Society gives the church leaders they deserve

So, there are many people with a stake in the choice of a bishop. This has been the case with the history of the Church. But why then are the stakes growing higher to the extent of necessitating resorting to civil litigation and violence almost as a norm?

The Church of God as we have been taught from when we attended Sunday School, is sacred and beyond reproach. It is mysterious and supposedly out of the realm of human understanding. It calls for (blind) obedience, humility plus enduring suffering, and the acceptance of fate. For the Lord predestined most outcomes even before we were born. It is led by men and women called and chosen by God.

For that matter things to do with the Church and its leadership have always been indemnified from criticism that is directed to other institutions especially where people have a vested pecuniary interest, among others.

Now that has changed as most of the economic policies pursued today are ironically shrinking economies. This is especially in rural areas where obedience to the Church is still rather intact. Yet the social safety net is vanishing too with things such as cost sharing of social services for which taxes are paid.

Now everybody needs to have their own money to fend for themselves. The people who relied on agriculture are now finding challenges. Land is becoming less productive and crops failing due to disease and the effects of climate change. The children on whom they spend a fortune to educate, most times end up unemployed.

The Church, which was the alternative to government when it came to the social safety net, is now under a lot more pressure to provide. Yet its sources of income are diminishing. The collections from impoverished people as well as donations and other provisions from the global North are slowly drying out. This is due to the general global economic downturn and differences on central issues as homosexuality. 

The congregation that benefited from the Church-based school and hospital now has to pay for services. So they are watching their money and whoever is going to be in charge of collecting and spending it. They are also more sensitive on who gets the favor to benefit from public funds.

Secondly the Church has also not been spared from the malaise that has afflicted the post colonial society. This refers to the degeneration that has come as a consequence of bad politics and other governance challenges that have led to the prevalence of corruption. When a society is going to the dogs it does not spare anyone or sector. It sweeps everything in its wake like a hurricane.

Genuine production and a work culture has almost collapsed. The short cut is part of the process. You need to know someone and it is better for you if he is from your inner circle or clan. The issues of qualification, suitability, integrity and merit and ethics come second.
It is from such a society that we get all our professionals. 

After all the church is the whole body of followers of Christ not just the buildings. It is a reflection of the status of a society. The doctor who for the right money will give an HIV positive person a negative result, to the police officer who will tamper with evidence in a trial to let a murderer off the hook. It is the same society from which we pick our journalists who will support causes as long as the brown envelope is of the proper weight. 

Teachers, soldiers, politicians, public servants and domestic workers all come from this society. If ones looks at history globally during the Holocaust in Europe before the second world war and the genocide in Rwanda, the Church reproduce the trends of the time and was very complicit in the killing of people.

The religious leader cannot be an exception because we have always viewed them as being above board for the sacred work they do.
They, like Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, bleed when they are pricked, feel hungry when they are starved, have to educate their children and need medical treatment when they fall sick. Society boxes them into a corner.
The existential demands have brought on new pressures and are peeling away the pious aura very fast. They are leveling the ground where we all find ourselves scrapping to keep our bodies and souls together. 
The anxiety and temptation to get into a strategic office and secure one’s future is really high.

But one cannot do it on their own. There is a need to galvanise support and patronage which most times is in convincing all the interested parties of a change in their material well being (and not necessarily their spiritual lives,) should one get into office.
That is what has caused the divide and intensified rivalry in who gets elected as a Bishop. In one case a candidate who failed after investing in the process was so stressed and suffered a stroke! 

If you look closely, the disputes and disagreement in the Church of Uganda, especially regarding leadership, are mostly material things. It is about the sale of Church land or who gets a contract to handle a lucrative  project. So, many Christians find it smarter to position a favorable leader in the hierarchy to mark their interests.  
It is almost unheard of that there is contention on matters of doctrine or interpretation of the Bible and other biblical teaching. The exception, of course, is on the matter of homosexuality. 

As long as the issues of the material well being of not only the priests but of the followers remain uncertain, there will be an enduring crisis in the Church leadership. For many Christians it is just like you have it when it comes to political leadership. Having the right man in place is like the assurance one gets when they send the right warrior to hunt. It does not end there. The warrior must be your warrior.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues
Twitter: @nsengoba