http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/news/news200704051.php
April 5, 2007
Prayers for sale
A man in London sends money to his wife in Kampala for building a house. Her pastor convinces her to ‘sow’ the money in the Church so that it will multiply three-fold in one month. The money fails to multiply. In fact, it disappears altogether. She commits suicide. Another woman hands over her car to her pastor after he promises to cure her of HIV. She fails to get cured. She tries to get her car back but in vain. A pastor charges people over Shs 30,000 to pray for them so they become rich. They are still poor. These are some of the controversies rocking born-again churches, as RICHARD M. KAVUMA has been finding out.
When Reverend Godfrey Lule, head of the Blessed Temple Church in Kawanda, arrived in Hoima last December, excitement gripped the town.
Radio stations and loudspeakers proclaimed him a miracle maker. He would heal the sick, make the lame walk and – his major focus – make the poor rich.
Reverend Lule prays for a woman at his newly opened church at Kirumira Towers
As he had done on previous occasions, Rev. Lule established his base at the home of one Kyaligonza right behind the Omukama’s palace in Hoima town.
Soon, hopeful faithfuls trooped in from near and far for blessings.
To make money, you need money; and the Hoima faithfuls found out that Lule’s wealth did not come cheap. Ideally, one needed Shs 50,000 to get the touch of wealth.
“Rev. Lule said that if you want to escape poverty you had to pay Shs 30,000 for holy oil and another Shs 20,000 for praying for you,” said Beatrice, a mother of three whose most pressing need was, and still is, finding a job.
Beyond Lule’s trip to Hoima, the business of preachers demanding money in exchange for prayers flourishes, defying condemnation from various circles.
The Weekly Observer has established besides the few tens of thousands of Shillings believers ‘sow’ in envelopes in churches around Kampala, others are giving assets such as cars and houses in exchange for prayers for wealth, visas and physical healing.
The chairman of the National Fellowship of Born Again Churches (NFBAC), Apostle Alex Mitala, was recently quoted in Sunday Vision as condemning money-for-prayer pastors, and so have other preachers.
Pastor Moses Solomon Male is leading a campaign against pastors he calls “thugs” and plans to petition Parliament for a policy to regulate churches. But Rev. Lule rejects the criticism, not least because he ‘never forces anyone’ to give him money.
Money spin
According to the residents of Hoima town, Rev. Lule made quite a lot of money there. No amount was too much for him to accept; none was too little. If, for instance, you had only Shs 30,000, he would give you a small bottle of what he called holy oil but would not pray for you. He would then instruct you to apply the oil on only your forehead without sharing it with anyone.
For Shs 20,000, Lule would only anoint you with oil and a few words of prayer. He would go on to call those who had Shs 10,000 and eventually Shs 5,000. He reportedly told those he anointed that they would get their wishes in 72 days and that if their problems were not solved by then, he would refund their money.
“In fact, he got some good money here; if only he would start a business from it,” said Jane, who runs a shop in Hoima town.
This was later confirmed by Joseph Asaba, the Local Council Chairman of Bujwahya Zone, where Lule’s crusades took place. Asaba too was invited by Kyaligonza but he reportedly declined. He said Lule had made three pilgrimages to Hoima, starting late last year. “The second time, he just came for money,” said Asaba at his carpentry workshop in Bujwahya.
“He categorised people into those with Shs 50,000; 20,000, up to Shs 5,000. That time he really collected a lot of money.”
Asaba said Lule was questioned by Police but was later released. Lule himself told The Weekly Observer that that Police in Hoima tried to stop him but failed, a statement meant to remove any doubt that he was genuine and powerful. However, Homa District Police Commander Charles Emalingat admits that Lule was called to the Police station but it had nothing to do with his money-for-prayers ways.
“It was the Omukama who complained that people were making a lot of noise near his palace and we stopped him because of that,” Emalingat said, adding that he was not aware of any complaints about money.
Convincing tactics
But how could people just give their money to a reverend that is not even from their area?
Hoima residents said Lule demonstrated what many regarded as supernatural powers. One time, as he anointed a seemingly teenage girl, she collapsed. But according to Beatrice, hardly anyone in the gathering seemed to recognise the girl, leading to suspicion that she was among the group that travelled with Lule.
Another time, he said there was a widow in the crowd, who was visited every night by the ghost of her husband and it slept with her. Lule reportedly ordered the woman to come out and a woman came out. He also ordered night dancers to come out to be prayed for and out they came.
“He would say that ‘if you are a night dancer and you don’t come out you will die’ and they all came out and he prayed for them,” said Beatrice.
With people seeing this man who seemed to know all, they gave their money willingly. “My friends told me that when you go there, the man tells you your background without you saying anything,” said Ken, a trader in Hoima.
“When I went to him, he told me that I had lost many people in my family and I was about to suffer big problems if he did not pray for me. He said he wanted Shs 50,000 but I gave him only 10,000.” Ken said some people paid as much as Shs 100,000. A friend of his, Joseph, paid Shs 70,000.
Pastor calls for judicial inquiry
According to Pastor Moses Male, Executive Director of Arising for Christ ministries, many churches are involved in selling prayers for all sorts of needs including getting cured of terminal illnesses like AIDS. Male accuses preachers of several other vices, including witchcraft, wife-snatching and sodomy. He narrated a case where one woman committed suicide after she gave money meant for building a house to her pastor. The pastor had promised the money would multiply three times over but it all vanished without a trace.
Male, who petitioned President Museveni last September about this and other problems in born-again Churches, has called for a judicial probe into the churches.
“We need a massive inquiry so that people can have the courage to come out,” Male said in his office at Span House in Kampala. “So many – may be about 70 percent – of the non-evangelical churches are involved in this practice.”
Male named the pastors whose churches are involved in this trade as including William Muwanguzi of Holy Fire Ministries at Namulanda, Pastor Sembera of Cineplex Lunch Hour, and Augustine Yiga or Revival Christian Church at Kawaala.
A visit to these churches all but confirmed Male’s claims. At Kawaala, Pastor Yiga had a long queue when this writer sought to see him last Saturday. Those who wanted to see him for ‘counselling’ were busy picking envelopes, enclosing money and taking their place in the queue.
“If you are ready to sow, a seed starts from Shs 30,000 upwards,” said an attendant who identified himself as Seeka. “You buy an envelope for Shs 200 and sheet of paper for Shs 100, write your prayer request and enclose it with the money and you see the pastor.”
Envelopes were also the order of the day at Pastor Muwanguzi’s Church, an iron-roof shelter nailed on eucalyptus poles, at Namulanda. One churchgoer told The Weekly Observer that if one wants to see the pastor privately, the fee was Shs 50,000. Those who are counselled as a group pay Shs 10,000 each.
“Haaa, a poor person has no chance of succeeding anywhere,” said a heavily pregnant woman with a white envelope in hand. She wanted to see the pastor alone so she would get to tell him her personal prayer needs. But she did not have Shs 50,000.
Efforts to speak to Muwanguzi were futile as his assistants said he was tired and had stopped seeing people on two separate visits. However, while I pleaded, one woman put money in an envelope and was ushered into the pastor’s office. “Now you are talking,” said a male assistant as he led them woman away.
A female assistant who had been friendly became hostile, on learning that I was a journalist. She literally called the security guard to throw me out.
“You will get into trouble for nothing. Do you want to lose your camera and notes? We have many askaris behind there,” the woman said. “I am not threatening you. I know your agenda. If you think you are going to do research behind curtains, it won’t work.”
Lule at work
This writer recently visited Rev. Lule’s church in Church Zone at Nakulabye. Inside the makeshift structure roofed with straw carpets and tarpaulin, about 60 people – mostly young and middle-aged women – sat attentively on plastic chairs on either side of a two-metre corridor.
At the head of the corridor, Rev. Lule, a stocky man in a short-sleeved blue shirt over matching trousers was shouting some unintelligible things at a woman trembling on an orange tarpaulin on the floor.
Soon it was time to offer prayers.
“Whoever has Shs 20,000 with you, bring it here and I pray for you,” Lule ordered, casting a penetrating look around the audience as if he could see what was in each person’s handbag or pocket. One woman handed him a Shs 20,000. Another brought two notes of Shs 10,000. They got anointed with oil, accompanied by a few words of prayer.
Then he called those with Shs 10,000 and three people went through the routine, till he called those with Shs 2,000 and 1,000. He later invited “the man in a blue shirt and tie” to see him briefly, before disappearing into the house.
“Is it your first time here?” he asked me in his sofa-furnished counselling office, whose walls are covered by President Museveni’s campaign posters. A framed wall picture shows him shaking Museveni’s hand. That was, he said, during the Tarehe Sita (Army Day) celebrations at Kabamba in February.
“You would like to go for further studies, some of it abroad,” he said emphatically, after asking what I was. “You have helped many people but many just want to use you. You have big plans regarding building which have now stalled due to lack of money. There are many people looking to you for support but you don’t have that much money.”
For a while, I trembled. But then, I thought, this could also be true of anyone in my situation. His power to know such things, he said, comes from God.
“Some people claim that I am fake. I am not,” the reverend said, showing me the Museveni picture (apparently, just in case I still had some doubt). He dismissed claims by Pastor Mitala that it is wrong for men of God to demand money for prayers.
“First of all, Mitala does not own a church so he has no idea how hard it is to run one. Secondly, the people give their money in broad daylight and no one is forced,” he said, revealing that he was ordained reverend in January 1990 by Archbishop David Makumbi.
Money condemned
In an earlier interview, Mitala had castigated people like Lule for demanding money. He said Lule was not a member of NFBAC because the group has strict rules regarding such issues.
But Mitala blamed the practice on the traditional churches, like the Catholics. These, he said, sell medals, scapulars, prayers for the dead, confirmation, etc.
The Catholic Church however roundly denies this.
Kampala Archdiocese Pastoral Co-ordinator, Fr. Simon Peter Kawooya, told The Weekly Observer that the two situations were entirely different.
“We do not sell sacraments in the Catholic Church,” he said, adding that money for sacraments like confirmation went to facilitate their training in preparation for these sacraments. He also denied that the Catholic Church demands money for anointing the sick or praying for the dead.
In Hoima meanwhile, other religious leaders have condemned the practice of ‘selling’ prayers. One church leader said that in addition to Lule, other pastors were also demanding money to pray for various needs.
Reverend Eric Twine of Hoima All Saints Church said he did not attend Lule’s crusades but he heard that he was selling a bottle of [holy] water at Shs 30,000 on top of a registration fee of Shs 10,000.
“It is very bad to demand money like that,” said Twine. “Our job is to preach and pray and it is God who gives. If you take money like that, some one puts trust in you instead of God.”
Wealth gospel
The latest controversy about money for prayers comes at a time when churches are under the spotlight over the lifestyle of their pastors. Many live in mansions and drive expensive cars, while urging their congregations to give more and more to God. The trend is for the preacher to convince the believers that the more money you give, the more prayers you get and the higher your chances of getting your wish from God.
In November last year, Daily Monitor reported a case in Mbarara where a woman donated the family Mercedes Benz car to her pastor, reportedly under instruction from God. Her husband was however not aware of God’s instructions and blocked the move, leading to a protracted marital wrangle.
Although various preachers continue to criticise Rev. Lule, he remains defiant. Two weeks ago, he opened a new church on the Sixth floor of Kirumira Towers on William Street. When The Weekly Observer visited on a Monday, the church was packed, even as more people sweated their way up the stairs. “Praise the Lord,” Lule was saying when this writer arrived.
“Amen,” the faithfuls chorused back.
“Praise the Lord!”
“Amen”
rimkav@ugandaobserver.com
