Why burning bibles does not make Pastor Bugingo holier

By Michael Woira

Uganda cannot just stop amusing me and now I understand why the term "Uganda Zaabu" is normally comically used while referring to our beautiful peaceful Pearl of Africa by a few proud Ugandans.

A lot has happened in this month of April and some of the major issues that have attracted media and public attention has all been related to the inhumane morals according to me basing on the rule of natural justice.

The vulgarity that was used by some senior citizen and now this rude act by Pastor Aloysius Bugingo and for today I will try to share notice with you my readers concerning this issue.

Some time back while I was having some discussion with Col.Shaban Bantariza came to know of many things that I had never known and some were in his pieces that he used to write and I will add up my opinion to what I learnt from him to clearly bring out my message.

When Jesus Christ, the earthly son of Jewish peasant Mary and carpenter Joseph comes again from the place we are taught and call heaven, you can be sure there will be stampede, chaos and tumult. Why? Because, the last time he was here, he caused "instability" in the socio-political and religious status quo, by not only making miracles of raising the dead, making the blind see, the lame walked but more seriously, he told off the representatives of the Roman Emperor, that the, Christ, the son of man, was not only a son of God, but One with God!.

When he was crucified, punished seriously on behalf of us all, he kept on calling the name of the almighty God who commanded him to do everything in his name, Jesus did not register any religion or organisation called Catholicism, Protestantism, presibetereanism; He was circumcised, but not a Muslim, just like all Jews.

So, Roman Catholics, Anglican Protestants, Presbyterians, American Pentecostals with all their innumerable churches and all these religious factions which have taken over what Jesus Christ firmly left for not only his Apostles and disciples, but all humanity; Faith in the Christ that overturned tables and whipped vendors from the temple; the Christ that rebuked Pharisees and called  them vipers and hypocrites for fasting as a show to impress, when he comes, you can be sure he will be harsher than then, because at least then, believers were following the imperfect law  of Moses that preached "an eye for an eye".

Jesus Christ performed miracles to strengthen the wavering faith of his disciples and believers! Today, miracles have been a business, a trade!

In our various churches, an electronic preaching, street preachers, all promise miracles, but not free of charge! Just like it was in the 16 century before Martin Luther protested the sale of "indulgences "by some authorities of the then one, universal, catholic church, and gave birth to what we now have as the "Reformed churches"!. So, miracles, which can now be procured, have replaced our faith and honest prayer to our makers in Heaven.

What am I driving you to, am trying to let you know of what Jesus did that I expected to happened today but all is in the contrary because after all, all our pastors preach and come up with all sorts of miracles, campaigns etc to capture the attention of the believers.

Now I have been wondering all days why a very well recognized pastor with such a following can organize a day just to burn BIBLES?

Has this been his year to observe that there were errors in the bible?

Is he a new Christian convert that he had never read about the content in the bible for him to come out now and allege?

Can we salute him for having read the whole of King James Bible from Genesis to the last copy and it may have been the major reason he called for the bibles to be burnt?

Of course my answer is NO to all these questions but Ugandans have gone ahead to always want to prove right and the other wrong.

In my view, I observe that the bible, which is a compact library, has become a document interpretable by anyone who can read and write, whether English or other languages, and anyone today, on the street corner is a street preacher of the "word of God"! This would be all right if the bible had one clear message by all, For all!

But the bible, as i know it, exists as a theology, which defines our interpersonal relationships with God, individually and collectively. This same bible also, exists as a literature, which is for the human words, in human language, that serve as the packaging material for the theology and am not sure whether we interpret it similarly because it has also become another way of making money in Kampala since many platforms of religious political debates are organized with each side interpreting the bible and Quran in their own way.

As if this does not complicate matters enough, the bible also has the human, social culture as part of its context.

To this effect, not any literate man or woman has the capacity and competence to understand and interpret the bible to be able to decipher and contextualize every verse, every chapter and every book of the 72 books from Genesis to Revelations, such that then we can all be theological interpreters for the faithful flock of Christ.

Any wonder therefore, that we are seeing people starting up churches, based on personal interpretation of the bible? Today, anyone can become a preacher on the street, graduate into a pastor, start up a tarpaulin church structure, gather Faithful's, use some mysterious powers to make some miracles, and before you blink twice, you have all sorts of people heading there to "get healed "get a wife or husband, get a flourishing business, Visas, scholarships and these people mysteriously get money to build a house "etc out of these followers.

I am not being unfair or rude at anyone but preachers are misleading their lost sheep as they normally refer them too because the issue of burning bibles has really touched me the way it touched me some time back when Terry Jones, the Florida pastor also promised to do the same to the Quran kindly because he disagree with its writings.

In my final submission on this, I trust that my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters, who love their God and trust that the bible is a holy book should turn on their knees and repent for burning the bibles they burnt because they own no authority over destroying anything holy and historical like the bibles they destroyed.

Anyway am not worthy to say what I have said above, but with faith and hope, you will all forgive me for asking us all not to commit errors in the name of God. Be Blessed.

The writer is a patriotic Ugandan