POLITICAL KENYAN EVANGELICALS SAY-THE GAME IS NOT OVER
http://arthurgraph.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/political-kenyan-evangelicals-say-the-game-is-not-over/
Political Chistianity/Dominionism works for Kenya’s Rich,Middle Class Christians…BEWARE ,THEY ARE RISING AND THEY MEAN WHAT THEY SAY…THEY WANT POWER AND THEY WANT IT NOW.
In a straight to the point critique of the East African Evangelical church ,Kato Mivule of Yesu Mulungi ,reveals the fact that after losing the referendum,Kenyan Evangelicals are not only dejected but energized.They are playing politics very cleverly saying that their defeat will be their victory as the constitution will definitely have hiccups and the masses will say that the church was right as for now the media is saying that the church is wrong.
Ours is to say this false doctrine of Political Christianity is the key to Prosperity Gospel.They know that once gets Political power they will get economic power not knowing they are actually after Satan’s power.The game is not over.
Yesu Mulungi – African Christian Perspectives
The Economist and the Misguided Expose on East Africa’s Religious Right
Kato Mivule | August 9, 2010
The Economist recently published an article on what is called the “The religious right in East Africa, The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the Horn of Africa”. The article gives a description of current Political activities of Evangelical Christians in East Africa.
Much of what the author writes about is not news for those who have been following Evangelicals in East Africa. Most of what the article notes is what we have been warning East African Christians to be aware of – namely Political Christianity, Greed, Prosperity Gospel, Legalizing Morality, and other misguided Cultural wars.
Yet the author of the Economist article take a different twist and detest spin – generalization of East African Evangelicals as “Fundamentalists”. In other words, the defamatory and derogatory term ‘fundamentalist’, at least today, is a reserved for groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other lethal religious extremists, mainly used to generalize Muslims.
While the article is a little amusing, the author lacks any understanding of the History of Evangelicals in East Africa. The Authors for instance make a categorical mistake in claiming that most of the Pentecostal Churches started in the 1980s. The author could have researched a number of book written about East African Evangelicals. The author could have consulted a number of historians at some Kampala institution of higher learning.
This lack of historical perspective is some times endemic of some Western Publications such as the Economist. These folks simply send a journalist, who then goes on to live in a five start hotel, the journalist chases around a pompous evangelical preacher for an interview, attends a pompous Church service, then the journalist returns to a Western Capital, makes a weak analysis of events influenced by a heavy anti-Christian Bias.
The Author of the Economist makes another tragic error in stating that Pastor Robert Kayanja is the “ Half Brother” of Archbishop John Ssentamu, the Archbishop of York, England. Was this a strategic error and guided misinformation to try and create a distance between Archbishop Ssentamu and his Prosperity Gospel Preaching Brother, Robert Kayanja? It is well known and fully documented and published that Archbishop John Ssentamu is the elder brother of Robert Kayanja and not a mere “half brother.”
Another instance is the author of the article tries to take the Ugandan Government’s story on Robert Kayanja as being wrongfully accused of “homosexuality”. The truth was Pastor Robert Kayanja was not ‘simply’ accused of being a Homosexual but a Pedophile. The Economist’s lack of coverage of the Child Sexual Abuse that goes on in Evangelical circles in East Africa, Uganda in particular, shows that the author was bent on simply retributive journalism, and blanketing all East African Christians as being Homophobic.
In other words, if the author stated that there are cases of pedophilia that go on in Uganda’s Evangelical Churches, then perhaps anti-gay sentiments would rise. The author seems to not separate the Pedophilia issue with the Homosexuality issue. The trouble was that the Pedophilia issues was mixed up with the War on Homosexuality by Pastor Ssempa and associates.
On reading the article, it was like the Economist Journalist went to East Africa to play ‘tit for tat’ with East African Evangelicals and simply counter attack Evangelicals for their being Anti-gay. The Author knows very well that such an article would not pass the scrutiny of Western Evangelicals with it’s generalization of Evangelicals as “fundamentalists”.
However, despite the short comings of an ‘anti-christian’ attitude, this piece is an eye opener to the political activities of Evangelicals in East Africa and the Political Power of influence that they continual to hold. Despite the lost election on the constitutional change in Kenya, the Evangelicals will not give up but rather be energized the more.
While the Economist sees East Africa’s elite as avoiding the Evangelical Church, most of the numbers that make up the large Evangelical Churches are middle class, wealthy and with money to support pompous preachers. Further more, East Africa’s Political Elite use the Evangelical Population for political exploits. It is not uncommon for Politicians like President Museveni and his wife to always associate with powerful Evangelical leaders in East Africa. Take for instance the relationship between President Museveni and Pastor Robert Kayanja.
Lastly, the Economist makes another tragic error by employing ‘divide and rule’ by splitting the Muslims from Evangelical Christians when it comes to social issues or what the West refers to as ‘cultural wars’. This deliberate ignorance by the Economist, is not only alarming but shows the hypocrisy and anti-christian attitude by Western Publications like the Economist, when it comes to coverage of Christianity in Africa.
There are a number newspaper publications showing the joint meetings and protests by Muslim leaders and Pastor Martin Ssempa against Homosexuality in Uganda. Joint documents have been released by the two groups in the efforts to “rid Uganda of Homosexuality” yet the uppity Economist Journalist insinuates that there is a rift between Uganda Evangelicals and Muslims when it comes to such issues.
Muslims and Christians share the same conservative cultural values in East Africa despite the Kenya Constitutional Change Campaigns. They all are anti abortion, anti gay marriage, anti homosexuality, and greatly opposed to what they see as an invasion by Western Cultures in Africa. If there is any version of the African Religious Right, Conservative Muslims have been part of it – at least in Uganda.
When Pastor Ssempa’s associates in the war on homosexuality were arrested, Muslim Imams went to court to show support for their evangelical counterparts in the “war against homosexuality”. The deliberate lack of coverage of these important matters by the Economist further shows their anti-Christian attitudes and if they are to fully analyze Christian Events and the largely conservative culture in Africa, that anti-Christian and retributive attitude must be dropped and perhaps they might be of educational help to a large growing new generation of East Africans willing to give reason and intellect a chance.
Kato Mivule
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The religious right in east Africa
Slain by the spirit
The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the Horn of Africa
http://www.economist.com/node/16488830?story_id=16488830
Jul 1st 2010 | Nairobi
AT A rally in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park on a Sunday afternoon last month, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, parliamentarian, assistant minister for housing and one of the country’s foremost Pentecostal preachers, was passing around a paper bag for contributions from the crowd. Some tens of thousands of Kenyans had gathered to campaign against a proposed new constitution, which Ms Wanjiru and other preachers urged them to reject in a referendum to be held on August 4th. Two provisions, one allowing for Muslim courts to settle marriage and land disputes, the other to allow abortion where the life of the mother is in danger, were a direct threat to Christianity, they said. On the stage, people were being slain by the spirit; sometimes just a fingertip was enough to throw believers back across the boards.
Then someone tossed two grenades into the crowd, killing six people and wounding many others. Almost immediately, there were accusations that government security agents had attacked the rally. That is evidence, for some, that the government is rattled by the vibrant opposition of the “new churches”, mainly Pentecostal, to a new constitution that most members of the government support. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that, as elsewhere, Kenya’s politicians have underestimated the drawing power of a fresh generation of Protestant churches, most of which were set up in the 1980s.
Officially Pentecostals and other “charismatics” count for no more than 5% of the population. In reality, their ministers preach to about a third of the country every week. Their rise reflects an important trend across Africa. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, about 17m Africans described themselves as born-again Christians in 1970. Today the figure has soared to more than 400m, which accounts for over a third of Africa’s population. And as in Nigeria on the other side of the continent, they are now having a noticeable effect on public-policy debates in east Africa. Regardless of the outcome of the vote on the constitution in Kenya, for example, their interventions are likely to make abortion a defining political issue in the country. Similarly, the efforts of new churches in neighbouring Uganda have made political controversies out of homosexuality and the right of Muslims to convert to Christianity.
Ms Wanjiru’s own church, Jesus Is Alive Ministries, is a good example of the new genre. She can draw 100,000 worshippers to a meeting. Add in a visiting televangelist and the number can rise to as many as 500,000. Ms Wanjiru has lived the Pentecostal dream. She is from a poor family of casual labourers and eked out a life as a housemaid and toilet cleaner before working her way up to a marketing job. She then experienced a vision from God calling on her to save Africa. These days videos, CDs and other accessories can be bought from her website using credit cards or phone credit. She makes good use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media. She is not afraid to court controversy, last year baptising the boss of the Mungiki organised-crime outfit, Maina Njenga. Mr Njenga’s gang had been involved in extortion and had a history of hacking off the heads of its enemies.
But the business of owner-operated churches is competitive. A few dud sermons and the crowd thins. That is one reason why they are so upbeat and aspirational. Indeed, their insistent calls for self-discipline and education, striving and victory prompt some people to say Pentecostalism should be encouraged in Africa as the new version of Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic. The churches are certainly prominent in anti-corruption campaigns.
However, there is also plenty of hucksterism. You will be blessed with health and wealth by God, congregants are told, especially if you give generously. As in other parts of the world, the new churches in Kenya and Uganda provide a place for the ambitious poor to get ahead. Yet the real competitive advantage of the new churches in east Africa seems to be their willingness to tap, at least subliminally, into traditional beliefs. “They give full play to the enchanted mentality, which holds the world to be inhabited with ghosts and spirits,” explains Paul Gifford, a professor of African Christianity at the University of London. It makes economic sense: getting spells lifted and spirits cast out on a Sunday morning saves money on a visit to the witch doctor during the week.
New churches are good at exploiting gaps in the market and profiting from them. A Ugandan Pentecostal preacher, Martin Ssempa, for instance, has mined a rich seam of homophobia in Uganda to help build up his standing. He and other Pentecostals pushed for the tabling of an anti-homosexuality bill in the Ugandan parliament, which advocates spying on gays and proscribes imprisonment for sodomy. Earlier versions of the law called for the death penalty in some instances. Mr Ssempa has in the past had ties with a prominent American evangelical, Rick Warren (who has condemned the anti-gay law), and with Uganda’s born-again first lady, Janet Museveni. “In Africa sodomy is an abomination,” he says. Some of his actions, such as screening gay pornography to his congregants, look clownish and self-publicising, but Mr Ssempa has been astute in targeting students at Makerere, Uganda’s best university. Other Pentecostals have also had success in Uganda with missions to convert Muslims to Christianity.
New churches are making headway in other parts of east Africa too. Despite threats of imprisonment from a repressive government they are enjoying success in Eritrea and have also built a large following in traditionally Coptic Christian Ethiopia, where all Protestants are simply known as “Pentay” for Pentecostal. The largest denomination, Kale Heywet, which claims 5m members, has been influenced by the new church movement, as has the 2.5m strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. It now says that it will reject money from Lutheran churches in richer countries to protest against their support for gay marriage. Returning refugees have introduced Pentecostalism into Burundi and Rwanda. Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, is a born-again Christian. He holds prayer sessions and has overseen the introduction of new laws criminalising homosexuality in the country.
However, the new churches may not be able to translate today’s assertiveness into permanent political power. There have been investments from Pat Robertson and others, but the influence of the American Christian right is often overstated. Nigerian Pentecostals are more important in establishing business models and preaching styles. Being independent has helped with growth, but it makes it harder to lobby governments. Then there is the question of class. Pentecostalism cannot quite shake off its impecunious roots. The cabal of civil servants, soldiers, and businessmen who dominate the golf and social clubs of Nairobi and Kampala, the capitals of Kenya and Uganda, are mostly Anglican and Roman Catholic and are unlikely to be swayed by any casting out of demons. Likewise, the former Marxist rebels running Eritrea and Ethiopia probably won’t be moved by speaking in tongues.
Besides, the swagger of preachers like Mr Ssempa can backfire. Support for the anti-homosexuality bill in the Ugandan parliament has fallen away after Mr Ssempa and other preachers accused a rival Pentecostal, Robert Kayanja, of sodomy. Mr Kayanja, coincidentally a half-brother of the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has himself been criticised in Uganda for milking the poor to live a luxury life. And the clear anti-Muslim sentiment scares politicians who want to win the sizeable Muslim vote.
Even so, the emphasis on youth in new churches means they cannot be discounted. A new generation of born-again political leaders may seek to win power on Christian votes alone, even at the cost of division.
