When wolves cheered Archbishop Kaziimba

Since the Son of God himself generally made his journeys on foot and borrowed donkeys, not on a fine horse, we must tread carefully. 

There are motor vehicles primarily for transport, and vehicles for showy status statements. Very often, Uganda’s bigwigs use their vehicles for both.

So, does Kaziimba’s threat to withhold God’s blessings mean that the Chief-of-See at Nakasero’s All Saints has no serious SUV to park outside the cathedral? Well, he has; but at a price. 

I suppose Church of Uganda (CoU) could buy cars for its bishops. But this would probably stretch their bank accounts and strain offertory givers.

The lower clerics would (in turn!) only begrudgingly wish their superiors well.
Enter Uganda Government. President Museveni, who once said he was next to God, is often reported dishing out big SUVs to new bishops.

By Kaziimba’s logic, such patronage should make it easier for the bishops to bless Museveni, assuming it does not raise new moral questions over the abuse of power in a secular state.
But the money involved is from taxpayers of different faiths, who get less of public goods and services as a result of the car gifts. They do not necessarily get their blessings from the Church of Uganda, and some do not even attach any value to such blessings.

When President Museveni is making calculations for his political survival, his mathematics can get extremely bad. But if he still wants to lavish big cars on the bishops, he has to find the money from somewhere.

Wrong priorities and horrendous theft of public funds already mean that many essential services cannot be delivered.

If the flow of foreign aid is slowed because of Uganda’s uncompromising stance on eccentric sexual behaviour, the cost of the bishops’ cars will increase the grating of teeth among taxpayers.

Meanwhile, as Archbishop Kaziimba led the Church of Uganda in cutting links with the mother Anglican Church of the United Kingdom, many leaders of Uganda’s Pentecostal/Born Again churches in Uganda have been cheering him as a champion of Ugandan/African Christian/true morality. So have many Muslim leaders.

However, for historical (colonial) reasons, Uganda’s ‘Anglican’ Church has been perceived as enjoying a favoured position, and has been subtly resented by these leaders.

Afflicted by acrimonious divisions and damaged by scandals of fornication, exploitation and outright fraud in their organisations, these leaders were far more desirous to see the CoU breaking from Canterbury than asserting whatever moral position on sexuality.

The hidden and sinister calculation is that the break brings CoU closer to the free-lance churches that do not boast the backing of a First World super organisation, which should trim CoU.’s international references and sheer clout.

In a country of scarce resources and a world of declining faith, this could (indirectly) make acquiring those SUV’s more difficult, and praying for God’s blessings by bishops more strained.

Fortunately, as God’s dog, I know that the Lord is resting. He could not be more indifferent.

In time, Kaziimba and his CoU colleagues may begin to wish he had been intellectually more resilient in reading the liberal ethos of our times, and emotionally less volatile; like his Catholic peers at Rubaga.

Alan Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
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