Preach the pure love of God!
Jun 24, 2004
SIR— I am very disappointed about the disrespect for my religion, Islam, in Uganda shown by Americans who preached the gospel in our school recently.
SIR— I am very disappointed about the disrespect for my religion, Islam, in Uganda shown by Americans who preached the gospel in our school recently. They are going round schools on an evangelistic crusade, but they are preaching trash about Muslims and Islam.
I am a student in a secondary school where these Americans visited. In their preaching, they said Muslims were illiterate, ignorant and unbelievers.
This insult annoyed the Muslims in the school. I had thought preaching was about spreading the knowledge and the word about God, but not spreading hatred and anger about other religions. The evangelists who spread hatred for Islam in schools should know that this is Uganda. We do not want hatred for any religion or sect. Such hatred sparks off wars like in Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan. And there is a link between terrorism and religious hatred.
Hussein Mudoko
Kampala
SIR— I refer to Dr Clement Tibarokoka’s criticism of the recent Uganda Joint Christian Council’s statement on presidential term limits (“Church stand on constitution amendment was not helpful!†in yesterday’s lead letter in the New Vision. I have no doubt that his views are sincere. I only wish to challenge some of the assumptions that he makes. He dismisses the UJCC’s statement as “a legitimate socio-political human opinion with no spiritual significanceâ€. He comes close to those who say they have searched the Scriptures and encyclicals of the Church and found nothing there about presidential term limits. Such a reading, however, is literalist and ignores formative factors in biblical interpretation, such as tradition, experience and context. To be honest, many sincere Christians might not believe that the bishop’s statement is binding on them, but unless they are rash, they would not dismiss it, as Dr Tibarokoka does, as “falling below the biblical caution of balance and wisdomâ€. Nor would they think that holding a view that differed from that of the UJCC meant that Church leaders could not give them valuable counsel and advice. Dr Tibarokoka thinks that to declare that the Church does not support whichever political line sets the leadership of the Church on a collision course with a big section of the political forces at hand. But that is precisely what has happened in places where the Church has taken a prophetic stance. He says he associates with martyrs who “refused to obey kings’ orders that were counter to the core values of their faithâ€. But any Christian martyrs you care to think of were killed because their faith threatened someone’s position, run counter to certain cultural practices, challenged a particular worldview, or undermined a socio-political or legal system.
Rev Amos Kasibante
University of Leicester, UK
I am a student in a secondary school where these Americans visited. In their preaching, they said Muslims were illiterate, ignorant and unbelievers.
This insult annoyed the Muslims in the school. I had thought preaching was about spreading the knowledge and the word about God, but not spreading hatred and anger about other religions. The evangelists who spread hatred for Islam in schools should know that this is Uganda. We do not want hatred for any religion or sect. Such hatred sparks off wars like in Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan. And there is a link between terrorism and religious hatred.
Hussein Mudoko
Kampala
SIR— I refer to Dr Clement Tibarokoka’s criticism of the recent Uganda Joint Christian Council’s statement on presidential term limits (“Church stand on constitution amendment was not helpful!†in yesterday’s lead letter in the New Vision. I have no doubt that his views are sincere. I only wish to challenge some of the assumptions that he makes. He dismisses the UJCC’s statement as “a legitimate socio-political human opinion with no spiritual significanceâ€. He comes close to those who say they have searched the Scriptures and encyclicals of the Church and found nothing there about presidential term limits. Such a reading, however, is literalist and ignores formative factors in biblical interpretation, such as tradition, experience and context. To be honest, many sincere Christians might not believe that the bishop’s statement is binding on them, but unless they are rash, they would not dismiss it, as Dr Tibarokoka does, as “falling below the biblical caution of balance and wisdomâ€. Nor would they think that holding a view that differed from that of the UJCC meant that Church leaders could not give them valuable counsel and advice. Dr Tibarokoka thinks that to declare that the Church does not support whichever political line sets the leadership of the Church on a collision course with a big section of the political forces at hand. But that is precisely what has happened in places where the Church has taken a prophetic stance. He says he associates with martyrs who “refused to obey kings’ orders that were counter to the core values of their faithâ€. But any Christian martyrs you care to think of were killed because their faith threatened someone’s position, run counter to certain cultural practices, challenged a particular worldview, or undermined a socio-political or legal system.
Rev Amos Kasibante
University of Leicester, UK