By now overwhelming criticism towards the proposed Faith based organisations (FBO) Government policy has been expressed, especially from members of the born again Christian community.
The policy has been criticised on various fronts including: the extent of its illegality; its breach of the freedoms of worship and conscience; its irrelevancy presently; insensitivity and; other conspiracy-like theories revolving around certain individuals and churches who wish to exploit this policy to legitimize their self-centered interests against the newer wave of born-again churches.
My opinion in this article is not about these criticisms, nor is it to advocate for the passing of FBO policy in its present form but rather is to underscore a vital perspective as regards the rationale behind the policy. Indeed legitimate concerns can and have already been raised as pertains the policy in its present form but these will not be my focus presently.
I am confident, that in spite of the fears and disagreements surrounding the policy, no right thinking Christian can or should rubbish its underlying rationale.
Presently the church of God has been defiled by a wide range of evils to mention but a few: erroneous doctrines and the dare consequences thereof; absence of proper accountability structures that by consequence make the church an exploitative entity; an ever growing spirit of competition, animosity and disunity in the body of Christ; and ever increasing levels of worldliness and moral corruption within the church.
These are evils that all Christians and particularly church leaders need to take into account. It’s my fear that if no deliberate move is made to address the evils aforementioned, the church will gradually lose its relevancy and appeal in the nations and God forbid that this should be the story of the Ugandan Church.
A proper assessment will confirm that particularly amongst some born again denominations, any effort made to address these glaring evils always receives great resistance especially by those who need it the most. Most efforts to unite the born-again churches for this purpose have proven futile on every front.
The FBO policy in my opinion may not even be the solution to the problems of the Church in Uganda today as highlighted, but by all means we must all swallow our egos, let go of our self-centred empire building attitudes and seek ways of getting the Church to the place where Christ would want it to be if we are to faithfully respond to the great commission: a place of Unity, a place of love/forgiveness; a place of Christian humility and the exaltedness of the triune God ; and that place of sound holistic gospel centered mission.
If we have demonstrated that we cannot unite to address the evils that are eating up the church, then the worst case scenario must occur as many have impliedly alleged, the state must intervene to put the church to order.
I would like to think that government has correctly diagnosed the church shortcomings and this is the basis for the FBO policy. We may all interpret it our way but we cannot deny the rational thereof. If the church is getting out of hand and at the same time is not mature enough to ably respond to these issues, it is unwise for anybody to stand at the periphery and advice that government should watch the pandemonium and helplessly do nothing.
If as Christians we are to be honest, advocating against the FBO policy from which ever standpoints, without offering viable solutions to the conspicuous problems at hand, are only intensifying the problem and not helping it.
Unless the Born again Christian Community critics, speak from a problem solving stand point rather than a resistance criticism angle, I elect to support government efforts to intervene in the situation appertaining religious entities through the FBO policy and that is not in denial that in an ideal situation, the Church and not government is better placed to address her own problems but unfortunately we are very far from the ideal situation.
In Romans 13:1-7 God himself institutes governments for the insurance of an ordered society and that society includes the church if the need should arise, which is the case presently.
The writer is the Asst Chaplain, Uganda Christian University Mukono and lecturer at the Law Faculty Uganda Christian University.
Article first appeared Here
