Rigging a Rigged Election!! : Situating the intricacies of defeating a neo-liberal Icon in the 2011 Ugandan General Election
By: Kizito Michael George
After successfully manipulating parliament to remove the terms limits in the 1995 Uganda constitution, Yoweri Museveni has stood for the ‘4th term’ in the February, 2011 general elections. Like before, he continues to ride on the privileges and politics of incumbency. President Museveni planned for his victory decades ago, by vehemently demonizing political parties using the ruse that if political parties were allowed to return to Uganda, they would a recipe for chaos and disaster. Riding on the fallacy that the no party movement was an all inclusive broad base(of course one party system in practice), Museveni used the broad base utopia to consolidate power at the grassroots. In fact apparently, the NRMO is the only political party in Uganda with substantive grassroots party structures, thanks to the movement politics of syndicalism and benevolent dictatorship.
Museveni also used the broad base utopia to infiltrate all institutions that matter in a democracy for instance, the parliament, Electoral commission, Uganda human rights commission, Inspectorate of Government, Army, Police, Directorate of ethics and integrity etc. Institutions like the EC and UHRC are superimposed by the presidential powers of appointment and re-appointment and therefore are not impartial. He is also doing everything possible to hijack the judiciary. A popular Ugandan comedian Paddy Bitama, tried to stand as a presidential candidate in the 2011 general election without success. Although, the press and many members of the public were of the view that Paddy was simply unleashing his comedian antics, the comedian has given Ugandans a subtle message that the 2011 general election just like the previous ones is mere gimmick because one of the players owns the referee and all the liners. A look at the print and electronic media reveals that the fourth estate in Uganda is greatly censoring itself as regards, reporting the views of opposition presidential candidates.
Despite being a strong proponent of neo-liberal new public management, a philosophy that advocates for cutting down on costs of public administration among other tenets, Museveni recently gave a remote touch to parliament create more districts prior to the 2011 general elections. Some critics have argued that some of the newly created districts will be spending more on public administration compared to the revenue they are able to generate as a district. The purpose of creating these new districts is not bringing services nearer to the poor, but rather to create powerful voting blocks. Many peasants will be deceived into thinking that getting a district is heaven on earth.
Among all the candidates standing for the 2011 general elections, Museveni is the most experienced as regards the manipulation of fundamental political voting blocks such as; Mengo, women and the peasants etc . It so amazing that even some of the senior cadres in the movement do not seem know where the NRM is going next. In 2003 as they were singing slogans of never allowing political parties back in Uganda, they were shocked to learn that the president had allowed political parties to operate in Uganda. Recently, a minister who had vowed to walk naked if CBS was opened without apologizing to the president was shocked to learn that the ‘monster’ was back on air.
In attempting to understand electoral politics in Uganda, many analyses have tended to locate the election problematics in Uganda in the person of the president. There is a belief in many scholars that once Museveni is defeated, the problems of Uganda will disappear. President Museveni’s candidature must be situated with in the neo-liberal imperial politics of consolidating American interests in the great lakes region. In 2006, the BBC ran a story where Museveni was depicted as ‘’a fallen Engel ‘’however, since Uganda took up a leading role in the war against terror in Somalia, President Museveni became a neo-liberal icon ‘over night’. Despite numerous corruption scandals Museveni’s economy continues to be applauded as a modal economy in Africa. During this year’s ICC summit in Kampala, Dr.Olara Otunu’s insinuation that Museveni should investigated for crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda and Luwero were dismissed as ‘mere politicking’. As if this was not enough, Ugandans were socked to learn that during the same year, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Johnnie Cason a one time critic of Museveni’s grip to power, corruption and nepotism applauded Museveni’s as a president duly elected in a free and fair election.
A MUST READ:
Secrecy Regarding Uganda's Strategic Oil Reserves
The Collapse of Democracy?
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18535
Uganda dismisses case seeking oil deals disclosure
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINLDE61227W20100203?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA: AWAKE!
America and the American Church Are Not Your Friends
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000234.htm
THE THIRD WORLD AS A MODEL FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000156.htm
AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of Africa
http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article026.htm
The US Sponsored "Rwanda Genocide" and its Aftermath
Psychological Warfare, Embedded Reporters and the Hunting of Refugees
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8657
Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa The Spectre of Continental Genocide
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7311
Monday, 29 November 2010
Uganda the Christian Nation is Among the Most Corrupt Nations of the Earth
Uganda the Christian Nation is Among the Most Corrupt Nations of the Earth
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/439-uganda-the-christian-nation-is-among-the-most-corrupt-nations-of-the-earth.html
Kato Mivule | November 16, 2010
George Otis and his famous Transformation Videos went to Uganda and famously “documented” how Uganda was declared a “Christian Nation” by President Yoweri Museveni, the leader of Uganda since 1986.
George Otis noted how corruption was being stamped out, Parliamentary sessions were opened with prayers, Ugandan MPs were Christian, President's wife was a Christian, and how people were praying day and night for a mighty revival, and how Uganda was being “transformed” by this supposedly prayer movement.
Many missionaries, ministers, preachers, and pastors from the west have bought into such unfounded notions of Uganda being a “Christian Nation”. Interesting is that now US Evangelicals engaged in Politics are now heavily influencing undiscerning Christians in Uganda to take on the same mantle of right wing Christian Politics.
I have spoken to some US ministers who travel to Uganda and all they see is a so-called revival, yet the opposite is true, Uganda is among the most corrupt nations on earth, from preacher, prophet, to president, corruption has become the order of the day and way of life.[1] The Christian Church has become an extension of the rich, powerful, and most corrupt, as long as they can bring in the tithe. Below is an article by a Ugandan renowned journalist documenting the moral and ethical decay in Uganda the “Christian Nation”.
[1] “Corruption index 2010 from Transparency International: find out how each country compares | News | guardian.co.uk.” [Online]. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/26/corruption-index-2010-transparency-international. [Accessed: 16-Nov-2010].
============================================
============================================
Gangster’s paradise: The Feudal Republic of Uganda
http://independent.co.ug/index.php/column/insight/67-insight/3601-gangsters-paradise-the-feudal-republic-of-uganda
National events at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala like Independence Day, Labour Day and others used to last about two hours. Since 2008, they have started taking on the feel of mammoth, all-day festivals.
The main reason is that as President Yoweri Museveni has gotten more insecure in power and in his mind, a whole movement has developed to reassure him that he is still loved by his people and his stay in power is not something that should worry him.
To demonstrate this (and, no doubt, to secure their jobs and gain favours), Resident District Commissioners and NRM party officials a few days before Independence Day made it their primary assignment to mobilise as many crowds, businesses, NGOs, government ministries, hospitals, schools, and paramilitary groups as possible to take part in the parade at Kololo Airstrip.
On October 9, 2010, this entered a new phase: for the first time in Uganda’s history, nursery school infants were drafted into the march-past parade at Kololo.
Like the rest of society, these marching groups at Kololo have grasped the essential nature of Museveni’s regime in its latter stages.
It is essentially the Feudal Republic of Uganda that is now in place. Under this Feudal Republic, there is no law, no order, no standard, there is no defining national ethos except that which flows from the person of Museveni.
If this feudal lord, who governs Uganda, decrees that your bank loan be forgiven or that you get millions of dollars from Bank of Uganda, you be appointed ambassador, your goods come in tax-free, you be given land to build a factory in a wetland or national park, or that your company is given the budget to promote Uganda’s image abroad, then that is it. His word becomes legal writ and law.
If Museveni looks favourably upon you today, your life can be instantaneously transformed like in the children’s fairly tales: today you are in rags; tomorrow you are a minister. Today you are selling maize at a street corner; tomorrow you are the Chief Mobiliser for the NRM in eastern Uganda.
The question, then, is how do you get Museveni’s attention? You can send your school to march at Kololo, or you can publicly declare your undying support for him.
As a struggling Ugandan singer, you can compose a song titled “Amelia” whose lyrics sound curiously like an anthem in praise of the former Principal Private Secretary to the President, Amelia Kyambadde or you can write a song in praise of Museveni.
Either way, you will be guaranteed, not sales, but that one of these two will buy your master copy for 5,000 dollars, or that small radio stations in the countryside will be forced by RDCs to play these songs, as a way to justify their jobs, or when you the singer gets into trouble next time after fighting in a bar, the police will let you go scot-free or the president will pay your medical bills.
The Ugandan singer Bobi Wine captured this new order of things best in his 2006 song Kiwani, in which he had the lyrics “Buli omu asiba kiwani” (“Everybody engages in fraud”).
A good illustration of how deep this state of national kiwani has penetrated every corner and area of life, came in the Miss Uganda beauty contest in September. Apparently, there were three leading contenders: the contestant who was favoured by the audience, the one who was the choice of the judges, and the one preferred by the organisers.
Like so many such events, from elections to Uganda’s football administration, to the Pearl of Africa Music Awards, to the Miss Makerere beauty contest, to simple things like the choice of a cover subject for a newspaper or news magazine, the Miss Uganda contest resulted in the kind of controversy that flows from corruption, bribery of judges and officials that is now the Ugandan national character.
There are fraudsters in Kampala nicknamed “Cubans” and also termed “mercenaries”. These are the young men and women who perform an important role in the economy. Their work is to sit exams or write academic theses on behalf of busy civil servants and corporate executives.
These ghost writers are the real brains behind most of the Bachelors, MBAs, and PhDs in Uganda that Uganda’s middle class boasts today.
At another level, there is a whole group of professionals who have also developed and flourished around this fraudulent society.
Gynecologists and other personal doctors, lawyers, auditors, accountants, personal physical fitness trainers, and others who are contracted by Uganda’s corrupt class are doing brisk business.
Whole industries, from airlines, travel agents, property brokers, chartered surveyors, architects, private schools, banks, hotels, telecom companies etc, have all risen to meet the needs and ride on the purchasing power of this wealthy, corrupt, embezzling class.
A world of NGOs to fight or report on corruption has become a permanent feature of Ugandan life. So too have the NGOs, local and foreign, that have come to fill in the gap in the provision of basic social services and relief aid that has been created by the erosion of the state under Museveni.
Newspapers and radio stations that champion or claim to champion the fight against corruption have done well with audiences and publishing adverts and tenders by NGOs claiming or actually fighting corruption.
The media in general has also gained much by way of advertising from the many companies, investors, and individuals who either should never have been allowed to enter Uganda, or should have been expelled by now, or who should be in jail.
Journalists who have reported on corruption have become national stars. Those who take bribes in order to suppress damaging stories on corruption have also done well, judging by the flashy cars and expensive property they own.
Certain Pentecostal churches whose pastors are close to State House or which are generally sympathetic to the NRM government have gained much in prestige, contributions by their parishioners and occasional moral support or political and legal cover from the state.
On average, the salaries of most people in the civil service, the corporate and NGO community is only about one third of their monthly incomes. The other two thirds is topped up in this climate of hustling, bribes, tax evasion, raising vouchers and allowance claim forms, inflating invoices and tenders and outright theft.
[Children undergo paramilitary drills in Kololo]
Children undergo paramilitary drills in Kololo
Last month, David Mukholi, the editor of the Sunday Vision newspaper, said on a Wednesday journalists’ show on Vision Voice that news and investigation stories on corruption no longer sell.
This might be partly because the public has grown weary of reports on corruption, since they know nothing will be done about them anyway; but also it might suggest that corruption is now a majority culture, in the same way Christianity is the majority religion in Uganda, and so few are interested in having it exposed.
The state of lawlessness that characterises Uganda today has been amazingly beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, especially in Kampala. This is because, like all systems once entrenched, it has taken on a formal, organised, routine, checks and balances character of its own.
And like all systems, to disrupt it is destabilising and can be a source of national instability as disrupting a system founded on merit and the observance of law and order.
When UPC party president Olara Otunnu called for a boycott of the 2011 general election unless the current Electoral Commission is reformed or changed, his call was opposed by the main opposition party the FDC and by a surprising number of UPC members.
This was odd, since the FDC has been a victim of rigged elections for a decade and should know better than to have faith that the 2011 election will be different. Once again, what normally defies logic in Uganda is, surprisingly, logical in its own way.
Most Ugandans know that the forthcoming election will be rigged. The NRM party primaries alone were a foreshadow of what is to come. However, there is more than meets the eye. Whenever elections loom, with them comes a whole industry from which many thousands of Ugandans gain and it trickles down to the ordinary people.
It is not just the impoverished villagers who the media usually portrays as receiving a pathetic bribe of sugar and soap.
Campaign managers, touts who traverse the villages rallying support, the printers who get the jobs to produce campaign posters, treasurers of candidates, candidates themselves, boda boda cyclists who blow their horns and transport supporters, the bars that sell booze to crowds, those who cook food to sell at rallies, journalists who take bribes to write in praise of or interview certain candidates on radio, men who spend all day playing Ludo or arguing about Manchester United who are suddenly elected councillors or even MPs--- all these gain in a major way from the elections, even though the occupant at State House might not change.
This election industry, with it characteristic bribes, unexplained money coming in from governments in the region trying to influence the outcome of the election in Uganda or political parties and trade unions in Europe, western embassies in Kampala, plays a vital role in the Ugandan economy and so there was no surprise that political parties that know for certain that 2011 will see, if anything, much more rigging than before, still felt they had to take part in it.
When Museveni finally leaves power some day, this is the legacy that will last the longest and take the longest and the greatest effort to uproot.
A generation of Ugandans will have been born that has no understanding whatsoever of what institutions mean, what merit is, what procedure and method are, and how to earn a living by the process of systematic, incremental work, followed by payment and personal savings.
They will not know or have the patience to queue up for anything, to wait for longer than a week for a tender or results of an interview to be made public.
The only thing they will have known and which works for them is the life of what in Kampala slang these days is termed “Okuyiya”, a term describing the gambling, scheming, lying, issuing bouncing cheques, acting the sycophant, bending or breaking laws and rules and evading taxes or doctoring academic certificates that is life in Uganda and how most people survive.
To every obstacle in their path, the solution is to call afande so-and-so, call somebody or State House, call up a cousin in intelligence, a brother in the army, a contact on the job interview panel, a friend in the Uganda Revenue Authority, or somebody at border immigration control.
Many Ugandans and foreigners lament the state of affairs in Uganda today, from the rundown infrastructure, roads, police stations, to the nepotism on corruption. In truth, this is largely a moralistic cry, usually characterised by crocodile tears.
The fact is, for the majority of Ugandans there is no system and way of life they can enjoy better than what they have grown used to in Uganda today.
In Uganda, you can toss a mineral water bottle out of a car window. You can drive on the left or the right, depending on what pleases you. You can zoom past pedestrians at a zebra crossing etc.
You can use three different names to transact business. A newspaper with a circulation of only 1,200 copies can get the same full-colour, full-page advert as a newspaper with a circulation of 35,000 copies, depending on who one bribes for the adverts.
At first one is tempted to feel sorry for doctors who work in government hospitals or police officers in their shabby offices, until one realises that they don’t seem to be that bothered.
This is because amid that confusion and broken down infrastructure are hefty benefits to be enjoyed. Families of arrested suspects and criminals can pay a CID officer or District Police Commander to release a relative.
Traffic policemen who stand on duty along roadsides are often not exactly suffering, when it is learnt how much they earn in bribes from offending drivers.
Teachers in miserable government schools or at Makerere University can either be paid to award marks to students for cash or sex.
Foreign businessmen and companies have also discovered this about Uganda and, while there is much lamentation by purists that Uganda is too corrupt to do business in, actually Uganda is just the right environment in which certain types of crafty companies and entrepreneurs can do business. It is a gangster’s paradise.
You import expired goods? No problem. Nobody will ask. You bring in unskilled labour from India. Kawa, life will go on. You evade taxes? Who pays taxes, anyway?
In this sense, Uganda has shaken off the last vestiges of the old colonial system of order, merit, method, standards, bureaucracy and moved on to a strange state of nature in which the country has one of the highest rates of social mobility on earth.
Office sweeper today, RDC tomorrow. Failure at school today, MBA holder tomorrow. Sergeant today, Brigadier tomorrow. Struggling small-time trader today, property mogul tomorrow. Teacher today, women’s MP tomorrow. Convicted thief today, presidential advisor tomorrow. Freelance reporter today, Managing Editor tomorrow. Wanted by police today for fraud, operations director at the Internal Security Organisation tomorrow.
This is why many Ugandans don’t seem as bothered by the potholes in Kampala as the media expects them to be. Not that they don’t see or suffer through them. It is just that there are so many benefits that have also come with operating in Uganda, benefits that more than compensate for the lack or order, accountability, merit, bureaucracy and the rule of law.
Cabinet ministers do not have any real powers and they know it. However, they also know something else: what apparently appears like offices without powers actually do have certain hidden powers.
A prospective investor flies into Uganda from China or France and at some stage he gets to meet the minister in charge of the investor’s area of interest. To obtain the minister’s signature, the investor pays handsomely in a bribe.
So in that sense, all of Uganda’s cabinet ministers, ministers of state, resident district commissioners, members of parliament, permanent secretaries, commissioners, and a whole host of other public and civil service officials, while appearing to have no real authority in a system that barely functions, actually have much greater power than they would have enjoyed had Uganda had institutions that work.
Because of this, an entire middle class has emerged since 1986 that is built on dishonesty and fraud. So entrenched is it that any attempt to reform Uganda and genuinely root out corruption would destabilise the country.
Museveni found Uganda a struggling military-dominated, post-colonial republic in 1986. He will leave it a feudal state similar to an African kingdom of the 19th century.
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/439-uganda-the-christian-nation-is-among-the-most-corrupt-nations-of-the-earth.html
Kato Mivule | November 16, 2010
George Otis and his famous Transformation Videos went to Uganda and famously “documented” how Uganda was declared a “Christian Nation” by President Yoweri Museveni, the leader of Uganda since 1986.
George Otis noted how corruption was being stamped out, Parliamentary sessions were opened with prayers, Ugandan MPs were Christian, President's wife was a Christian, and how people were praying day and night for a mighty revival, and how Uganda was being “transformed” by this supposedly prayer movement.
Many missionaries, ministers, preachers, and pastors from the west have bought into such unfounded notions of Uganda being a “Christian Nation”. Interesting is that now US Evangelicals engaged in Politics are now heavily influencing undiscerning Christians in Uganda to take on the same mantle of right wing Christian Politics.
I have spoken to some US ministers who travel to Uganda and all they see is a so-called revival, yet the opposite is true, Uganda is among the most corrupt nations on earth, from preacher, prophet, to president, corruption has become the order of the day and way of life.[1] The Christian Church has become an extension of the rich, powerful, and most corrupt, as long as they can bring in the tithe. Below is an article by a Ugandan renowned journalist documenting the moral and ethical decay in Uganda the “Christian Nation”.
[1] “Corruption index 2010 from Transparency International: find out how each country compares | News | guardian.co.uk.” [Online]. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/26/corruption-index-2010-transparency-international. [Accessed: 16-Nov-2010].
============================================
============================================
Gangster’s paradise: The Feudal Republic of Uganda
http://independent.co.ug/index.php/column/insight/67-insight/3601-gangsters-paradise-the-feudal-republic-of-uganda
National events at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala like Independence Day, Labour Day and others used to last about two hours. Since 2008, they have started taking on the feel of mammoth, all-day festivals.
The main reason is that as President Yoweri Museveni has gotten more insecure in power and in his mind, a whole movement has developed to reassure him that he is still loved by his people and his stay in power is not something that should worry him.
To demonstrate this (and, no doubt, to secure their jobs and gain favours), Resident District Commissioners and NRM party officials a few days before Independence Day made it their primary assignment to mobilise as many crowds, businesses, NGOs, government ministries, hospitals, schools, and paramilitary groups as possible to take part in the parade at Kololo Airstrip.
On October 9, 2010, this entered a new phase: for the first time in Uganda’s history, nursery school infants were drafted into the march-past parade at Kololo.
Like the rest of society, these marching groups at Kololo have grasped the essential nature of Museveni’s regime in its latter stages.
It is essentially the Feudal Republic of Uganda that is now in place. Under this Feudal Republic, there is no law, no order, no standard, there is no defining national ethos except that which flows from the person of Museveni.
If this feudal lord, who governs Uganda, decrees that your bank loan be forgiven or that you get millions of dollars from Bank of Uganda, you be appointed ambassador, your goods come in tax-free, you be given land to build a factory in a wetland or national park, or that your company is given the budget to promote Uganda’s image abroad, then that is it. His word becomes legal writ and law.
If Museveni looks favourably upon you today, your life can be instantaneously transformed like in the children’s fairly tales: today you are in rags; tomorrow you are a minister. Today you are selling maize at a street corner; tomorrow you are the Chief Mobiliser for the NRM in eastern Uganda.
The question, then, is how do you get Museveni’s attention? You can send your school to march at Kololo, or you can publicly declare your undying support for him.
As a struggling Ugandan singer, you can compose a song titled “Amelia” whose lyrics sound curiously like an anthem in praise of the former Principal Private Secretary to the President, Amelia Kyambadde or you can write a song in praise of Museveni.
Either way, you will be guaranteed, not sales, but that one of these two will buy your master copy for 5,000 dollars, or that small radio stations in the countryside will be forced by RDCs to play these songs, as a way to justify their jobs, or when you the singer gets into trouble next time after fighting in a bar, the police will let you go scot-free or the president will pay your medical bills.
The Ugandan singer Bobi Wine captured this new order of things best in his 2006 song Kiwani, in which he had the lyrics “Buli omu asiba kiwani” (“Everybody engages in fraud”).
A good illustration of how deep this state of national kiwani has penetrated every corner and area of life, came in the Miss Uganda beauty contest in September. Apparently, there were three leading contenders: the contestant who was favoured by the audience, the one who was the choice of the judges, and the one preferred by the organisers.
Like so many such events, from elections to Uganda’s football administration, to the Pearl of Africa Music Awards, to the Miss Makerere beauty contest, to simple things like the choice of a cover subject for a newspaper or news magazine, the Miss Uganda contest resulted in the kind of controversy that flows from corruption, bribery of judges and officials that is now the Ugandan national character.
There are fraudsters in Kampala nicknamed “Cubans” and also termed “mercenaries”. These are the young men and women who perform an important role in the economy. Their work is to sit exams or write academic theses on behalf of busy civil servants and corporate executives.
These ghost writers are the real brains behind most of the Bachelors, MBAs, and PhDs in Uganda that Uganda’s middle class boasts today.
At another level, there is a whole group of professionals who have also developed and flourished around this fraudulent society.
Gynecologists and other personal doctors, lawyers, auditors, accountants, personal physical fitness trainers, and others who are contracted by Uganda’s corrupt class are doing brisk business.
Whole industries, from airlines, travel agents, property brokers, chartered surveyors, architects, private schools, banks, hotels, telecom companies etc, have all risen to meet the needs and ride on the purchasing power of this wealthy, corrupt, embezzling class.
A world of NGOs to fight or report on corruption has become a permanent feature of Ugandan life. So too have the NGOs, local and foreign, that have come to fill in the gap in the provision of basic social services and relief aid that has been created by the erosion of the state under Museveni.
Newspapers and radio stations that champion or claim to champion the fight against corruption have done well with audiences and publishing adverts and tenders by NGOs claiming or actually fighting corruption.
The media in general has also gained much by way of advertising from the many companies, investors, and individuals who either should never have been allowed to enter Uganda, or should have been expelled by now, or who should be in jail.
Journalists who have reported on corruption have become national stars. Those who take bribes in order to suppress damaging stories on corruption have also done well, judging by the flashy cars and expensive property they own.
Certain Pentecostal churches whose pastors are close to State House or which are generally sympathetic to the NRM government have gained much in prestige, contributions by their parishioners and occasional moral support or political and legal cover from the state.
On average, the salaries of most people in the civil service, the corporate and NGO community is only about one third of their monthly incomes. The other two thirds is topped up in this climate of hustling, bribes, tax evasion, raising vouchers and allowance claim forms, inflating invoices and tenders and outright theft.
[Children undergo paramilitary drills in Kololo]
Children undergo paramilitary drills in Kololo
Last month, David Mukholi, the editor of the Sunday Vision newspaper, said on a Wednesday journalists’ show on Vision Voice that news and investigation stories on corruption no longer sell.
This might be partly because the public has grown weary of reports on corruption, since they know nothing will be done about them anyway; but also it might suggest that corruption is now a majority culture, in the same way Christianity is the majority religion in Uganda, and so few are interested in having it exposed.
The state of lawlessness that characterises Uganda today has been amazingly beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, especially in Kampala. This is because, like all systems once entrenched, it has taken on a formal, organised, routine, checks and balances character of its own.
And like all systems, to disrupt it is destabilising and can be a source of national instability as disrupting a system founded on merit and the observance of law and order.
When UPC party president Olara Otunnu called for a boycott of the 2011 general election unless the current Electoral Commission is reformed or changed, his call was opposed by the main opposition party the FDC and by a surprising number of UPC members.
This was odd, since the FDC has been a victim of rigged elections for a decade and should know better than to have faith that the 2011 election will be different. Once again, what normally defies logic in Uganda is, surprisingly, logical in its own way.
Most Ugandans know that the forthcoming election will be rigged. The NRM party primaries alone were a foreshadow of what is to come. However, there is more than meets the eye. Whenever elections loom, with them comes a whole industry from which many thousands of Ugandans gain and it trickles down to the ordinary people.
It is not just the impoverished villagers who the media usually portrays as receiving a pathetic bribe of sugar and soap.
Campaign managers, touts who traverse the villages rallying support, the printers who get the jobs to produce campaign posters, treasurers of candidates, candidates themselves, boda boda cyclists who blow their horns and transport supporters, the bars that sell booze to crowds, those who cook food to sell at rallies, journalists who take bribes to write in praise of or interview certain candidates on radio, men who spend all day playing Ludo or arguing about Manchester United who are suddenly elected councillors or even MPs--- all these gain in a major way from the elections, even though the occupant at State House might not change.
This election industry, with it characteristic bribes, unexplained money coming in from governments in the region trying to influence the outcome of the election in Uganda or political parties and trade unions in Europe, western embassies in Kampala, plays a vital role in the Ugandan economy and so there was no surprise that political parties that know for certain that 2011 will see, if anything, much more rigging than before, still felt they had to take part in it.
When Museveni finally leaves power some day, this is the legacy that will last the longest and take the longest and the greatest effort to uproot.
A generation of Ugandans will have been born that has no understanding whatsoever of what institutions mean, what merit is, what procedure and method are, and how to earn a living by the process of systematic, incremental work, followed by payment and personal savings.
They will not know or have the patience to queue up for anything, to wait for longer than a week for a tender or results of an interview to be made public.
The only thing they will have known and which works for them is the life of what in Kampala slang these days is termed “Okuyiya”, a term describing the gambling, scheming, lying, issuing bouncing cheques, acting the sycophant, bending or breaking laws and rules and evading taxes or doctoring academic certificates that is life in Uganda and how most people survive.
To every obstacle in their path, the solution is to call afande so-and-so, call somebody or State House, call up a cousin in intelligence, a brother in the army, a contact on the job interview panel, a friend in the Uganda Revenue Authority, or somebody at border immigration control.
Many Ugandans and foreigners lament the state of affairs in Uganda today, from the rundown infrastructure, roads, police stations, to the nepotism on corruption. In truth, this is largely a moralistic cry, usually characterised by crocodile tears.
The fact is, for the majority of Ugandans there is no system and way of life they can enjoy better than what they have grown used to in Uganda today.
In Uganda, you can toss a mineral water bottle out of a car window. You can drive on the left or the right, depending on what pleases you. You can zoom past pedestrians at a zebra crossing etc.
You can use three different names to transact business. A newspaper with a circulation of only 1,200 copies can get the same full-colour, full-page advert as a newspaper with a circulation of 35,000 copies, depending on who one bribes for the adverts.
At first one is tempted to feel sorry for doctors who work in government hospitals or police officers in their shabby offices, until one realises that they don’t seem to be that bothered.
This is because amid that confusion and broken down infrastructure are hefty benefits to be enjoyed. Families of arrested suspects and criminals can pay a CID officer or District Police Commander to release a relative.
Traffic policemen who stand on duty along roadsides are often not exactly suffering, when it is learnt how much they earn in bribes from offending drivers.
Teachers in miserable government schools or at Makerere University can either be paid to award marks to students for cash or sex.
Foreign businessmen and companies have also discovered this about Uganda and, while there is much lamentation by purists that Uganda is too corrupt to do business in, actually Uganda is just the right environment in which certain types of crafty companies and entrepreneurs can do business. It is a gangster’s paradise.
You import expired goods? No problem. Nobody will ask. You bring in unskilled labour from India. Kawa, life will go on. You evade taxes? Who pays taxes, anyway?
In this sense, Uganda has shaken off the last vestiges of the old colonial system of order, merit, method, standards, bureaucracy and moved on to a strange state of nature in which the country has one of the highest rates of social mobility on earth.
Office sweeper today, RDC tomorrow. Failure at school today, MBA holder tomorrow. Sergeant today, Brigadier tomorrow. Struggling small-time trader today, property mogul tomorrow. Teacher today, women’s MP tomorrow. Convicted thief today, presidential advisor tomorrow. Freelance reporter today, Managing Editor tomorrow. Wanted by police today for fraud, operations director at the Internal Security Organisation tomorrow.
This is why many Ugandans don’t seem as bothered by the potholes in Kampala as the media expects them to be. Not that they don’t see or suffer through them. It is just that there are so many benefits that have also come with operating in Uganda, benefits that more than compensate for the lack or order, accountability, merit, bureaucracy and the rule of law.
Cabinet ministers do not have any real powers and they know it. However, they also know something else: what apparently appears like offices without powers actually do have certain hidden powers.
A prospective investor flies into Uganda from China or France and at some stage he gets to meet the minister in charge of the investor’s area of interest. To obtain the minister’s signature, the investor pays handsomely in a bribe.
So in that sense, all of Uganda’s cabinet ministers, ministers of state, resident district commissioners, members of parliament, permanent secretaries, commissioners, and a whole host of other public and civil service officials, while appearing to have no real authority in a system that barely functions, actually have much greater power than they would have enjoyed had Uganda had institutions that work.
Because of this, an entire middle class has emerged since 1986 that is built on dishonesty and fraud. So entrenched is it that any attempt to reform Uganda and genuinely root out corruption would destabilise the country.
Museveni found Uganda a struggling military-dominated, post-colonial republic in 1986. He will leave it a feudal state similar to an African kingdom of the 19th century.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
THE CONTROLLING ATTRIBUTES OF A CULT
Commentary by Danny Macdowell
Below are the CONTROLLING ATTRIBUTES OF A CULT. Not every point is objectionable, but in the whole, this is what it is like to be a part of a CULT. If you find yourself captive to such harsh restriction, and especially if you discover your soul over whelmed with unbearable grief-----it is time for you to seek counseling from a true Man of God. Keep in mind----the BIBLE is the ultimate authority in the church and NOT THE PASTOR. You are the TEMPLE OF GOD and the HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS IN YOU----if any man shall defile God's Temple, HIM will God destroy----for God's Temple is HOLY-----which Temple YOU ARE. This is the stern warning to those Pastors who would corrupt God's House.
1 Tim 2:5
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Below is an actual list of rules written by a well known CULT LEADER here in the U.S. This man was convicted of CHILD MOLESTATION in U.S. courts and only avoided a lengthy jail sentence because of the Judge's determination that he was too old to serve out his appointed sentence. Should God's people blindly follow after a man like this-----the answer is "only if you were to follow after this Church MANDATE". We are compelled to be knowledgeable in the Word of God and to hold those responsible who corrupt the Church. If this had been done in this particular congregation, those young girls would have retained their innocence.
Tom Jolly
Tom Jolly, a former leader in the G.A.C. movement in St Louis Missouri. He was an associate of Lloyd Goodman and a follower of William Sowders.
1. Attend all church services.
2. Take part in all church activities because they provide experience and training for your future work.
3. Contribute to the financial burden of the church.
4. Bear your part of the spiritual burden in worship services, church activities such as choir, ushering, bible school, visitation, church maintenance, and etc.
5. Avail yourself of every opportunity to get experience in ushering, offerings, praying with people at the altar, conducting funerals, and visiting the sick and shut-ins.
6. Make yourself an example of humbleness and obedience.
7. Your life should be above reproach and your reputation should rate very high in the local church as well as "The Body".
8. If you are gifted with a talent, you should use it and never feel too important to fill any place you are called to fill.
9. Laymen should not promote new doctrines, methods, or systems of operating a church. The pastor will introduce new doctrines, methods and ideas.
10. A good layman does not have all the answers but depends upon the pastor to constantly give him direction.
11. A good layman is a keen observer and reporter. He keeps the pastor informed about any conversation or information that would be helpful to the pastor in diverting trouble in the church.
12. A keen observer is a profitable person, but this does not mean that he should be nosing in people's affairs.
13. The layman should not hold any type of fellowship gatherings, socials, or other activities such as dinners, outings, etc. This would tend to give laymen influence over one another outside the jurisdiction of the pastor.
14. The laymen should not hold bible discussions with groups of people in the church. It is never wise to fill the role of bible teacher unless the pastor has given you this authority. "You need that another teach you".
15. A good layman is a "lover of the saints." He must not cater to any age group or class group.
16. A layman cannot be independent of other workers in the church. Recognize all of the student ministers and workers in their place.
17. Don't think more highly of yourself than you should.
18. Love, honor, respect, recognize, support and cooperate with your pastor.
19. Start no projects.
20. Assign no responsibilities to others.
21. Do not look for improvements in the system, but be an admirer of the order in which the church was planted.
22. When you are in charge of a service, never try to contrast your meetings with the rigid teachings of the pastor when he is there. If the service is lively, you should always remind the people that the "rain follows the planting of the seed by the minister." Never take credit to yourself. Give God the glory and the pastor the honor due him.
23. When you are in charge of a service, never call for special services such as dedication services for families, children, groups, activities or bible school.
24. Give no advise. Counsel with no one. You are to handle the simplest of needs and this only in case of an emergency, and only if you have been authorized to do so. Always ask yourself, "Should I answer this question?" "Does this decision have to be made before the pastor returns?"
25. A doctor can prescribe medicine, but laymen can only offer a glass of water.
26. If you are qualified to handle serious problems you should apply for the place of a pastor.
27. Keep the words and messages of the pastor alive. Do not try to be original.
28. Never talk longer, louder, or more authoritatively than the pastor.
29. You should never have a different judgment on any issue than the pastor. You should know your pastor's attitudes and methods of working and then support them.
30. Study your pastor. What are his methods of working in a service, with individuals, and different categories of people?
31. Never show any more mercy or tolerance to people than your pastor shows. If you do you will draw people to you and away from the pastor, and thereby work iniquity.
32. Never assign responsibilities, delegate authority, or change personnel in the church.
33. No one has the authority to make purchases for the church without authorization from the pastor.
34. If you have been given a responsibility by the pastor, fulfill it to the best of your ability in the manner he directs you.
35. If the pastor sees fit to make a change in personnel of the church, methods or systems, it is your responsibility to support him.
36. Never challenge the authority, knowledge, or experience of the pastor. The Lord will take care of any deficiency on the part of the minister.
37. "Touch not thine anointed" "Do my prophets no harm" These bible quotations are referring to ministers.
38. Your wife is your help meet and has no voice in the affairs of the church. The man is the head of the woman, and the woman "ain't the head of nothing".
39. You should never be a part of a dissension group within the church. You will render your life useless. Never be a party to gossip, discontent, or confusion in the church.
40. Do not loan money to other saints. Do not borrow money from the saints. (Please note that all church members are referred to as saints)
41. If you are a business man, do not feel the saints are obligated to patronize your business.
42. Do not make a merchandise mart out of the church. Never sell items on the church property.
43. Be open minded on the ministry. Permit them to help you.
44. Your attitude, words and actions reflect your heart.
45. When you counsel with the pastor, keep his words confidential. Do not use the pastor's name like a rubber stamp.
46. Protect your pastor. Don't use his title for job applications and references.
47. Respect your pastor. Be considerate of his time.
48. Help your pastor. Willingly perform all duties he assigns.
49. Make yourself available to the pastor. Don't wait for him to come to you and ask you for help, but go to him and offer your time and talents to him to direct.
50. What do you owe your pastor?
51. Keep your pastor informed about your contacts with saints. Good reports are welcomed and needed by the pastor. Evil reports are also needed. Never harbor, or be an accomplice in a crime. Don't assume the pastor knows. Tell him.
52. Respect the pastor's authority and responsibilities. Don't challenge his right to tell you what to do or to pass judgment on what you have done.
53. Express your ideas before a decision is reached, but not afterwards. When you interfere with the pastor's authority, even passively, you interfere with his ability to handle his responsibility. He is responsible, not you.
54. Don't go around your minister. Don't cover a mistake to keep him from finding out who should receive correction for a fault. If someone deserves credit the minister should be informed so he can give it. Do not try to claim success others have earned.
55. Watch the pastor's timing. Learn his schedule so that you don't interfere with the necessities of his schedule. Call before you come to talk to him. Let him set the appointment according to his schedule, not yours.
56. See the minister when he likes to be seen. Don't stay too long. Many others are waiting for the opportunity you have now.
57. Find out how your minister likes to be contacted. Some prefer that you call before you come. Some like for you to transact your business by phone. Some prefer to have a portion of your visit in writing --- dreams, etc.
58. Know what you want to talk about before you call or come to see your pastor. Make an outline or check list of things you need to discuss.
59. When you have stated your cause, do not repeat it a second and third time. He hears you the first time.
60. When you ask the pastor a question, allow him enough time to answer it. Don't keep talking until you have asked a dozen questions, and then expect him to remember them.
61. Don't try to second guess what the pastor means by what he says, an expression on his face, or an action because you could be wrong.
62. Keep the pastor informed. See to it that you give facts exactly as you know them. Be ready to use names when you submit a complaint about the saints.
63. Hide nothing from the pastor either good or bad.
64. Be a friend to all of God's people.
65. Be an example in thought, word, deed, dress, appearance, manners, and conduct.
66. If your pastor assigns you a responsibility, first find out exactly what he expects of you. Then proceed to fulfill this responsibility to the letter. Remember, you represent him and his vision.
67. Never act independently of the pastor. Respect his advice.
68. Never challenge your pastor either privately or publicly. If you disagree with him on an issue, you owe it to yourself and him to discuss it with an open mind. Give him a chance to help you.
69. A minister is God's representative, God's messenger, God's interpreter of the bible and a demonstrator of God's methods.
70. Deep spirituality should be evident on the minister's countenance. He won't have a high and haughty heart.
71. Speak with humility because a minister is God's mouthpiece.
72. Have a high regard for the position of a minister.
73. Do not demonstrate self, but stand as an humble servant of God.
74. An attitude of belligerence has no place in the heart of a man preparing for the ministry.
75. Be cautious about instructing the congregation in such requests as having them stand or say, "Amen".
76. Never call a dedication service or direct a service in a manner differently than your pastor would direct it.
77. Don't request people to fulfill positions your pastor does not such as testifying, singing specials, or sitting on the platform.
78. Order the service as nearly like your pastor does as possible.
79. Be faithful, consistent, and dependable in attending services.
80. When the pastor asks you to speak, pray or fulfill any function during a service. Be quick to respond. Do not make it necessary for him to call people by name to get them to speak.
81. When a prayer service begins, just as soon as the minister moves toward the front, you should move to the front with him. Don’t wait for him to ask you to move.
82. Ask yourself if you share the work load of keeping the property well maintained and clean; if you come on a regular basis and help or do you leave it up to others to take care of the work. Have you ever cleaned or painted the church? Have you ever mowed the lawn or taught a class?
Commentary by Danny Macdowell
Below are the CONTROLLING ATTRIBUTES OF A CULT. Not every point is objectionable, but in the whole, this is what it is like to be a part of a CULT. If you find yourself captive to such harsh restriction, and especially if you discover your soul over whelmed with unbearable grief-----it is time for you to seek counseling from a true Man of God. Keep in mind----the BIBLE is the ultimate authority in the church and NOT THE PASTOR. You are the TEMPLE OF GOD and the HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS IN YOU----if any man shall defile God's Temple, HIM will God destroy----for God's Temple is HOLY-----which Temple YOU ARE. This is the stern warning to those Pastors who would corrupt God's House.
1 Tim 2:5
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Below is an actual list of rules written by a well known CULT LEADER here in the U.S. This man was convicted of CHILD MOLESTATION in U.S. courts and only avoided a lengthy jail sentence because of the Judge's determination that he was too old to serve out his appointed sentence. Should God's people blindly follow after a man like this-----the answer is "only if you were to follow after this Church MANDATE". We are compelled to be knowledgeable in the Word of God and to hold those responsible who corrupt the Church. If this had been done in this particular congregation, those young girls would have retained their innocence.
Tom Jolly
Tom Jolly, a former leader in the G.A.C. movement in St Louis Missouri. He was an associate of Lloyd Goodman and a follower of William Sowders.
1. Attend all church services.
2. Take part in all church activities because they provide experience and training for your future work.
3. Contribute to the financial burden of the church.
4. Bear your part of the spiritual burden in worship services, church activities such as choir, ushering, bible school, visitation, church maintenance, and etc.
5. Avail yourself of every opportunity to get experience in ushering, offerings, praying with people at the altar, conducting funerals, and visiting the sick and shut-ins.
6. Make yourself an example of humbleness and obedience.
7. Your life should be above reproach and your reputation should rate very high in the local church as well as "The Body".
8. If you are gifted with a talent, you should use it and never feel too important to fill any place you are called to fill.
9. Laymen should not promote new doctrines, methods, or systems of operating a church. The pastor will introduce new doctrines, methods and ideas.
10. A good layman does not have all the answers but depends upon the pastor to constantly give him direction.
11. A good layman is a keen observer and reporter. He keeps the pastor informed about any conversation or information that would be helpful to the pastor in diverting trouble in the church.
12. A keen observer is a profitable person, but this does not mean that he should be nosing in people's affairs.
13. The layman should not hold any type of fellowship gatherings, socials, or other activities such as dinners, outings, etc. This would tend to give laymen influence over one another outside the jurisdiction of the pastor.
14. The laymen should not hold bible discussions with groups of people in the church. It is never wise to fill the role of bible teacher unless the pastor has given you this authority. "You need that another teach you".
15. A good layman is a "lover of the saints." He must not cater to any age group or class group.
16. A layman cannot be independent of other workers in the church. Recognize all of the student ministers and workers in their place.
17. Don't think more highly of yourself than you should.
18. Love, honor, respect, recognize, support and cooperate with your pastor.
19. Start no projects.
20. Assign no responsibilities to others.
21. Do not look for improvements in the system, but be an admirer of the order in which the church was planted.
22. When you are in charge of a service, never try to contrast your meetings with the rigid teachings of the pastor when he is there. If the service is lively, you should always remind the people that the "rain follows the planting of the seed by the minister." Never take credit to yourself. Give God the glory and the pastor the honor due him.
23. When you are in charge of a service, never call for special services such as dedication services for families, children, groups, activities or bible school.
24. Give no advise. Counsel with no one. You are to handle the simplest of needs and this only in case of an emergency, and only if you have been authorized to do so. Always ask yourself, "Should I answer this question?" "Does this decision have to be made before the pastor returns?"
25. A doctor can prescribe medicine, but laymen can only offer a glass of water.
26. If you are qualified to handle serious problems you should apply for the place of a pastor.
27. Keep the words and messages of the pastor alive. Do not try to be original.
28. Never talk longer, louder, or more authoritatively than the pastor.
29. You should never have a different judgment on any issue than the pastor. You should know your pastor's attitudes and methods of working and then support them.
30. Study your pastor. What are his methods of working in a service, with individuals, and different categories of people?
31. Never show any more mercy or tolerance to people than your pastor shows. If you do you will draw people to you and away from the pastor, and thereby work iniquity.
32. Never assign responsibilities, delegate authority, or change personnel in the church.
33. No one has the authority to make purchases for the church without authorization from the pastor.
34. If you have been given a responsibility by the pastor, fulfill it to the best of your ability in the manner he directs you.
35. If the pastor sees fit to make a change in personnel of the church, methods or systems, it is your responsibility to support him.
36. Never challenge the authority, knowledge, or experience of the pastor. The Lord will take care of any deficiency on the part of the minister.
37. "Touch not thine anointed" "Do my prophets no harm" These bible quotations are referring to ministers.
38. Your wife is your help meet and has no voice in the affairs of the church. The man is the head of the woman, and the woman "ain't the head of nothing".
39. You should never be a part of a dissension group within the church. You will render your life useless. Never be a party to gossip, discontent, or confusion in the church.
40. Do not loan money to other saints. Do not borrow money from the saints. (Please note that all church members are referred to as saints)
41. If you are a business man, do not feel the saints are obligated to patronize your business.
42. Do not make a merchandise mart out of the church. Never sell items on the church property.
43. Be open minded on the ministry. Permit them to help you.
44. Your attitude, words and actions reflect your heart.
45. When you counsel with the pastor, keep his words confidential. Do not use the pastor's name like a rubber stamp.
46. Protect your pastor. Don't use his title for job applications and references.
47. Respect your pastor. Be considerate of his time.
48. Help your pastor. Willingly perform all duties he assigns.
49. Make yourself available to the pastor. Don't wait for him to come to you and ask you for help, but go to him and offer your time and talents to him to direct.
50. What do you owe your pastor?
51. Keep your pastor informed about your contacts with saints. Good reports are welcomed and needed by the pastor. Evil reports are also needed. Never harbor, or be an accomplice in a crime. Don't assume the pastor knows. Tell him.
52. Respect the pastor's authority and responsibilities. Don't challenge his right to tell you what to do or to pass judgment on what you have done.
53. Express your ideas before a decision is reached, but not afterwards. When you interfere with the pastor's authority, even passively, you interfere with his ability to handle his responsibility. He is responsible, not you.
54. Don't go around your minister. Don't cover a mistake to keep him from finding out who should receive correction for a fault. If someone deserves credit the minister should be informed so he can give it. Do not try to claim success others have earned.
55. Watch the pastor's timing. Learn his schedule so that you don't interfere with the necessities of his schedule. Call before you come to talk to him. Let him set the appointment according to his schedule, not yours.
56. See the minister when he likes to be seen. Don't stay too long. Many others are waiting for the opportunity you have now.
57. Find out how your minister likes to be contacted. Some prefer that you call before you come. Some like for you to transact your business by phone. Some prefer to have a portion of your visit in writing --- dreams, etc.
58. Know what you want to talk about before you call or come to see your pastor. Make an outline or check list of things you need to discuss.
59. When you have stated your cause, do not repeat it a second and third time. He hears you the first time.
60. When you ask the pastor a question, allow him enough time to answer it. Don't keep talking until you have asked a dozen questions, and then expect him to remember them.
61. Don't try to second guess what the pastor means by what he says, an expression on his face, or an action because you could be wrong.
62. Keep the pastor informed. See to it that you give facts exactly as you know them. Be ready to use names when you submit a complaint about the saints.
63. Hide nothing from the pastor either good or bad.
64. Be a friend to all of God's people.
65. Be an example in thought, word, deed, dress, appearance, manners, and conduct.
66. If your pastor assigns you a responsibility, first find out exactly what he expects of you. Then proceed to fulfill this responsibility to the letter. Remember, you represent him and his vision.
67. Never act independently of the pastor. Respect his advice.
68. Never challenge your pastor either privately or publicly. If you disagree with him on an issue, you owe it to yourself and him to discuss it with an open mind. Give him a chance to help you.
69. A minister is God's representative, God's messenger, God's interpreter of the bible and a demonstrator of God's methods.
70. Deep spirituality should be evident on the minister's countenance. He won't have a high and haughty heart.
71. Speak with humility because a minister is God's mouthpiece.
72. Have a high regard for the position of a minister.
73. Do not demonstrate self, but stand as an humble servant of God.
74. An attitude of belligerence has no place in the heart of a man preparing for the ministry.
75. Be cautious about instructing the congregation in such requests as having them stand or say, "Amen".
76. Never call a dedication service or direct a service in a manner differently than your pastor would direct it.
77. Don't request people to fulfill positions your pastor does not such as testifying, singing specials, or sitting on the platform.
78. Order the service as nearly like your pastor does as possible.
79. Be faithful, consistent, and dependable in attending services.
80. When the pastor asks you to speak, pray or fulfill any function during a service. Be quick to respond. Do not make it necessary for him to call people by name to get them to speak.
81. When a prayer service begins, just as soon as the minister moves toward the front, you should move to the front with him. Don’t wait for him to ask you to move.
82. Ask yourself if you share the work load of keeping the property well maintained and clean; if you come on a regular basis and help or do you leave it up to others to take care of the work. Have you ever cleaned or painted the church? Have you ever mowed the lawn or taught a class?
CALLED TO BE A WATCHMAN: COME DOWN OFF THAT WALL
COME DOWN OFF THAT WALL
Danny Macdowell
There are many gifts and "callings" in the Church Universal. I won't cite a list of the varied "callings" that are in the Church today, for they are many and diverse and sometimes cross descript boundaries. I want to address the calling of a "watchman". The duty of a "watchman" is simple-----TO WATCH AND TO WARN! The qualifications of a "watchman " are more complex. The first thing that a watchman must know is----what am I "watching for"? How do I find out? The next thing a watchman must know is; what is a THREAT and what is NOT? Another thing the watchman must know is; how do I distinguish a "perceived threat" from a "REAL THREAT"? What action do I take when a REAL THREAT is acknowledged? The answer to these questions is simple, but to arrive at a knowledgeable base take years of hard work. The knowledge for exercising such a calling is in KNOWING GOD'S WORD ! If one is to be a "watchman" in the Church of Jesus Christ, he/she must have at minimum, a cursory knowledge of what a threat looks like, and that can only be attained through years and years of studious work in the WORD OF GOD! Not only to read it, know it, but just as importantly to UNDERSTAND IT! For a man/woman to disqualify [in their own minds] the work of a watchman is truly a revelation of their own inequities in the WORD. They do not understand the WATCHMAN because they do not understand the WORD! Having never received the calling of a WATCHMAN-------in their own mind, the "calling" does not exist. " I cannot SEE IT----therefore it does not exist". They fail to accept the obvious expressed even in nature. The wind can be gentle and comforting. It can also be frightening and destructive. Who can deny it's existence just because it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Yet there are those within the Body of Christ who are just that ignorant about such matters. That very attitude excludes them from the calling of a WATCHMAN.
Another gift that is required of a Watchman is that of "PASSION". If one has been called to be a Watchman, he/she will also receive an equal portion of PASSION. It is not something which one can simply turn on and off. It is ABIDING, and cannot be extinguished except by God himself. No man can extinguish that passion. No amount of self righteous indignation or human reasoning can extinguish the OBSSESION TO WARN! No attempt to humiliate will carry the power to overcome that gift of PASSION! It will not happen! There is a CONSEQUENCE to dereliction of duty in this matter of being a WATCHMAN. Yet, that consequence will NEVER be realized by the watchman because the CALLING is a part of his/her very being. To turn from his calling is to turn from BREATH! Those of you who have this calling bear witness to my words. Those of you who are called into WATCHMAN MINISTRIES may at times get discouraged because of the criticisms of ignorant men-----but you cannot utterly WALK AWAY-----no more than you can STOP BREATHING! If John the Baptist had attempted to contain the words of his mouth--------the pores of his skin would have cried out "YOU GENERATION OF VIPERS"!
Today we live in an era of ecumenicism with cries of peace----peace--------cooperation-----fellowship-----compromise------spoken in soft tones as the Church sinks deeper and deeper into apostasy and even stark heresy. When the watchman sees a brother drowning, he throws in a rope [the Word of God]. When the un-gifted sees a man drowning he shouts----"I'm praying for you brother". If, in these days of mass violence to the WORD OF GOD, you are frustrated, or you feel a helplessness, or you feel compelled to scream at the top of your lungs----it may well be that you have a CALLING. If so-----may I remind you that "YOU WERE CHOSEN IN CHRIST BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD"! Pour the words of warning into your very being and let them spew forcefully from your mouth.
To those of you who would criticize the WATCHMAN MINISTRY I remind you of the nobility of the Human Flesh as Peter refuted the very purpose of Christ's existence;
Mark 8:31-34---31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
What may seem a NOBLE rebuke to the un-gifted, may be repulsive to the heart of God. To REBUKE the Lord's WATCHMEN is a serious matter indeed for you usurp the THRONE OF GOD! Who are you to judge another man's calling.
Ezek 33:1-17
33:1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
You who cause the watchman to stumble at his duty-----put your hand to your mouth for if that man's calling is from GOD-----you defy the Lord. Danny McDowell
Danny Macdowell
There are many gifts and "callings" in the Church Universal. I won't cite a list of the varied "callings" that are in the Church today, for they are many and diverse and sometimes cross descript boundaries. I want to address the calling of a "watchman". The duty of a "watchman" is simple-----TO WATCH AND TO WARN! The qualifications of a "watchman " are more complex. The first thing that a watchman must know is----what am I "watching for"? How do I find out? The next thing a watchman must know is; what is a THREAT and what is NOT? Another thing the watchman must know is; how do I distinguish a "perceived threat" from a "REAL THREAT"? What action do I take when a REAL THREAT is acknowledged? The answer to these questions is simple, but to arrive at a knowledgeable base take years of hard work. The knowledge for exercising such a calling is in KNOWING GOD'S WORD ! If one is to be a "watchman" in the Church of Jesus Christ, he/she must have at minimum, a cursory knowledge of what a threat looks like, and that can only be attained through years and years of studious work in the WORD OF GOD! Not only to read it, know it, but just as importantly to UNDERSTAND IT! For a man/woman to disqualify [in their own minds] the work of a watchman is truly a revelation of their own inequities in the WORD. They do not understand the WATCHMAN because they do not understand the WORD! Having never received the calling of a WATCHMAN-------in their own mind, the "calling" does not exist. " I cannot SEE IT----therefore it does not exist". They fail to accept the obvious expressed even in nature. The wind can be gentle and comforting. It can also be frightening and destructive. Who can deny it's existence just because it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Yet there are those within the Body of Christ who are just that ignorant about such matters. That very attitude excludes them from the calling of a WATCHMAN.
Another gift that is required of a Watchman is that of "PASSION". If one has been called to be a Watchman, he/she will also receive an equal portion of PASSION. It is not something which one can simply turn on and off. It is ABIDING, and cannot be extinguished except by God himself. No man can extinguish that passion. No amount of self righteous indignation or human reasoning can extinguish the OBSSESION TO WARN! No attempt to humiliate will carry the power to overcome that gift of PASSION! It will not happen! There is a CONSEQUENCE to dereliction of duty in this matter of being a WATCHMAN. Yet, that consequence will NEVER be realized by the watchman because the CALLING is a part of his/her very being. To turn from his calling is to turn from BREATH! Those of you who have this calling bear witness to my words. Those of you who are called into WATCHMAN MINISTRIES may at times get discouraged because of the criticisms of ignorant men-----but you cannot utterly WALK AWAY-----no more than you can STOP BREATHING! If John the Baptist had attempted to contain the words of his mouth--------the pores of his skin would have cried out "YOU GENERATION OF VIPERS"!
Today we live in an era of ecumenicism with cries of peace----peace--------cooperation-----fellowship-----compromise------spoken in soft tones as the Church sinks deeper and deeper into apostasy and even stark heresy. When the watchman sees a brother drowning, he throws in a rope [the Word of God]. When the un-gifted sees a man drowning he shouts----"I'm praying for you brother". If, in these days of mass violence to the WORD OF GOD, you are frustrated, or you feel a helplessness, or you feel compelled to scream at the top of your lungs----it may well be that you have a CALLING. If so-----may I remind you that "YOU WERE CHOSEN IN CHRIST BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD"! Pour the words of warning into your very being and let them spew forcefully from your mouth.
To those of you who would criticize the WATCHMAN MINISTRY I remind you of the nobility of the Human Flesh as Peter refuted the very purpose of Christ's existence;
Mark 8:31-34---31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
What may seem a NOBLE rebuke to the un-gifted, may be repulsive to the heart of God. To REBUKE the Lord's WATCHMEN is a serious matter indeed for you usurp the THRONE OF GOD! Who are you to judge another man's calling.
Ezek 33:1-17
33:1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
You who cause the watchman to stumble at his duty-----put your hand to your mouth for if that man's calling is from GOD-----you defy the Lord. Danny McDowell
Monday, 22 November 2010
Bro.Danny Macdowell’s American Heretics in Uganda DVD hits Kampala
Bro.Danny Macdowell’s American Heretics in Uganda DVD hits Kampala
Bro. Danny Macdowell, An American bible prophecy and New testament teacher has released a DVD titled: American Heretics in Uganda. The DVD exposes the teachings of American heretics such: as Creflo $$$$, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, K.Price, M.Hickey etc. In this DVD, Bro.Danny Macdowell argues that ‘’Uganda has become a dumping place for American heresies and heretics’’. He also urges American missionaries to get involved in sound doctrine preaching missions to Africa. This DVD is one of the best expose I have watched. I keep watching it over and over again. Before exposing the various American heretics, Bro.Danny Macdowell dwells in-depth on the meaning of the word church. This in-depth critique really opened my eyes about the deception in the church today. Bro.Danny begins by reading from 1 Cor 3:9-18 about the temple of God.
1 Cor 3:9-18
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry,
YE ARE GOD'S BUILDING.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
WAIT A MINUTE : Pastors in Uganda teach believers that the temple of God is the physical building (church). In fact they tell believers that they should bring their tithes to this physical building in order to acquire material prosperity. So, this scripture renders the tithe nonsensical.
Bro.Danny, continues to read as follows:
16 KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, HIM SHALL GOD DESTROY; for the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE.
Bro. Danny then encouraged the saints not to be worried when they are chased out of the church. ‘’When they kick you out, they are kicking out God’s building’’, Bro.Danny Preaches.
Bro.Danny, continues to read as follows:
1 Cor 6:19-7:1
19 What?
know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?
Bro.Danny uses Romans 16 to argue that even the Apostles preached that the church of God is not a physical building.
Rom 16:5-16
5 LIKEWISE, GREET THE CHURCH THAT IS IN THEIR HOUSE.
Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.
7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
Eph 2:19-22
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Bro.Danny, preached that the temple in Jerusalem where the Jews took their tithes was destroyed in 70AD as predicted by our Lord Jesus Christ and It became a dumping ground for trash.
Matt 24:2
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you,
There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Pointing to the physical church where he was preaching from in Entebbe, Uganda , Bro. Danny preached, ‘’This is not holy Ground’’ and Touching the body of his interpreter Bro.Danny preached, ‘’This is holy ground’’ . ‘’When the trumpet sounds we shall meet Christ in the air and this building will burn’’, Bro.Danny Preached.
Exposing the heretics
‘’I do not care how many people fall down, If a man is fallen from the truth, he is not a man of God’’, Bro.Danny preached.
SEE, Ugandans being slain in the spirit by Benny hinn in, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBKqCKT-rU
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBKqCKT-rU&feature=related
In his DVD Bro.Danny shows clips where Benny Hinn says that before Adam sinned, women used to give birth from their side. He also shows a clip where Benny Hinn says that Jesus was born again. There is also a clip where K.Price argues that if you have a sickness the holy spirit can not live in your body. Can you Imagine!!!
Views from saints who have watched the DVD
Many of the saints who have watched Bro.Danny Macdowell’s ‘’American heretics in Uganda’’ have not yet come to terms with the fact that there is too much deception in the church today. Some of the church Ministers whom I gave this DVD have simply buried their heads in the sand like an ostrich -they are pretending not to have watched it.
Many young men and women have been blessed by watching this movie. I have some few copies of this DVD which I am giving out free of charge..All interested Ugandan saints can reach me on kizitomg@gmail.com
God bless you
Bro. Danny Macdowell, An American bible prophecy and New testament teacher has released a DVD titled: American Heretics in Uganda. The DVD exposes the teachings of American heretics such: as Creflo $$$$, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, K.Price, M.Hickey etc. In this DVD, Bro.Danny Macdowell argues that ‘’Uganda has become a dumping place for American heresies and heretics’’. He also urges American missionaries to get involved in sound doctrine preaching missions to Africa. This DVD is one of the best expose I have watched. I keep watching it over and over again. Before exposing the various American heretics, Bro.Danny Macdowell dwells in-depth on the meaning of the word church. This in-depth critique really opened my eyes about the deception in the church today. Bro.Danny begins by reading from 1 Cor 3:9-18 about the temple of God.
1 Cor 3:9-18
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry,
YE ARE GOD'S BUILDING.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
WAIT A MINUTE : Pastors in Uganda teach believers that the temple of God is the physical building (church). In fact they tell believers that they should bring their tithes to this physical building in order to acquire material prosperity. So, this scripture renders the tithe nonsensical.
Bro.Danny, continues to read as follows:
16 KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, HIM SHALL GOD DESTROY; for the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE.
Bro. Danny then encouraged the saints not to be worried when they are chased out of the church. ‘’When they kick you out, they are kicking out God’s building’’, Bro.Danny Preaches.
Bro.Danny, continues to read as follows:
1 Cor 6:19-7:1
19 What?
know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?
Bro.Danny uses Romans 16 to argue that even the Apostles preached that the church of God is not a physical building.
Rom 16:5-16
5 LIKEWISE, GREET THE CHURCH THAT IS IN THEIR HOUSE.
Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.
7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
Eph 2:19-22
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Bro.Danny, preached that the temple in Jerusalem where the Jews took their tithes was destroyed in 70AD as predicted by our Lord Jesus Christ and It became a dumping ground for trash.
Matt 24:2
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you,
There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Pointing to the physical church where he was preaching from in Entebbe, Uganda , Bro. Danny preached, ‘’This is not holy Ground’’ and Touching the body of his interpreter Bro.Danny preached, ‘’This is holy ground’’ . ‘’When the trumpet sounds we shall meet Christ in the air and this building will burn’’, Bro.Danny Preached.
Exposing the heretics
‘’I do not care how many people fall down, If a man is fallen from the truth, he is not a man of God’’, Bro.Danny preached.
SEE, Ugandans being slain in the spirit by Benny hinn in, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBKqCKT-rU
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBKqCKT-rU&feature=related
In his DVD Bro.Danny shows clips where Benny Hinn says that before Adam sinned, women used to give birth from their side. He also shows a clip where Benny Hinn says that Jesus was born again. There is also a clip where K.Price argues that if you have a sickness the holy spirit can not live in your body. Can you Imagine!!!
Views from saints who have watched the DVD
Many of the saints who have watched Bro.Danny Macdowell’s ‘’American heretics in Uganda’’ have not yet come to terms with the fact that there is too much deception in the church today. Some of the church Ministers whom I gave this DVD have simply buried their heads in the sand like an ostrich -they are pretending not to have watched it.
Many young men and women have been blessed by watching this movie. I have some few copies of this DVD which I am giving out free of charge..All interested Ugandan saints can reach me on kizitomg@gmail.com
God bless you
TURNING TO THE CURSE OF LAW FOR PROSPERITY: THE TITHING NONSENSE AS RIDICULE OF THE CROSS
THE INSUFFICIECY OF THE CROSS ?
Bro.Danny Macdowell
The New Testament is CLEAR about this matter of “giving”. It is a matter of THE HEART. Paul tells us time and again, that we are to give as the Lord [through the Holy Spirit], leads us. Time and again PASTORS smother us with promises of PROSPERITY, and more importantly------GOD’S FAVOR in the tithe. God will FIX ANYTHING in your life, IF YOU FAITHFULLY TITHE!! This is what we are told. The Body, and Blood of Jesus have become irrelevant to our privilege in the work of Christ. There is ANOTHER path to God’s favor [they say]--------it’s called THE TITHE. With it; the sacrifice of the cross becomes SECOND FIDDLE. Our redemption is “INCOMPLETE” without THE TITHE [they say]!! We are INDEED REDEEMED to that point where our FINANCIAL NEED comes into play--------then our Great Redeemer becomes weak, and inadequate to save. Who will save us from our financial despair?------------“THE LAW”---------“THE LAW WILL SAVE US” in the inadequacy of Christ’s Blood [they say]. If you will only TITHE----------then “blessings” are just beyond the next bend in the road [they say]. Your salvation is COMPLETED when you add the TITHE to your faith [they say]. YEAH----THAT’S THE TICKET!! Faith carries us just so far-------but the LAW catapults us to the FINISH LINE [they say]!! Such a deal??---------NONSENSE!!!
But the pastor has taken us to the Seventh Chapter of Hebrews, and proven conclusively that Abraham TITHED to Melchezedek, and Abraham lived PRIOR TO the law, and Melchedzedek was a type, and foreshadow of Christ. Doesn’t this place God’s seal of approval to this matter? Well, let’s see what the message of Hebrew’s Seven is all about.
Hebrews 7
7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
KJV
To begin with; we are introduced to TWO characters in this illustration. They are both actual historical characters. They are both type, and foreshadow of things to come.
The first character is an ancient HIGH PRIEST. He rules from a place called Salem [meaning “peace”]. Salem is located at a high location [later to be called Jerusalem]. This man’s name is Melchedzedek. He is a portrait in type of Christ our HIGH PRIEST.
The second character is Abraham. He is our portrait type of MANKIND. He precedes the Law and Moses in history. Now the story begins;
Abraham has just returned from a battle in which he slaughtered several local kings. He has rescued his nephew LOT, who had been captured by those kings. He also comes with all the people that had been taken with Lot, and all the BOOTY OF WAR. This Melchedzedek descends from his throne in Salem, and meets Abraham in the valley below. Abraham knows that the KING OF SALEM has come to extract a gift [tithe], and Abraham respectfully complies. Now HERE is where the whole thing brings CLARITY to this matter of the TITHE. Abraham gives TITHE of the booty of war. In exchange; the KING OF SALEM [King of PEACE], gives BREAD AND WINE to Abraham. Can you see what has happened here? Abraham gives TITHE ------the representation of THE LAW; and Melchedzedek gives to ABRAHAM--------BREAD AND WINE, the very SYMBOL of the New Testament in Christ’s BODY AND BLOOD. This entire story is a portrait of the exchange made at the cross. It was the exchange of the system of LAW-------for that of GRACE. The story goes on to say; “and the LESS [Abraham] was blessed of the GREATER” [the King of Salem]-- [verse 7]. Do you see in this typology, that GRACE is more excellent than LAW, and that Melchedzedek [Christ] left his home in Salem [heaven], and descended to the valley below [earth], and met with Abraham [mankind], and received the TITHE [law] unto himself, and blessed Abraham with BREAD AND WINE [the testament in Christ’s body, and blood]------and Abraham [the lesser---the law] received of Melchedzedek [the greater----the New Covenant in grace] ?? This is the message of the ENTIRE BOOK OF HEBREWS. The writer WARNS the Hebrew Church to SHUN THE LAW, for in returning to the things of the LAW, one presents himself EXEMPT from the benefits of GRACE-----and there IS NO REMEDY to those who would try to BLEND law and grace.
Heb 6:4-64 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away [back to the LAW], to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame
When CHRIST OUR PASSOVER screamed out these words: “ IT IS FINISHED”; the VEIL that separated God and man, was FOREVER destroyed. Three and one half years into Christ’s ministry-------HE CONFIRMED THE COVENANT WITH MANY, AND CAUSED THE SACRIFICE AND OBLATION FOR SIN TO CEASE [Dan.9'27] !!! There is NO LONGER a path to God’s blessing, other than that TRAIL OF BLOOD that flows from the STAUROS. I beseech you as a brother in Christ, to cease, and desist from the coercion in the tithe. It is reprehensible that you should believe that the TITHE survived the cross. Christ PAID THE TITHE for the entirety of human kind. Now our offerings are made in the NEW Holy of Holies---------the heart of the elect. Our gifts, and giving are far SUPERIOR to that gift given by Abraham. Our gifts are motivated in purity, and recompensed in JOY! FORSAKE THE TITHE, and FORSAKE RELIGIOUS COERCION. If for no other reason----because in your heart, you know it does not work! Danny McDowell
Bro.Danny Macdowell
The New Testament is CLEAR about this matter of “giving”. It is a matter of THE HEART. Paul tells us time and again, that we are to give as the Lord [through the Holy Spirit], leads us. Time and again PASTORS smother us with promises of PROSPERITY, and more importantly------GOD’S FAVOR in the tithe. God will FIX ANYTHING in your life, IF YOU FAITHFULLY TITHE!! This is what we are told. The Body, and Blood of Jesus have become irrelevant to our privilege in the work of Christ. There is ANOTHER path to God’s favor [they say]--------it’s called THE TITHE. With it; the sacrifice of the cross becomes SECOND FIDDLE. Our redemption is “INCOMPLETE” without THE TITHE [they say]!! We are INDEED REDEEMED to that point where our FINANCIAL NEED comes into play--------then our Great Redeemer becomes weak, and inadequate to save. Who will save us from our financial despair?------------“THE LAW”---------“THE LAW WILL SAVE US” in the inadequacy of Christ’s Blood [they say]. If you will only TITHE----------then “blessings” are just beyond the next bend in the road [they say]. Your salvation is COMPLETED when you add the TITHE to your faith [they say]. YEAH----THAT’S THE TICKET!! Faith carries us just so far-------but the LAW catapults us to the FINISH LINE [they say]!! Such a deal??---------NONSENSE!!!
But the pastor has taken us to the Seventh Chapter of Hebrews, and proven conclusively that Abraham TITHED to Melchezedek, and Abraham lived PRIOR TO the law, and Melchedzedek was a type, and foreshadow of Christ. Doesn’t this place God’s seal of approval to this matter? Well, let’s see what the message of Hebrew’s Seven is all about.
Hebrews 7
7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
KJV
To begin with; we are introduced to TWO characters in this illustration. They are both actual historical characters. They are both type, and foreshadow of things to come.
The first character is an ancient HIGH PRIEST. He rules from a place called Salem [meaning “peace”]. Salem is located at a high location [later to be called Jerusalem]. This man’s name is Melchedzedek. He is a portrait in type of Christ our HIGH PRIEST.
The second character is Abraham. He is our portrait type of MANKIND. He precedes the Law and Moses in history. Now the story begins;
Abraham has just returned from a battle in which he slaughtered several local kings. He has rescued his nephew LOT, who had been captured by those kings. He also comes with all the people that had been taken with Lot, and all the BOOTY OF WAR. This Melchedzedek descends from his throne in Salem, and meets Abraham in the valley below. Abraham knows that the KING OF SALEM has come to extract a gift [tithe], and Abraham respectfully complies. Now HERE is where the whole thing brings CLARITY to this matter of the TITHE. Abraham gives TITHE of the booty of war. In exchange; the KING OF SALEM [King of PEACE], gives BREAD AND WINE to Abraham. Can you see what has happened here? Abraham gives TITHE ------the representation of THE LAW; and Melchedzedek gives to ABRAHAM--------BREAD AND WINE, the very SYMBOL of the New Testament in Christ’s BODY AND BLOOD. This entire story is a portrait of the exchange made at the cross. It was the exchange of the system of LAW-------for that of GRACE. The story goes on to say; “and the LESS [Abraham] was blessed of the GREATER” [the King of Salem]-- [verse 7]. Do you see in this typology, that GRACE is more excellent than LAW, and that Melchedzedek [Christ] left his home in Salem [heaven], and descended to the valley below [earth], and met with Abraham [mankind], and received the TITHE [law] unto himself, and blessed Abraham with BREAD AND WINE [the testament in Christ’s body, and blood]------and Abraham [the lesser---the law] received of Melchedzedek [the greater----the New Covenant in grace] ?? This is the message of the ENTIRE BOOK OF HEBREWS. The writer WARNS the Hebrew Church to SHUN THE LAW, for in returning to the things of the LAW, one presents himself EXEMPT from the benefits of GRACE-----and there IS NO REMEDY to those who would try to BLEND law and grace.
Heb 6:4-64 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away [back to the LAW], to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame
When CHRIST OUR PASSOVER screamed out these words: “ IT IS FINISHED”; the VEIL that separated God and man, was FOREVER destroyed. Three and one half years into Christ’s ministry-------HE CONFIRMED THE COVENANT WITH MANY, AND CAUSED THE SACRIFICE AND OBLATION FOR SIN TO CEASE [Dan.9'27] !!! There is NO LONGER a path to God’s blessing, other than that TRAIL OF BLOOD that flows from the STAUROS. I beseech you as a brother in Christ, to cease, and desist from the coercion in the tithe. It is reprehensible that you should believe that the TITHE survived the cross. Christ PAID THE TITHE for the entirety of human kind. Now our offerings are made in the NEW Holy of Holies---------the heart of the elect. Our gifts, and giving are far SUPERIOR to that gift given by Abraham. Our gifts are motivated in purity, and recompensed in JOY! FORSAKE THE TITHE, and FORSAKE RELIGIOUS COERCION. If for no other reason----because in your heart, you know it does not work! Danny McDowell
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Prosperity Gospel in Uganda Shocks Missionaries
Prosperity Gospel Shocks Missionaries
Moses Mulondo
The New Vision, 9 January 2010
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001111294.html
Kampala — IN the company of missionaries from the UK, popular church researcher, Andrew Strom, of the New Zealand-based revival school, came to Uganda last month. His mission was to sensitise Ugandan pastors on false gospels, especially the sowing and prosperity one.
Strom noted, "I only began to truly understand the magnitude of this crisis on my recent trip to Uganda. I have ministered in Nigeria many times, but I had always thought Nigeria was a special case ¬- that the awful poison I saw there had not spread so far into the rest of Africa. Uganda opened my eyes. The whole of Africa is being infected, and I mean on an epidemic scale."
He describes the situation as utter destruction of truth, undermining the gospel of Jesus and a total loss of the pure milk of the word.
"Greed, corruption and "prosperity" lies are laying waste to it all on a vast scale," he lamented in an online letter, which is a wake- up call to the rest of the church leaders to rise up and wage a courageous war against the prosperity gospel.
This type of gospel is used by selfish pastors who want to take advantage of desperate Christians by asking them to sow a financial seed so as to get financial blessings. The majority of these preachers live extravagantly while their flock wallows in poverty.
"This is not a small problem - it is enormous. Right across the continents of Africa, Asia and South America - we find this gospel of greed beginning to utterly dominate the church - particularly in the big cities," he noted.
However, some church leaders have described prosperity gospel as materialism unacceptable before God.
"The prosperity gospel is a wrong gospel which originated from the US. Jesus' gospel was a gospel of repentance and the kingdom of God. I have never preached the prosperity gospel, but I am successful," argues Apostle Alex Mitala.
In Mark 3:19, Jesus emphasised that the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. That is the danger of the prosperity gospel which focuses on worldly materialistic possessions.
In the recent worship night, organised by Bugembe, many were stunned by the way Pastor Isaac Kiwewesi called upon people, who wanted to be blessed like him to "sow a financial seed" with sh10,000 as the minimum amount required.
"I was shocked to see Pastor Kiwewesi act like that," said Muwanguzi, one of the fellowships leaders at Makerere University.
Asking believers, who want to get rich to sow as much as they have, leaving them financially drained by their pastors, has no foundation in the Bible.
THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY IN UGANDA: A CATHOLIC CRITIQUE
http://www.worldmission.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=325%3Auganda-the-gospel-of-prosperity&catid=87%3Adecember-2009&Itemid=72
Imported from the U.S., where pastors lead luxury lives, Pentecostalism is winning herds of followers in Uganda. Not only due to false miracles and witchcraft practices, but because they preach the gospel of prosperity: for the faithful, poverty is a sin.
Kenyan Gitonga opted out of the novitiate of a religious congregation in Nairobi, in the late nineties. It was not because he had realized a calling stronger than priesthood, but had been touched by a gospel taught outside the cloisters - one of prosperity.
Barely in his 30s, he felt poverty was not something over which he would desire to make a solemn vow. He had been born in it and, therefore, bought the Pentecostal teaching that poverty is a sin. He desired taste of riches. When, therefore, he was blessed by a return air ticket to the US, for pastorship, courtesy of one who lured him out of formation, Gitonga was so overwhelmed, he asked to leave priestly formation.
In America, he trained for a couple or so of months, before his return to the suburbs of Nairobi, near his former Philosophy Seminary, to deliver the gospel of prosperity. For him now, 'riches' was his middle name! Dressed always strikingly fanciful, the seminarian-turned Pentecostal pastor gradually mastered the art of fiery speaking, perfected on his criticisms of the Catholic Church.
With his so 'touching' testimonies of life in a Catholic seminary, Gitonga had penetrated to threadbare, the minds of his followers, comprising mainly of desperate young men and women. In turn, his believers rewarded him with hefty 'sowings' and 'tithes' that the young pastor had become wealthy within just a year "of seeing the light."
There are no miracles
In another incident, Anglican-raised Monalisa and James, a Catholic, had dated since the time of high school of the former. When she entered university, Monalisa "accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord." She joined a Pentecostal church, whose pastor advised her successfully against moving out (having a relationship) with long time boyfriend James, if he did not get "saved."
James, for all her wants and prayers, was the barrier to God's lending an ear to Monalisa. She also wanted to get married, now that she was of age. But, when she approached James to convince him to "accept Christ," the latter would only answer that he was a Christian, and comfortable as a Catholic. He did not mind his girlfriend being "saved," though.
But, Monalisa could not take that 'no' for an answer. "First of all," she argued, "in the Catholic Church, there are no miracles and I am not ready to live with a poor man." To her, God did not listen to Catholics, yet her boyfriend desired to keep his faith and was adamant on praying with the Pentecostals. So she called it quits with him.
Six years into her marriage with another man, with whom she shared the faith, not even the two lovely children of the couple would prevent Monalisa from blaming herself for having broken up with James. For one, the pastor that ill-advised her about a relationship with a Catholic, had not only since been accused of sodomy, child molestations and practice of witchcraft, he had also long ceased to be 'her' pastor.
While Monalisa remains Pentecostal, she is quick to point out that many pastors are just doom's practitioners, "that is why I cannot just go praying in any Church." She believes some of them use witchcraft on their followers. Monalisa, who prays at a particular church seeks instant help for problems and believes it is coming 'one day,' even though 'her pastor,' cannot really help with her desire to leave the husband, for whom she has lost love, to rekindle the old flame with James.
Close to the government
In Christianity, Pentecostalism, a late entry into Christianity, is a consequence of some reformist ideologies. The world over, the renewalist movement is common for its attacks on the Catholic Church. In Uganda, a great number of influential politicians are Pentecostal members, the very reason the religious belief is largely linked to the first family of President Yoder Uneven.
A Church called the Covenant Nations Church, founded by one of Museveni's daughters, Patience Kokundeka Museveni Rwabwogo 'Tangaaza' (light) only serves to confirm the inclination of Pentecostalism on government. That church in Buziga, an up-market residential area hosting several rich homes, opened not so long ago with hundreds of worshipers, who would pass for a list of who's is who in President Museveni's government.
However, the 29-year-old female head pastor of the Church seems to know how hard a task it is to run a Church. She said in an interview with one of the newspapers, it is harder to walk with God when one has everything! To persevere, she believes, would require character, if keeping with God on every step, as a pastor, means accounting for everything.
In 2002, there were over 1,000 evangelical fellowship Churches, as Pentecostal movements are known, in Kampala (the capital) alone. According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda, following a research by their statisticians, only about 635 of the Churches had been duly registered by the National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Board, as is stipulated by law. Most of these belong to the National Fellowship of Born-Again Churches or the Evangelical Federation, while nothing is known about the other Independent Churches that sprout continually at the whims of men and women, when the urge of making money gets the better of some individuals.
Born in the U.S.A.
Besides nouns like savedees and Pentecostals, evangelical Churches are better known as Abalokole. They usually have as differing theological and organizational perspectives as perhaps there are pastors, apostles or prophets, heading those faith-based organizations. Some of the members, while associating with Pentecostalism, still profess other faiths, such as that of Protestantism.
A one-time director of the Holy Spirit Research Center in the US, Vinson Synan, in a discourse, 'The Origins of the Pentecostal Movement,' traces its development in America, in 1901. "Beginning in 1901, with only a handful of students in a Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, the number of Pentecostals increased steadily throughout the world during the twentieth century."
By 1993, they had become a large family among Protestants in the world. Synan claims that with over 200,000,000 members designated as denominational Pentecostals, "this group surpassed the Orthodox Churches as the second largest denominational family of Christians, surpassed only by the Roman Catholics."
Much of the theology of the schooled heads of these Pentecostals is owed to early British reformists, argues Synan. "At least three of these, the Methodist or Holiness Movement; the Catholic Apostolic Movement of Edward Irving; and the British Keswick 'Higher Life' Movement, prepared the way for what appeared to be a spontaneous 'outpouring' of the Holy Spirit movements in America and the rest of the world, through the dollarisation of the world economy.
Underlined by money, therefore, pastor against pastor has often fought battles for popularity and, therefore, bigger congregations, leaving different trails of scandals among the Churches in Uganda.
Witchcraft and divination
In 2003, an American woman that had worked and allegedly made some sponsorship to Pastor Simeon Kayiwa, Rochelle Gibler, leveled accusations on him of witchcraft, divination, intrigue and occult practices. Newspapers in the country reported that another pastor, Solomon Male that had worked with both Kayiwa and Pastor Samuel Kakande, who followed the takes of the late Ghanaian John Obiri Yeboah, came out to confirm the accusations.
Obiri is said to have come short of becoming a king. He joined priesthood and later turned into a self-proclaimed prophet. As a pastor, he came to Uganda, where he purportedly performed many miracles, some of which are believed to have had an occult bearing. He also cursed those who disregarded him. He died in Uganda in 1987.
Kakande and his wife claimed they had been anointed prophet and prophetess, by Yeboah and, therefore, possessed his powers. In fact, the church, which Kakande calls his own in Makerere, has a big painting of the late Obiri on one of its walls. On the other hand, to partake of the fame, Kayiwa associated himself with one man, who claimed Obiri had bequeathed him a miraculous bible, by the time the 'prophet' died in Uganda.
When he joined Kakande's Church, Holy Church of Christ, in 1988, Male claimed that he witnessed a lot of evil committed in the name of Jesus. That the Kakandes used the dead Yeboah's spirit to torment and destroy perceived enemies. "They wrote and issued paper talismans; used stinking stuff mixed with water to sprinkle on followers to destroy 'enemies' of those followers and allowed animal sacrifices," Male told a media house back then.
He said, "I witnessed marriages and families being torn apart and healthy people manipulated into relationships with known HIV/AIDS sufferers, who the Kakandes had claimed to have prayed over and healed. Then, the faithful were influenced to give their wealth to the couple, in the name of Jesus."
Against this, Male accused the couple of having claimed to be the only true prophets and ministers of the gospel on earth. They also allegedly claimed they were mandated to destroy every other church, because the other churches were all leading to hell. Many pastors, including their body associations, have since disowned Kakande, even though he still commands a great following that seems to have been hypnotized.
At the same time, some pastors are against Male, who they say 'has no Church of his own' and, therefore, lacks the liberty to comment on those who have. But, the elderly Male, who is not moved, continues to point out perceived wrongs among fellow pastors. Unlike many others, he cuts a character of a simple man, who has nothing worth showing for his fancy.
Pastors' luxury lives
As testimony to their faith and fervent prayers, pastors show off luxury lives to their congregants, marked with desperation for wants. For instance, preacher T. D. Jakes boasts of a fleet of luxury cars and a Lear jet, besides a chopper which he engages to beat traffic jams between different venues in Houston, USA.
His televangelist colleague, Benny Hinn, with his trademark sparkling white suits, earns up to US $1million a year. He puts up, at a seaside, a mansion that costs US $10million, and owns a private jet. He wears tailor-made suits and shoes, while his wrists and fingers are adorned with pure gold and diamond. Hinn dons a diamond Rolex watch, as he preaches and then asks the congregants - including in Uganda, where sometimes people have had to pay to enter his conference - to donate money to him in the name of Christ. Meanwhile, another preacher, African-American Creflo Dollar, who like Hinn, has visited Uganda, is one of the famous persons that own state-of-the-art classical vehicles, Rolls Royces.
From this tremendous faith translated into wealth, Ugandan Pentecostal pastors are virtually outdoing each other for material wealth. One of them, Pastor Pius Muwanguzi, who bedfellows with scandal, claims to heal AIDS. He is a flamboyant young pastor, who drives sports utility vehicles in different makes and sizes. Pastor Isaac Kiweweesi, who some Pentecostals claimed forced some boys into sodomy, held a wedding ceremony, after over 40 years of bachelorhood, and spent a walloping Ush362million, enough to put up a school for orphans in Kampala City.
A colleague of his, Pastor Jackson Senyonga, who was arrested on a flight to the US and briefly detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigators (FBI) for molesting a 13-year-old girl on the plane, owns a TV station and a number of radio FM stations. He runs a non-governmental organization, under his church, for which he managed to erect a thousand-seater building. His ministry extends to the United States, where it is said he owns a home.
Some pastors have come to disown their colleagues' legitimacy of faith, accusing them of being influenced by American funding, some of which comes with strings attached. Pulling the rug under some of his colleagues recently, Pastor Martin Ssempa, who ministers mainly to young people at the public university of Makerere, claimed that Pastors Robert Kayanja and Ssenyonga were enriched with money given them to promote homosexuality in the country.
Ssempa, believes homosexuals are using some pastors to bend Uganda's laws on homosexuality and such other illicit acts as the men of God have been accused of. A follower of Ssempa adds that the idea of money in reflecting one's level of faith, has simply perverted evangelization as it is known to be traditionally.
As worshipers hear testimonies and even see their pastors become rich virtually overnight and even start rubbing shoulders with top politicians, they flock to their churches to partake of the 'blessings.' Meanwhile, among pastors, it has become a competition to win 'souls,' who in turn would make hefty offerings, that some pastors often put to personal uses.
Electric miracles
Meanwhile, the law governing NGOs, under which the Pentecostal Churches fall, does not necessarily require the Churches to make public accountability, save for audited accounts, which can be done even internally, while the pastors seek the renewal of their Churches' registrations. Furthermore, the Churches are usually established and managed by individuals and so when that individual decides to fold up business, followers have no particular claim, legal or equitable.
That happened when a pastor, who after being riddled by scandals, woke up one day to change environment and took his church with him, to God knows where. Before that, his followers had come to terms with him making sojourns away from the church, for business deals that never were for the benefit of the Church, per se.
To enrich themselves, pastors have to show power. Some are said to use mild electric shocking gadgets to jerk followers into a fall, so as to make believe they have been anointed! Not long ago, at Entebbe International Airport, a preacher from Ghana was arrested with such machine, as he made into Uganda, to seemingly do business among the flock. Airport security once pounced on Obiri Yeboah (not the former), whose device is said to be used by magicians for mild electric shocks to volunteers, to dupe onlookers.
When people fall, others believe the preacher has supernatural powers and, therefore, can perform miracles. They start flocking to his Church, where in some, they are asked to make cash offers 'to the Lord' in particular amounts or gifts. There has been a case in which a woman brought criminal charges against a pastor for obtaining her car with false promises. This pastor assured her that she would become rich and also overcome her problems after he had prayed for her. When nothing was forthcoming, the woman ran to the police.
For Monalisa, however, this will not be a solution. While she got her part of the bargain with her pastor, she could not shake off her love for James and the legalities involved to get him back. She is neither like Gitonga, who calculatingly achieved the gospel he had longed for. Almost instantly, Gitonga became an image of prosperity at the expense of his followers.
Moses Mulondo
The New Vision, 9 January 2010
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001111294.html
Kampala — IN the company of missionaries from the UK, popular church researcher, Andrew Strom, of the New Zealand-based revival school, came to Uganda last month. His mission was to sensitise Ugandan pastors on false gospels, especially the sowing and prosperity one.
Strom noted, "I only began to truly understand the magnitude of this crisis on my recent trip to Uganda. I have ministered in Nigeria many times, but I had always thought Nigeria was a special case ¬- that the awful poison I saw there had not spread so far into the rest of Africa. Uganda opened my eyes. The whole of Africa is being infected, and I mean on an epidemic scale."
He describes the situation as utter destruction of truth, undermining the gospel of Jesus and a total loss of the pure milk of the word.
"Greed, corruption and "prosperity" lies are laying waste to it all on a vast scale," he lamented in an online letter, which is a wake- up call to the rest of the church leaders to rise up and wage a courageous war against the prosperity gospel.
This type of gospel is used by selfish pastors who want to take advantage of desperate Christians by asking them to sow a financial seed so as to get financial blessings. The majority of these preachers live extravagantly while their flock wallows in poverty.
"This is not a small problem - it is enormous. Right across the continents of Africa, Asia and South America - we find this gospel of greed beginning to utterly dominate the church - particularly in the big cities," he noted.
However, some church leaders have described prosperity gospel as materialism unacceptable before God.
"The prosperity gospel is a wrong gospel which originated from the US. Jesus' gospel was a gospel of repentance and the kingdom of God. I have never preached the prosperity gospel, but I am successful," argues Apostle Alex Mitala.
In Mark 3:19, Jesus emphasised that the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. That is the danger of the prosperity gospel which focuses on worldly materialistic possessions.
In the recent worship night, organised by Bugembe, many were stunned by the way Pastor Isaac Kiwewesi called upon people, who wanted to be blessed like him to "sow a financial seed" with sh10,000 as the minimum amount required.
"I was shocked to see Pastor Kiwewesi act like that," said Muwanguzi, one of the fellowships leaders at Makerere University.
Asking believers, who want to get rich to sow as much as they have, leaving them financially drained by their pastors, has no foundation in the Bible.
THE GOSPEL OF PROSPERITY IN UGANDA: A CATHOLIC CRITIQUE
http://www.worldmission.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=325%3Auganda-the-gospel-of-prosperity&catid=87%3Adecember-2009&Itemid=72
Imported from the U.S., where pastors lead luxury lives, Pentecostalism is winning herds of followers in Uganda. Not only due to false miracles and witchcraft practices, but because they preach the gospel of prosperity: for the faithful, poverty is a sin.
Kenyan Gitonga opted out of the novitiate of a religious congregation in Nairobi, in the late nineties. It was not because he had realized a calling stronger than priesthood, but had been touched by a gospel taught outside the cloisters - one of prosperity.
Barely in his 30s, he felt poverty was not something over which he would desire to make a solemn vow. He had been born in it and, therefore, bought the Pentecostal teaching that poverty is a sin. He desired taste of riches. When, therefore, he was blessed by a return air ticket to the US, for pastorship, courtesy of one who lured him out of formation, Gitonga was so overwhelmed, he asked to leave priestly formation.
In America, he trained for a couple or so of months, before his return to the suburbs of Nairobi, near his former Philosophy Seminary, to deliver the gospel of prosperity. For him now, 'riches' was his middle name! Dressed always strikingly fanciful, the seminarian-turned Pentecostal pastor gradually mastered the art of fiery speaking, perfected on his criticisms of the Catholic Church.
With his so 'touching' testimonies of life in a Catholic seminary, Gitonga had penetrated to threadbare, the minds of his followers, comprising mainly of desperate young men and women. In turn, his believers rewarded him with hefty 'sowings' and 'tithes' that the young pastor had become wealthy within just a year "of seeing the light."
There are no miracles
In another incident, Anglican-raised Monalisa and James, a Catholic, had dated since the time of high school of the former. When she entered university, Monalisa "accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord." She joined a Pentecostal church, whose pastor advised her successfully against moving out (having a relationship) with long time boyfriend James, if he did not get "saved."
James, for all her wants and prayers, was the barrier to God's lending an ear to Monalisa. She also wanted to get married, now that she was of age. But, when she approached James to convince him to "accept Christ," the latter would only answer that he was a Christian, and comfortable as a Catholic. He did not mind his girlfriend being "saved," though.
But, Monalisa could not take that 'no' for an answer. "First of all," she argued, "in the Catholic Church, there are no miracles and I am not ready to live with a poor man." To her, God did not listen to Catholics, yet her boyfriend desired to keep his faith and was adamant on praying with the Pentecostals. So she called it quits with him.
Six years into her marriage with another man, with whom she shared the faith, not even the two lovely children of the couple would prevent Monalisa from blaming herself for having broken up with James. For one, the pastor that ill-advised her about a relationship with a Catholic, had not only since been accused of sodomy, child molestations and practice of witchcraft, he had also long ceased to be 'her' pastor.
While Monalisa remains Pentecostal, she is quick to point out that many pastors are just doom's practitioners, "that is why I cannot just go praying in any Church." She believes some of them use witchcraft on their followers. Monalisa, who prays at a particular church seeks instant help for problems and believes it is coming 'one day,' even though 'her pastor,' cannot really help with her desire to leave the husband, for whom she has lost love, to rekindle the old flame with James.
Close to the government
In Christianity, Pentecostalism, a late entry into Christianity, is a consequence of some reformist ideologies. The world over, the renewalist movement is common for its attacks on the Catholic Church. In Uganda, a great number of influential politicians are Pentecostal members, the very reason the religious belief is largely linked to the first family of President Yoder Uneven.
A Church called the Covenant Nations Church, founded by one of Museveni's daughters, Patience Kokundeka Museveni Rwabwogo 'Tangaaza' (light) only serves to confirm the inclination of Pentecostalism on government. That church in Buziga, an up-market residential area hosting several rich homes, opened not so long ago with hundreds of worshipers, who would pass for a list of who's is who in President Museveni's government.
However, the 29-year-old female head pastor of the Church seems to know how hard a task it is to run a Church. She said in an interview with one of the newspapers, it is harder to walk with God when one has everything! To persevere, she believes, would require character, if keeping with God on every step, as a pastor, means accounting for everything.
In 2002, there were over 1,000 evangelical fellowship Churches, as Pentecostal movements are known, in Kampala (the capital) alone. According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda, following a research by their statisticians, only about 635 of the Churches had been duly registered by the National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Board, as is stipulated by law. Most of these belong to the National Fellowship of Born-Again Churches or the Evangelical Federation, while nothing is known about the other Independent Churches that sprout continually at the whims of men and women, when the urge of making money gets the better of some individuals.
Born in the U.S.A.
Besides nouns like savedees and Pentecostals, evangelical Churches are better known as Abalokole. They usually have as differing theological and organizational perspectives as perhaps there are pastors, apostles or prophets, heading those faith-based organizations. Some of the members, while associating with Pentecostalism, still profess other faiths, such as that of Protestantism.
A one-time director of the Holy Spirit Research Center in the US, Vinson Synan, in a discourse, 'The Origins of the Pentecostal Movement,' traces its development in America, in 1901. "Beginning in 1901, with only a handful of students in a Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, the number of Pentecostals increased steadily throughout the world during the twentieth century."
By 1993, they had become a large family among Protestants in the world. Synan claims that with over 200,000,000 members designated as denominational Pentecostals, "this group surpassed the Orthodox Churches as the second largest denominational family of Christians, surpassed only by the Roman Catholics."
Much of the theology of the schooled heads of these Pentecostals is owed to early British reformists, argues Synan. "At least three of these, the Methodist or Holiness Movement; the Catholic Apostolic Movement of Edward Irving; and the British Keswick 'Higher Life' Movement, prepared the way for what appeared to be a spontaneous 'outpouring' of the Holy Spirit movements in America and the rest of the world, through the dollarisation of the world economy.
Underlined by money, therefore, pastor against pastor has often fought battles for popularity and, therefore, bigger congregations, leaving different trails of scandals among the Churches in Uganda.
Witchcraft and divination
In 2003, an American woman that had worked and allegedly made some sponsorship to Pastor Simeon Kayiwa, Rochelle Gibler, leveled accusations on him of witchcraft, divination, intrigue and occult practices. Newspapers in the country reported that another pastor, Solomon Male that had worked with both Kayiwa and Pastor Samuel Kakande, who followed the takes of the late Ghanaian John Obiri Yeboah, came out to confirm the accusations.
Obiri is said to have come short of becoming a king. He joined priesthood and later turned into a self-proclaimed prophet. As a pastor, he came to Uganda, where he purportedly performed many miracles, some of which are believed to have had an occult bearing. He also cursed those who disregarded him. He died in Uganda in 1987.
Kakande and his wife claimed they had been anointed prophet and prophetess, by Yeboah and, therefore, possessed his powers. In fact, the church, which Kakande calls his own in Makerere, has a big painting of the late Obiri on one of its walls. On the other hand, to partake of the fame, Kayiwa associated himself with one man, who claimed Obiri had bequeathed him a miraculous bible, by the time the 'prophet' died in Uganda.
When he joined Kakande's Church, Holy Church of Christ, in 1988, Male claimed that he witnessed a lot of evil committed in the name of Jesus. That the Kakandes used the dead Yeboah's spirit to torment and destroy perceived enemies. "They wrote and issued paper talismans; used stinking stuff mixed with water to sprinkle on followers to destroy 'enemies' of those followers and allowed animal sacrifices," Male told a media house back then.
He said, "I witnessed marriages and families being torn apart and healthy people manipulated into relationships with known HIV/AIDS sufferers, who the Kakandes had claimed to have prayed over and healed. Then, the faithful were influenced to give their wealth to the couple, in the name of Jesus."
Against this, Male accused the couple of having claimed to be the only true prophets and ministers of the gospel on earth. They also allegedly claimed they were mandated to destroy every other church, because the other churches were all leading to hell. Many pastors, including their body associations, have since disowned Kakande, even though he still commands a great following that seems to have been hypnotized.
At the same time, some pastors are against Male, who they say 'has no Church of his own' and, therefore, lacks the liberty to comment on those who have. But, the elderly Male, who is not moved, continues to point out perceived wrongs among fellow pastors. Unlike many others, he cuts a character of a simple man, who has nothing worth showing for his fancy.
Pastors' luxury lives
As testimony to their faith and fervent prayers, pastors show off luxury lives to their congregants, marked with desperation for wants. For instance, preacher T. D. Jakes boasts of a fleet of luxury cars and a Lear jet, besides a chopper which he engages to beat traffic jams between different venues in Houston, USA.
His televangelist colleague, Benny Hinn, with his trademark sparkling white suits, earns up to US $1million a year. He puts up, at a seaside, a mansion that costs US $10million, and owns a private jet. He wears tailor-made suits and shoes, while his wrists and fingers are adorned with pure gold and diamond. Hinn dons a diamond Rolex watch, as he preaches and then asks the congregants - including in Uganda, where sometimes people have had to pay to enter his conference - to donate money to him in the name of Christ. Meanwhile, another preacher, African-American Creflo Dollar, who like Hinn, has visited Uganda, is one of the famous persons that own state-of-the-art classical vehicles, Rolls Royces.
From this tremendous faith translated into wealth, Ugandan Pentecostal pastors are virtually outdoing each other for material wealth. One of them, Pastor Pius Muwanguzi, who bedfellows with scandal, claims to heal AIDS. He is a flamboyant young pastor, who drives sports utility vehicles in different makes and sizes. Pastor Isaac Kiweweesi, who some Pentecostals claimed forced some boys into sodomy, held a wedding ceremony, after over 40 years of bachelorhood, and spent a walloping Ush362million, enough to put up a school for orphans in Kampala City.
A colleague of his, Pastor Jackson Senyonga, who was arrested on a flight to the US and briefly detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigators (FBI) for molesting a 13-year-old girl on the plane, owns a TV station and a number of radio FM stations. He runs a non-governmental organization, under his church, for which he managed to erect a thousand-seater building. His ministry extends to the United States, where it is said he owns a home.
Some pastors have come to disown their colleagues' legitimacy of faith, accusing them of being influenced by American funding, some of which comes with strings attached. Pulling the rug under some of his colleagues recently, Pastor Martin Ssempa, who ministers mainly to young people at the public university of Makerere, claimed that Pastors Robert Kayanja and Ssenyonga were enriched with money given them to promote homosexuality in the country.
Ssempa, believes homosexuals are using some pastors to bend Uganda's laws on homosexuality and such other illicit acts as the men of God have been accused of. A follower of Ssempa adds that the idea of money in reflecting one's level of faith, has simply perverted evangelization as it is known to be traditionally.
As worshipers hear testimonies and even see their pastors become rich virtually overnight and even start rubbing shoulders with top politicians, they flock to their churches to partake of the 'blessings.' Meanwhile, among pastors, it has become a competition to win 'souls,' who in turn would make hefty offerings, that some pastors often put to personal uses.
Electric miracles
Meanwhile, the law governing NGOs, under which the Pentecostal Churches fall, does not necessarily require the Churches to make public accountability, save for audited accounts, which can be done even internally, while the pastors seek the renewal of their Churches' registrations. Furthermore, the Churches are usually established and managed by individuals and so when that individual decides to fold up business, followers have no particular claim, legal or equitable.
That happened when a pastor, who after being riddled by scandals, woke up one day to change environment and took his church with him, to God knows where. Before that, his followers had come to terms with him making sojourns away from the church, for business deals that never were for the benefit of the Church, per se.
To enrich themselves, pastors have to show power. Some are said to use mild electric shocking gadgets to jerk followers into a fall, so as to make believe they have been anointed! Not long ago, at Entebbe International Airport, a preacher from Ghana was arrested with such machine, as he made into Uganda, to seemingly do business among the flock. Airport security once pounced on Obiri Yeboah (not the former), whose device is said to be used by magicians for mild electric shocks to volunteers, to dupe onlookers.
When people fall, others believe the preacher has supernatural powers and, therefore, can perform miracles. They start flocking to his Church, where in some, they are asked to make cash offers 'to the Lord' in particular amounts or gifts. There has been a case in which a woman brought criminal charges against a pastor for obtaining her car with false promises. This pastor assured her that she would become rich and also overcome her problems after he had prayed for her. When nothing was forthcoming, the woman ran to the police.
For Monalisa, however, this will not be a solution. While she got her part of the bargain with her pastor, she could not shake off her love for James and the legalities involved to get him back. She is neither like Gitonga, who calculatingly achieved the gospel he had longed for. Almost instantly, Gitonga became an image of prosperity at the expense of his followers.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
From Church of England to Anglican Catholicism: Anglican Priests defect to Rome-Could the defectors be Jesuit infiltrators???
FIRST READ; Antichrist in the UK 2010
http://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/2010/09/30/antichrist-in-the-uk-2010/
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2010/10/antichrist-in-uk-2010.html
ROME STILL CLAIMS TO BE THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH
http://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/2007/12/30/rome-still-claims-to-be-the-one-true-church
Five 'Church of England' Bishops Defect To Rome
http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2010/11/five-church-of-england-bishops-defect.html
Monday, November 8, 2010
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: In what is sure to be the first wave of several, five Anglican bishops have left the Protestant Church of England to join the pope's emerging Anglican Ordinariate within the Catholic Church...
(Reuters) - Five Church of England bishops opposed to the ordination of women bishops will take up an offer by Pope Benedict and convert to Roman Catholicism, heralding a possible exodus of traditionalist Anglicans.
The bishops will enter full communion with Rome through an ordinariate, a body proposed by the pope last October to let traditionalists convert while keeping some Anglican traditions, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales announced.
The ordinariate will let married clerics become Catholic priests, in an exception to the Vatican's celibacy rule, but not bishops. Married Anglican bishops who convert may be granted a special status almost equivalent to their former rank.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, accepted the resignations of two bishops directly under his authority, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton, "with regret." He wished them well "in this next stage of their service" to the Christian faith...
So begins the slow death of the Church of England, and the rebirth of Anglican Catholicism in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church.
In related news, the pope has called for a consistory on November 19th to discuss many issues including...
(AFP) – This month’s meeting will also deal with the thorny issue of how Anglicans disgruntled with the Church of England’s policies on gay marriage and women priests can be integrated into the Catholic Church.
The Vatican in 2009 announced that such converts would be welcome.
The consistory call coincided with an announcement by the Catholic Church on Monday that five Anglican bishops are to convert under Benedict’s offer.
The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales said it welcomed the decision by the bishops “to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church”.
In a statement, the five bishops said they had been “dismayed, over the last 30 years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day.”
They said the Vatican offer was a “generous response to various approaches to the Holy See for help and a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians.”
100 US Anglican parishes convert to Roman Catholic Church
About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes across the United States have decided to convert en masse to the Roman Catholic Church, it emerged yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7375163/100-US-Anglican-parishes-convert-to-Roman-Catholic-Church.html
By Simon Caldwell
Published: 6:53PM GMT 05 Mar 2010
They have voted to take up the offer made by Pope Benedict XVI in November that permits vicars and their entire congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests.
By issuing the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (on groups of Anglicans) the Pope was accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their Church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops.
But the Vatican insisted that the move to create self-governing "personal ordinariates", which resemble dioceses in structure, came as a result of requests from at least 30 disaffected Anglican bishops around the world for "corporate reunion" with the Catholic Church.
The Anglican Church in America (ACA) will now enter the Catholic Church as a block, bringing in thousands of converts along with their own bishops, buildings and even a cathedral.
They will worship according to Anglican rubrics, and use the Book of Common Prayer, but they will be in communion with the Pope, recognising him as their leader.
The decision was taken by the House of Bishops of the ACA during a meeting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this week.
The bishops said in a brief statement afterwards that they had agreed to formally "request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States of America by the (Vatican's) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith".
The ACA belongs to the Traditional Anglican Communion, which broke from the Anglican Communion nearly 20 years ago because of its drift from orthodox Christian doctrines.
Unlike 77 million Anglicans worldwide, it is not in communion with the much larger US episcopal church nor does it recognise Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the head of the church but still considers itself Anglican in its origins.
Its decision to rejoin the Catholic Church represents the second group of Anglican churches to take up the Pope's offer.
The first was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group in communion with the Church of England and other mainstream Anglican churches, which last month directed its governing council to take the first steps needed for the mass conversion of 16 parishes to Catholicism.
The UK branch of Forward in Faith is also considering mass conversion but has delayed a decision until July at the earliest – though its leaders are known to be holding secretive meeting with high-ranking Vatican officials.
In the meantime Forward in Faith UK has set up a "Friends of the Ordinariate" group to help to gauge the level of support for conversion among rank-and-file worshippers.
If they decide to take the path to Rome, Britain will see unprecedented numbers of conversions, possibly involving in the region of 200 Anglican congregations, which would amount to thousands of converts.
John Broadhurst, the Anglican Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith, said mass conversion was a real prospect. "We have a thousand priest members in my organisation and there are many others who agree with us," he said last year.
"The main issue for many Anglican priests is now the ownership of parish churches."
In preparation for an influx of converts the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have established a commission which is expected to look at the possibility of church-sharing and also the chances of taking out 100-year leases of some Anglican parishes.
An early conversion came last month, however, when it emerged that Paul Robinson, the former assistant Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, converted just weeks after stepping down from his post.
The 63-year-old was received into the Catholic Church in January and is now a regular worshipper at St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, following a move to London.
'It's really a journey I've been on for some time,' he said. 'It's just like coming home.'
Last summer, Mr Robinson claimed that the dramatic fall in church marriages and baptisms was an indication that Britain was no longer a Christian nation.
He has predicted the demise of the Church of England as the established religion within a generation.
Pope Benedict will visit Britain in September to attend the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a high-profile Anglican cleric who shocked Victorian England by converting to the Catholic faith.
Pope allows married Anglicans to become Catholic priests in bid to tempt them to defect
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1226449/Pope-allows-married-men-priests-bid-attract-Anglican-recruits.html#ixzz14sAEDn3V
By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 6:18 PM on 10th November 2009
You have my blessing: Pope Benedict XVI will allow Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church is to allow married Anglican converts to become priests in a radical concession to tempt them to defect.
Church of England bishops who switch allegiance to Rome will be able to ordain them, the Vatican said yesterday.
Married Anglican vicars have been able to convert and join the Rome priesthood since the 1950s, but this is the first time that married non-vicars have been allowed to become priests.
The decision to allow Anglican converts to keep their tradition of married priests is a break with rules that have applied in western Catholic churches for nearly 900 years.
The Vatican was at pains to insist that it does not mean a break with the celibacy for clergy nor the first step towards a married priesthood.
But leading Anglo-Catholics confirmed that CofE bishops who switch loyalty to Rome will have the power to ordain their own priests and that - with permission from the Pope - some of the newly-ordained priests may be married.
The gesture goes alongside a welcome package for Anglicans that will mean that converts will be able to worship according to services from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. Services will be re-written to remove references to the Queen as head of the church and to pledge loyalty to the Pope.
One Church of England bishop called for negotiations with CofE leaders to allow whole congregations to switch to Rome while keeping the right to continue to use their CofE parish churches.
Bishop of Fulham the Right Reverend John Broadhurst said the offer from Rome was 'extremely impressive' and added that those who choose to accept 'have a valid claim on our own heritage in history.'
Details of the proposals for Anglicans were published by Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a body which centuries ago ran the inquisition into heretics.
They follow the announcement last month of an 'Apostolic Constitution' designed to allow tens of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to return to Rome and yet keep their own priests, parishes and traditions.
The invitation is designed to attract high church Anglicans angry at the advance of gay rights in Anglican churches around the world and now further provoked by the prospect of women bishops in the Church of England.
Those who go over will be led by 'ordinaries' - effectively their own bishops, who will profess allegiance to Rome and work closely with Catholic bishops.
They will, however, have full authority over their own congregations of former Anglicans.
An ordinary may 'petition the Roman pontiff for the admission of married men' to the priesthood 'on a case by case basis.' Unmarried men who are ordained under the new system must however remain celibate.
Catholic leaders denied that the Anglican converts will form a church within a church.
A statement added: 'The possibility envisioned by the Apostolic Constitution for some married clergy with the ordinariates does not signify any change in the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy.'
Celibacy for priests became the rule in 1139 when the Second Lateran Council laid down in writing for the first time that priests should not marry nor have sex.
The rule survived the Reformation in the 1500s, when breakaway protestant groups including the Church of England said ministers should marry.
Many among the 500 Church of England clergy who went over to Rome when the CofE first ordained women in 1993 were married.
However the proposal that newly-ordained priests may be married is new in Western Europe. It has been operated in Eastern Europe where some Orthodox churches have switched loyalty to Rome but have kept their traditions of married priests.
Catholic priests who left their church to marry will not be allowed to return as members of the Anglican convert congregations.
Bishop Broadhurst, who is the CofE's Suffragan Bishop of London and leader of the Anglo-Catholic pressure group Forward in Faith, said: 'I have been horrified that the Church of England while trying to accommodate us has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need.
'What Rome has done is offer exactly what the Church of England has refused.'
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said the Catholic offer does not amount to an attempt to poach Anglicans.
The CofE Bishop of Guildford, the Right Reverend Christopher Hill, said: 'It will now be for those who have requested and at this point feel impelled to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church to study the Apostolic Constitution carefully in the near future and to consider their options.'
http://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/2010/09/30/antichrist-in-the-uk-2010/
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2010/10/antichrist-in-uk-2010.html
ROME STILL CLAIMS TO BE THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH
http://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/2007/12/30/rome-still-claims-to-be-the-one-true-church
Five 'Church of England' Bishops Defect To Rome
http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2010/11/five-church-of-england-bishops-defect.html
Monday, November 8, 2010
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: In what is sure to be the first wave of several, five Anglican bishops have left the Protestant Church of England to join the pope's emerging Anglican Ordinariate within the Catholic Church...
(Reuters) - Five Church of England bishops opposed to the ordination of women bishops will take up an offer by Pope Benedict and convert to Roman Catholicism, heralding a possible exodus of traditionalist Anglicans.
The bishops will enter full communion with Rome through an ordinariate, a body proposed by the pope last October to let traditionalists convert while keeping some Anglican traditions, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales announced.
The ordinariate will let married clerics become Catholic priests, in an exception to the Vatican's celibacy rule, but not bishops. Married Anglican bishops who convert may be granted a special status almost equivalent to their former rank.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, accepted the resignations of two bishops directly under his authority, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton, "with regret." He wished them well "in this next stage of their service" to the Christian faith...
So begins the slow death of the Church of England, and the rebirth of Anglican Catholicism in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church.
In related news, the pope has called for a consistory on November 19th to discuss many issues including...
(AFP) – This month’s meeting will also deal with the thorny issue of how Anglicans disgruntled with the Church of England’s policies on gay marriage and women priests can be integrated into the Catholic Church.
The Vatican in 2009 announced that such converts would be welcome.
The consistory call coincided with an announcement by the Catholic Church on Monday that five Anglican bishops are to convert under Benedict’s offer.
The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales said it welcomed the decision by the bishops “to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church”.
In a statement, the five bishops said they had been “dismayed, over the last 30 years, to see Anglicans and Catholics move further apart on some of the issues of the day.”
They said the Vatican offer was a “generous response to various approaches to the Holy See for help and a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians.”
100 US Anglican parishes convert to Roman Catholic Church
About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes across the United States have decided to convert en masse to the Roman Catholic Church, it emerged yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7375163/100-US-Anglican-parishes-convert-to-Roman-Catholic-Church.html
By Simon Caldwell
Published: 6:53PM GMT 05 Mar 2010
They have voted to take up the offer made by Pope Benedict XVI in November that permits vicars and their entire congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests.
By issuing the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (on groups of Anglicans) the Pope was accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their Church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops.
But the Vatican insisted that the move to create self-governing "personal ordinariates", which resemble dioceses in structure, came as a result of requests from at least 30 disaffected Anglican bishops around the world for "corporate reunion" with the Catholic Church.
The Anglican Church in America (ACA) will now enter the Catholic Church as a block, bringing in thousands of converts along with their own bishops, buildings and even a cathedral.
They will worship according to Anglican rubrics, and use the Book of Common Prayer, but they will be in communion with the Pope, recognising him as their leader.
The decision was taken by the House of Bishops of the ACA during a meeting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this week.
The bishops said in a brief statement afterwards that they had agreed to formally "request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States of America by the (Vatican's) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith".
The ACA belongs to the Traditional Anglican Communion, which broke from the Anglican Communion nearly 20 years ago because of its drift from orthodox Christian doctrines.
Unlike 77 million Anglicans worldwide, it is not in communion with the much larger US episcopal church nor does it recognise Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the head of the church but still considers itself Anglican in its origins.
Its decision to rejoin the Catholic Church represents the second group of Anglican churches to take up the Pope's offer.
The first was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group in communion with the Church of England and other mainstream Anglican churches, which last month directed its governing council to take the first steps needed for the mass conversion of 16 parishes to Catholicism.
The UK branch of Forward in Faith is also considering mass conversion but has delayed a decision until July at the earliest – though its leaders are known to be holding secretive meeting with high-ranking Vatican officials.
In the meantime Forward in Faith UK has set up a "Friends of the Ordinariate" group to help to gauge the level of support for conversion among rank-and-file worshippers.
If they decide to take the path to Rome, Britain will see unprecedented numbers of conversions, possibly involving in the region of 200 Anglican congregations, which would amount to thousands of converts.
John Broadhurst, the Anglican Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith, said mass conversion was a real prospect. "We have a thousand priest members in my organisation and there are many others who agree with us," he said last year.
"The main issue for many Anglican priests is now the ownership of parish churches."
In preparation for an influx of converts the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have established a commission which is expected to look at the possibility of church-sharing and also the chances of taking out 100-year leases of some Anglican parishes.
An early conversion came last month, however, when it emerged that Paul Robinson, the former assistant Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, converted just weeks after stepping down from his post.
The 63-year-old was received into the Catholic Church in January and is now a regular worshipper at St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, following a move to London.
'It's really a journey I've been on for some time,' he said. 'It's just like coming home.'
Last summer, Mr Robinson claimed that the dramatic fall in church marriages and baptisms was an indication that Britain was no longer a Christian nation.
He has predicted the demise of the Church of England as the established religion within a generation.
Pope Benedict will visit Britain in September to attend the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a high-profile Anglican cleric who shocked Victorian England by converting to the Catholic faith.
Pope allows married Anglicans to become Catholic priests in bid to tempt them to defect
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1226449/Pope-allows-married-men-priests-bid-attract-Anglican-recruits.html#ixzz14sAEDn3V
By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 6:18 PM on 10th November 2009
You have my blessing: Pope Benedict XVI will allow Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church is to allow married Anglican converts to become priests in a radical concession to tempt them to defect.
Church of England bishops who switch allegiance to Rome will be able to ordain them, the Vatican said yesterday.
Married Anglican vicars have been able to convert and join the Rome priesthood since the 1950s, but this is the first time that married non-vicars have been allowed to become priests.
The decision to allow Anglican converts to keep their tradition of married priests is a break with rules that have applied in western Catholic churches for nearly 900 years.
The Vatican was at pains to insist that it does not mean a break with the celibacy for clergy nor the first step towards a married priesthood.
But leading Anglo-Catholics confirmed that CofE bishops who switch loyalty to Rome will have the power to ordain their own priests and that - with permission from the Pope - some of the newly-ordained priests may be married.
The gesture goes alongside a welcome package for Anglicans that will mean that converts will be able to worship according to services from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. Services will be re-written to remove references to the Queen as head of the church and to pledge loyalty to the Pope.
One Church of England bishop called for negotiations with CofE leaders to allow whole congregations to switch to Rome while keeping the right to continue to use their CofE parish churches.
Bishop of Fulham the Right Reverend John Broadhurst said the offer from Rome was 'extremely impressive' and added that those who choose to accept 'have a valid claim on our own heritage in history.'
Details of the proposals for Anglicans were published by Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a body which centuries ago ran the inquisition into heretics.
They follow the announcement last month of an 'Apostolic Constitution' designed to allow tens of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to return to Rome and yet keep their own priests, parishes and traditions.
The invitation is designed to attract high church Anglicans angry at the advance of gay rights in Anglican churches around the world and now further provoked by the prospect of women bishops in the Church of England.
Those who go over will be led by 'ordinaries' - effectively their own bishops, who will profess allegiance to Rome and work closely with Catholic bishops.
They will, however, have full authority over their own congregations of former Anglicans.
An ordinary may 'petition the Roman pontiff for the admission of married men' to the priesthood 'on a case by case basis.' Unmarried men who are ordained under the new system must however remain celibate.
Catholic leaders denied that the Anglican converts will form a church within a church.
A statement added: 'The possibility envisioned by the Apostolic Constitution for some married clergy with the ordinariates does not signify any change in the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy.'
Celibacy for priests became the rule in 1139 when the Second Lateran Council laid down in writing for the first time that priests should not marry nor have sex.
The rule survived the Reformation in the 1500s, when breakaway protestant groups including the Church of England said ministers should marry.
Many among the 500 Church of England clergy who went over to Rome when the CofE first ordained women in 1993 were married.
However the proposal that newly-ordained priests may be married is new in Western Europe. It has been operated in Eastern Europe where some Orthodox churches have switched loyalty to Rome but have kept their traditions of married priests.
Catholic priests who left their church to marry will not be allowed to return as members of the Anglican convert congregations.
Bishop Broadhurst, who is the CofE's Suffragan Bishop of London and leader of the Anglo-Catholic pressure group Forward in Faith, said: 'I have been horrified that the Church of England while trying to accommodate us has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need.
'What Rome has done is offer exactly what the Church of England has refused.'
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said the Catholic offer does not amount to an attempt to poach Anglicans.
The CofE Bishop of Guildford, the Right Reverend Christopher Hill, said: 'It will now be for those who have requested and at this point feel impelled to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church to study the Apostolic Constitution carefully in the near future and to consider their options.'
Dr. David Jeremiah's Economic Armageddon and Christian Political Hypocrisy
Dr. David Jeremiah's Economic Armageddon and Christian Political Hypocrisy
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/435-dr-david-jeremiahs-economic-armageddon-and-christian-political-hypocrisy-.html
Kato Mivule | October 5, 2010
We live in very interesting times with lots of events taking place on a daily basis sometimes with global implications. However, more interesting to me is how Christians and the Church at large respond or react to current natural catastrophes, economic downturns, wars and rumors of wars, terrorist attacks, Islam, and other challenges, especially the Church in America.
Most interesting is watching how Evangelical leaders in the USA respond and react to many of the global challenges, the sad part is that it has been mostly a fear based reaction rather than a legitimate response. Of lately, ever since Obama took office, it has been like the world ended for some Evangelical Christians, first, it was the rapture was about to happen anytime soon, now it is an Economic Armageddon.
One interesting gentleman I have been following is Dr. David Jeremiah and his Turning Point Program. Around about the end of 2008 and start of 2009, Dr. David Jeremiah published a book about the End times, kind of explaining the reason behind the global economic meltdown, and other global events that were happening then. Dr. Jeremiah's book titled “What in the World is Going On?: 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore” sought hard to use Bible Prophecy scriptures to “explain” global “events” that were happening including the economic downturn, with all signs pointing to a soon coming rapture.
I remember reading through that book, not letting it down, with great interest, as it was among the top ten christian selling books at the time, and I was thinking to myself, what a misdirection, distraction, and a bunch of scare-mongering this book is.
At that time, the Tea Party was not yet fully “formed” but many folks, especially Christians had labeled the then President elect, Obama, the Antichrist. Reading the book gave you a sense that the rapture was about to happen anytime soon and the Lord would “rescue us” out of the hand of this then popular antichrist called Obama.
I then tuned in to Dr. Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Program and on listening you could sense that there was a disappointment in his sermons that someone he did not agree with politically was elected by a bunch of crazy liberals into the highest office in the land and that somehow this was God's judgment on America and therefore a precursor to the long awaited rapture.
Yet with all due credence, I don't suspect that Dr. David Jeremiah is out to make money and sell books, I have listened to him for years now but I just believe that he like many other Evangelical leaders refuse to separate Church and State and therefore see the USA as a “Christian Nation” that must be governed by Christian Laws, a Theocracy at best. It is this disappointment and frustration that Dr. David Jeremiah et al find themselves in – “How to Take America Back for God”.
As if that was not enough, lately Dr. David Jeremiah came out with another Evangelical Christian Blockbuster Book titled, “The Coming Economic Armageddon: What Bible Prophecy Warns about the New Global Economy”. Now this time Dr. David Jeremiah takes the gloves off and removes any mask. The book has been released in conjunction with the series on the book title being aired on the Turning Point Program.
If you have listened to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and any other Tea Party activists, you would think that Dr. David Jeremiah was hired to spiritually head the Tea Party team. In his radio broadcasts, Dr. David Jeremiah throws lines that he is somewhat a centralist, only concerned about US deficits, and non partisan. Yet when one reads his new book and listens to his Radio show, you get away with sure that as an Evangelical Christian, you must go and vote for all Tea Party Candidates and stop the so-called US deficit from ballooning, otherwise China would soon enslave the USA – the borrower serves the lender.
Dr. David Jeremiah laments that in his generation the word Trillion was never used when it came to money, now it is thrown around carelessly, yet Dr. Jeremiah forgets that at the start of his generation, the phrase “Six Billion people” in the world was not so easy to come across. In other words the world is much more complicated than as portrayed by the Evangelical Preacher.
Yet even more telling is the hypocrisy with which the Evangelical Preacher uses in “preaching” his end time gospel. Why not tell people simply to go vote for the Tea Party Candidates rather than 'using' and exploiting Bible Prophecy for political gain? This is what I fail to understand about this gentleman called Dr. David Jeremiah, why the christian political hypocrisy?
Why go to length and concoct prophecies so as to push the “Take America Back” political agenda? Why pretend to sound Evangelical yet you sound more like a full blown Tea Party Activist on your Radio Show? Why not be authentic and tell folks you wrote this book to help Tea Party Candidates get elected to office and that your current Turning Point Program is simply a tool now to campaign for “God's Candidates” - the Tea Party Candidates during this election season?
Why not stick to the Gospel and Preach about the Cross and Repentance? On the contrary, why are you so worried about deficits if you are going to be raptured away very soon? It is you who has written a number of books about the soon coming rapture, so now why not get ready to be “raptured away” instead of lamenting about financial deficits that the “heathen” have to deal with? Is this not political hypocrisy at its best on the pulpit?
Why was Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle never worried about Rome's National Debt? Jesus Christ and Paul could have easily focused on “Changing” and “Taking Back” the collapsing political structure of Rome but they did not, instead they focused on preaching the Gospel. I think perhaps the best course is to Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, care for the poor and widows instead of worry about US ballooning deficits.
Before all is said and done, the USA is going to be a far more secular nation than current Evangelicals phantom, and Christians had better worry about how to stay relevant and still preach the gospel of Christ effectively in such a very post evangelical America.
Kato Mivule
Notes
Dr. David Jeremiah's website
http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx
Dr. David Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Messages
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/turning-point/
Jon Stewart and Bible Prophesy: Are These Hard Times Not End Times?
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/438-jon-stewart-and-bible-prophesy-are-these-hard-times-not-end-times.html
Kato Mivule | November 1st, 2010
Jon Stewart held a rally this past Saturday at the National Mall in Washington DC in an effort to his credit, trying to “restore sanity” in the current political discourse in the USA.
America has become so polarized that even some Christians are caught up in the negative partisan politics, often siding with Tea Party activists, who of late have gained the reputation of being uncivil and “extreme”. Yet Jon Stewart made an astonishing statement as I watched the “Sanity” rally on TV, that “ these are hard times and not end times”. The statement of course refers to Evangelical Christians in America who preach and teach Bible Prophecy on TV, Radio, and Churches.
However, of lately TV and Radio personalities mainly on Fox News, like Glenn Beck have taken on the mantle of political Bible prophecy teacher, injecting apocalyptic scenarios and Bible prophecy references in their speech to persuade their listeners that if the Obama administration continues in power, then we are really in the end times and doomed. It is a tactic used to scare mainly old citizens, and Christians in forcing them to take political action.
Many 'real' Bible Prophecy Teachers like Dr. David Jeremiah have appeared on Fox News in promotion of their end Time Bible Prophecy books, the most popular being “The Coming Economic Armageddon” by Dr. David Jeremiah, and Fox News to their credit has used such fear mongering techniques to increase their business base as any astute businessperson would do. The politicians, especially Republicans have not left this fear mongering technique to go to waste.
To avoid being labeled extremists, Republican strategists have used the Tea Party as a proxy to scare any Evangelical Christian to vote for them, using Bible Prophecy as a tool in this fear mongering endeavor. In such circumstances, Bible Prophecy is viewed as an event that can be controlled by Man in order to appease Man's goals. If you have a democrat in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is sure coming to pass and swiftly with the “destruction of America”, a phrase that Tea Party activists love to use as a talking point. However, if you have a Republican or a Tea Party Christian in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is somehow withheld. Such abuse and misuse of Bible Prophecy by Political Christian activists is what is turning Bible Prophecy into a laughing matter and a thing to be joked about by comics.
The difficulty is not Jon Stewart's thinking that 'hard times are not end times', the issue is Christians who manipulate bible prophecy for political gain. Any serious Christian knows that Bible Prophecy is not controlled and timed by Humans but by God in Heaven who will fulfill all things in His own time regardless if the President in the White House is a Christian or not.
Yet still living in hard times does not necessarily mean that we are in the end times as spoken of in the Book of Revelation for example. Just because you lost a job does not mean the world is ending tomorrow or the Antichrist will appear the next day. Any responsible Bible Prophecy teacher and any serious student of Bible Prophecy must separate the irrational fear-mongering from Bible Prophecy studies. Fear, paranoia, irrationality have nothing to do with Bible Prophecy, especially for Christians; Bible Prophecy, especially the Book of Revelation was written as an encouragement and hope for Christians going through hard times, that they were conquerors together with Christ Jesus who conquered death and is alive forevermore.
On the contrary, to respond to Jon Stewart, yes, hard times are part and parcel of the end times and New Testament scriptures make it clear on that. Yes, it makes sense to question if we are really in the end times, if the hard times take on a global nature combined with global catastrophes, and convulsions of nature, then Christians have an obligation to discern so. Therefore hard times could be a very good indicator that we are in the end times or at least getting into the end times. Yet fear has nothing to do with it except for those who don't know The Lord, as the New Testament states how mens hearts will fail for the fear of those things that will come upon them.
I believe in the Bible, I believe in the New Testament scriptures, I believe in Bible Prophecy with Timings and Seasons in the Hand of The Lord and not controlled by man. Yes, we are in the last days but these last days have nothing to do with the political manipulation of political christian activists who are unashamedly using and exploiting Bible Prophecy for their own selfish political gains and it is a shame that they disgrace the Name and Word of The Lord.
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/435-dr-david-jeremiahs-economic-armageddon-and-christian-political-hypocrisy-.html
Kato Mivule | October 5, 2010
We live in very interesting times with lots of events taking place on a daily basis sometimes with global implications. However, more interesting to me is how Christians and the Church at large respond or react to current natural catastrophes, economic downturns, wars and rumors of wars, terrorist attacks, Islam, and other challenges, especially the Church in America.
Most interesting is watching how Evangelical leaders in the USA respond and react to many of the global challenges, the sad part is that it has been mostly a fear based reaction rather than a legitimate response. Of lately, ever since Obama took office, it has been like the world ended for some Evangelical Christians, first, it was the rapture was about to happen anytime soon, now it is an Economic Armageddon.
One interesting gentleman I have been following is Dr. David Jeremiah and his Turning Point Program. Around about the end of 2008 and start of 2009, Dr. David Jeremiah published a book about the End times, kind of explaining the reason behind the global economic meltdown, and other global events that were happening then. Dr. Jeremiah's book titled “What in the World is Going On?: 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore” sought hard to use Bible Prophecy scriptures to “explain” global “events” that were happening including the economic downturn, with all signs pointing to a soon coming rapture.
I remember reading through that book, not letting it down, with great interest, as it was among the top ten christian selling books at the time, and I was thinking to myself, what a misdirection, distraction, and a bunch of scare-mongering this book is.
At that time, the Tea Party was not yet fully “formed” but many folks, especially Christians had labeled the then President elect, Obama, the Antichrist. Reading the book gave you a sense that the rapture was about to happen anytime soon and the Lord would “rescue us” out of the hand of this then popular antichrist called Obama.
I then tuned in to Dr. Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Program and on listening you could sense that there was a disappointment in his sermons that someone he did not agree with politically was elected by a bunch of crazy liberals into the highest office in the land and that somehow this was God's judgment on America and therefore a precursor to the long awaited rapture.
Yet with all due credence, I don't suspect that Dr. David Jeremiah is out to make money and sell books, I have listened to him for years now but I just believe that he like many other Evangelical leaders refuse to separate Church and State and therefore see the USA as a “Christian Nation” that must be governed by Christian Laws, a Theocracy at best. It is this disappointment and frustration that Dr. David Jeremiah et al find themselves in – “How to Take America Back for God”.
As if that was not enough, lately Dr. David Jeremiah came out with another Evangelical Christian Blockbuster Book titled, “The Coming Economic Armageddon: What Bible Prophecy Warns about the New Global Economy”. Now this time Dr. David Jeremiah takes the gloves off and removes any mask. The book has been released in conjunction with the series on the book title being aired on the Turning Point Program.
If you have listened to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and any other Tea Party activists, you would think that Dr. David Jeremiah was hired to spiritually head the Tea Party team. In his radio broadcasts, Dr. David Jeremiah throws lines that he is somewhat a centralist, only concerned about US deficits, and non partisan. Yet when one reads his new book and listens to his Radio show, you get away with sure that as an Evangelical Christian, you must go and vote for all Tea Party Candidates and stop the so-called US deficit from ballooning, otherwise China would soon enslave the USA – the borrower serves the lender.
Dr. David Jeremiah laments that in his generation the word Trillion was never used when it came to money, now it is thrown around carelessly, yet Dr. Jeremiah forgets that at the start of his generation, the phrase “Six Billion people” in the world was not so easy to come across. In other words the world is much more complicated than as portrayed by the Evangelical Preacher.
Yet even more telling is the hypocrisy with which the Evangelical Preacher uses in “preaching” his end time gospel. Why not tell people simply to go vote for the Tea Party Candidates rather than 'using' and exploiting Bible Prophecy for political gain? This is what I fail to understand about this gentleman called Dr. David Jeremiah, why the christian political hypocrisy?
Why go to length and concoct prophecies so as to push the “Take America Back” political agenda? Why pretend to sound Evangelical yet you sound more like a full blown Tea Party Activist on your Radio Show? Why not be authentic and tell folks you wrote this book to help Tea Party Candidates get elected to office and that your current Turning Point Program is simply a tool now to campaign for “God's Candidates” - the Tea Party Candidates during this election season?
Why not stick to the Gospel and Preach about the Cross and Repentance? On the contrary, why are you so worried about deficits if you are going to be raptured away very soon? It is you who has written a number of books about the soon coming rapture, so now why not get ready to be “raptured away” instead of lamenting about financial deficits that the “heathen” have to deal with? Is this not political hypocrisy at its best on the pulpit?
Why was Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle never worried about Rome's National Debt? Jesus Christ and Paul could have easily focused on “Changing” and “Taking Back” the collapsing political structure of Rome but they did not, instead they focused on preaching the Gospel. I think perhaps the best course is to Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, care for the poor and widows instead of worry about US ballooning deficits.
Before all is said and done, the USA is going to be a far more secular nation than current Evangelicals phantom, and Christians had better worry about how to stay relevant and still preach the gospel of Christ effectively in such a very post evangelical America.
Kato Mivule
Notes
Dr. David Jeremiah's website
http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx
Dr. David Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Messages
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/turning-point/
Jon Stewart and Bible Prophesy: Are These Hard Times Not End Times?
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/438-jon-stewart-and-bible-prophesy-are-these-hard-times-not-end-times.html
Kato Mivule | November 1st, 2010
Jon Stewart held a rally this past Saturday at the National Mall in Washington DC in an effort to his credit, trying to “restore sanity” in the current political discourse in the USA.
America has become so polarized that even some Christians are caught up in the negative partisan politics, often siding with Tea Party activists, who of late have gained the reputation of being uncivil and “extreme”. Yet Jon Stewart made an astonishing statement as I watched the “Sanity” rally on TV, that “ these are hard times and not end times”. The statement of course refers to Evangelical Christians in America who preach and teach Bible Prophecy on TV, Radio, and Churches.
However, of lately TV and Radio personalities mainly on Fox News, like Glenn Beck have taken on the mantle of political Bible prophecy teacher, injecting apocalyptic scenarios and Bible prophecy references in their speech to persuade their listeners that if the Obama administration continues in power, then we are really in the end times and doomed. It is a tactic used to scare mainly old citizens, and Christians in forcing them to take political action.
Many 'real' Bible Prophecy Teachers like Dr. David Jeremiah have appeared on Fox News in promotion of their end Time Bible Prophecy books, the most popular being “The Coming Economic Armageddon” by Dr. David Jeremiah, and Fox News to their credit has used such fear mongering techniques to increase their business base as any astute businessperson would do. The politicians, especially Republicans have not left this fear mongering technique to go to waste.
To avoid being labeled extremists, Republican strategists have used the Tea Party as a proxy to scare any Evangelical Christian to vote for them, using Bible Prophecy as a tool in this fear mongering endeavor. In such circumstances, Bible Prophecy is viewed as an event that can be controlled by Man in order to appease Man's goals. If you have a democrat in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is sure coming to pass and swiftly with the “destruction of America”, a phrase that Tea Party activists love to use as a talking point. However, if you have a Republican or a Tea Party Christian in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is somehow withheld. Such abuse and misuse of Bible Prophecy by Political Christian activists is what is turning Bible Prophecy into a laughing matter and a thing to be joked about by comics.
The difficulty is not Jon Stewart's thinking that 'hard times are not end times', the issue is Christians who manipulate bible prophecy for political gain. Any serious Christian knows that Bible Prophecy is not controlled and timed by Humans but by God in Heaven who will fulfill all things in His own time regardless if the President in the White House is a Christian or not.
Yet still living in hard times does not necessarily mean that we are in the end times as spoken of in the Book of Revelation for example. Just because you lost a job does not mean the world is ending tomorrow or the Antichrist will appear the next day. Any responsible Bible Prophecy teacher and any serious student of Bible Prophecy must separate the irrational fear-mongering from Bible Prophecy studies. Fear, paranoia, irrationality have nothing to do with Bible Prophecy, especially for Christians; Bible Prophecy, especially the Book of Revelation was written as an encouragement and hope for Christians going through hard times, that they were conquerors together with Christ Jesus who conquered death and is alive forevermore.
On the contrary, to respond to Jon Stewart, yes, hard times are part and parcel of the end times and New Testament scriptures make it clear on that. Yes, it makes sense to question if we are really in the end times, if the hard times take on a global nature combined with global catastrophes, and convulsions of nature, then Christians have an obligation to discern so. Therefore hard times could be a very good indicator that we are in the end times or at least getting into the end times. Yet fear has nothing to do with it except for those who don't know The Lord, as the New Testament states how mens hearts will fail for the fear of those things that will come upon them.
I believe in the Bible, I believe in the New Testament scriptures, I believe in Bible Prophecy with Timings and Seasons in the Hand of The Lord and not controlled by man. Yes, we are in the last days but these last days have nothing to do with the political manipulation of political christian activists who are unashamedly using and exploiting Bible Prophecy for their own selfish political gains and it is a shame that they disgrace the Name and Word of The Lord.
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