{UAH} Religious leaders cannot guide Uganda?s politics

And the Lord God said to this scribe: Because of their iniquity, the men and women who preach His word shall not bear the flame to deliver the nation from damnation. Their voices shall pass like the wind in a desert; thus said the Lord.
Then the Lord God said to this scribe: You have no reverence for the titles of men. You will record in the language of ordinary mortals the iniquities of the men who spread my word. They shall not be favoured. These are their sins:
Among the clerics, there are many who have made for themselves variations of a God who works like a popcorn machine, and whose supposed power they claim to switch on and off at will in a circus of fake miracles.

In their wretchedness, they have gone so far as to turn to sorcery, secretly planting charms in the beds of the sick and the gardens of those who suffer, making them believe that witchdoctors and evil spirits have been at work; so it was time to switch on the popcorn-machine God, making extravagant exhibitions of their fearless faith, destroying the charms and tearing down shrines their syndicates have built.

Among the sins of God's servants is fornication; the stealing or poaching of their own wives and husbands, and the adulterous seduction of members of their congregations.

Putting aside the false accusations bred by envy and inter-rivalry (another sin), fornication among God's clerics is as rampant as among us, the ordinary sinners who are called the general population.
Among the clerical orders where vows of celibacy are mandatory and sexual segregation is fenced, the sin of fornication is compounded by the oddness of Sodom and the abuse of same-sex children.
Widely exposed in the West, the smell of hypocrisy as dense as an airless bathroom, these abuses remain largely untouched by Ugandan activists, who may be too superstitious to attack organisations where God is believed to be striding about. And they do not bother government, because its institutions are sometimes too spineless and sometimes too cynical to antagonise religious organisations which millions of semi-literate voting citizens hold in unquestioning awe.

As percentages, there may be more same-sex child abusers in some celibate religious organisations than in the general population.

Greed. Another sin. Greed… greed… greed: the excessive love of material things behind a thin veil of spirituality. The crook; the vampire; the mercenary; just as they have infested every secular sector in our midst, they are in the pulpit milking their congregations to the bone. And in a country whose rulers bribe to silence critics and buy the support of all manner of opportunists, strategic religious leaders are sending out signals that they are ready to prostitute themselves in exchange for greater recognition in the public sphere, for cars, land and what have you.
Cowardice. Inconsistency. In times of intense struggle, these weaknesses are great sins. Name just one religious leader on Uganda's political scene who is not a coward, and who is not inconsistent; be he one of the quieter more traditional types, or one of the noisy latter-day upstarts. Yes, name just one religious leader who is consistently courageous… You have shut up!

A few weeks ago, and from time to time in the past, people who take religion a bit too seriously had this charming idea that our religious leaders and the elders-something should be at the fore in a drive towards national political reconciliation.

Wooooo… How they love the limelight! And how President Museveni and his ruling clique love such distractions!
I think the idea died. Or it is dying. Or it will soon die. Anyhow, it cannot achieve anything of value.
Uganda can be redeemed by an overwhelming will to freedom, and it can be reconciled by the rule of reason. These are not religious concepts. They are secular concepts, and we must pursue them through secular arrangements informed by heightened intelligence rather than heightened religiosity. If we succeed, and we so wish, we can invite our God – who cannot be wiser than our highest thoughts – to bear witness to our work.

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator. altaccaone@gmail.com.