sex are very different than those in the West. The culture of sex is much different throughout Africa. Scandal is often in the context of the great white bwana, not in its African context ,all of which generally would make most Africans yawn at such accusations.
Much of it may stem from jealousy and a failure of the clergyman to be a little more discrete in his "transgressions" in "exploiting" the African women, who for the most part would likely welcome the charge of an old lion for 3 squares and a bed, and perhaps have fun doing so. That is Africa. Like it or not. The women there can be very much different than those with whom we are familiar here in the USA. A whole lot tougher, and a whole lot "sexier" in the course of things in general.
The clergyman occupies the social position of a Chief, an old lion who provides for his pride, with the assistance of a few lionesses.One who happens to run a church instead of a tribe. Bill Clinton tried to run his white house staff this way, and it would have worked in Africa. Jesse Jackson is the same , tucking his wife away and bringing his new lover to the White House.
I do not agree with the clergymans conduct. But in its African social context, it is about a power struggle, not about bringing true Christainity to the people. The deposed lion will simply be replaced by another who will likely do the same, as a new Chief of the church going tribe.
Here we got rid of Clinton, and now his demeaned wife seeks to be in the office, while Bill again sets up his pseudo African court in the White House, that presently occupies a loft office in New York City, and the little women who attend him in a steady stream, are just as exploited as those in the little African Village of our "oversexed" clergyman. They leave their rich kid shekels , if not their "maidenheads" to the good man.
Judgment must begin at the house of God.
At some point, apostolic/prophetic authority must get a handle on this and clean up the atmosphere. Hopefully, it’s already happening and Pastor Male is a part of it.
That poor country!
B.S. No denomination on the planet condones such a thing. Unless you are referring to a evil blood cult who prophet was a pedophile. But that's not really a religion.
“A whole lot tougher, and a whole lot “sexier” in the course of things in general.” As with Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, etc. The Danes used to do what they could to ignore the breastfeeding teenagers, and the Inuit custom of lending the little wife to the male visitor, and some ancient Hawaiian women smeared themselves all over the first few Western explorers, traders and missionaries trying to be the first to bear a light-haired child.
Well, I agree, and I put my "yawn" remark in the context of "no big deal" and " more of the same."
Sex and its social permutations is a major driving force in the distribution of power in social groups. That makes democracy a hard sell functionally.
And Christian institutions have always had to face that dynamic and adjust somehow.
Margaret Mead was the first Westerner to put the whole tribal sexual dynamic into a context that the West could understand, and so we have learned not to take the tribal scandal bait too hard.
I hope these Ugandans learn to love each other, for that is the most important aspect, instead of fighting over who should be ,or who is not, screwing who.
Its a great way for Africans to raise money from the West.
Oh... They’re definitely a religion. Whatever Islam may have started off as (a guide to uniting the nomadic tribes and using them as an army to conquer), it has snowballed into a religion.
And I did say specifically, “religion” and not “denomination”.
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