The Church should not tell our people that honest wealth is a sin, Mudavadi

May I thank Bishop John Sayia James Chabuga for inviting me and the ADC faithful for the warm welcome accorded me.

When I received the invitation, I thought hard on whether to come and speak to you as a politician or as Musalia Mudavadi, the person. I decided to speak as Musalia the person because this convention aims at teaching the faithful about Leadership, Community Development in Education, Youth and Women Empowerment; and most important, Holistic Human Development.

I therefore beg your forgiveness for all I am about to say because we “all have sinned before God”. Kindly take my remarks as a confession within this church.

The Church is the moral of society. The moral foundations of the Church come from the idea that it ought to be the conscience of society. It must guide society on righteous paths and act as deterrence on wrongs in society. For the evils men commit shall be cleansed by God, so says the Holy Book.

It follows that the Church itself must be clean of the evils that dodge society. The Church must set the standards upon which to judge society and be judged by them. To perform its duties, the church must be peaceful and devoid of conflict in order to counsel society. A Church that is raven by conflict and driven by divisions will have no moral authority to guide society.

There was a time when the Church in the western region was held in high esteem. This was because the Church not only ministered to the spiritual needs, but was very involved in the material or worldly needs of its flock. The Church established and ran schools and hospitals. It was a Church that said “Thou shall be done in heaven as on earth”. This is because God’s children live on earth and seek redemption in heaven.

Sadly that Church has been on the decline in this region. The Church is this region has abandoned schools and health function that were its foundation and connection with society. The Church is at crossroads; it is splintered into unmanageable factions and driven by division, conflict and the commercial imperative. Every small disagreement results in formation of a separate congregation, in the same area and by the same flock.

In this region, a sub-location can have as many as 40 churches each competing for a population of 5000. On average, every church would have 125 men, women and children if all were members. This may not be a bad thing because it shows that we love God and freely exercise freedom of association and worship. However, the worrying trend is that even as we establish more churches, the spiritual nourishment and moral aptitude in society is not consumerate with our prayers.

The intensity of immorality has been on the rise. There could be as much child defilement, alcohol abuse and even killings in church disputes as the number of people who attend our churches. Corruption is committed by as many members of our churches as those who don’t attend church on Sunday. This sad state of affairs has brought the Church into disrepute as it looks inward rather than outward in counselling the flock.

Two things the Church in this region must do: One, the church must reform itself. The church must return to earth and minister against real evil. The church must revise its gospel of promising manna in heaven while condemning honest creation of wealth. The Church should not tell our people that wealth is a sin. The church ought to stop glorifying poverty. This gospel does not only make our people complacent but also wholly dependent on the generosity of others. The church should not institutionalize the culture of handouts because it results in denying our people informed choices in critical matters such as elections.

Two, because of conflicts within our churches, rarely do our churches comment authoritatively on matters of national importance that affect their followers. While churches in other regions caution their flock from state malpractices, our churches remain docile entities. We have the issue of low ID applications and voter registration by youth and women. I am told this is a result of systematic and deliberate inefficiency by government agencies. The Church should speak boldly against such practices that amount to denying the flock their democratic rights. The Church must also encourage its flock to acquire these cards,

And with these words, I am pleased to declare the ADC Convection officially open.

THANK AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL.