President Yoweri Museveni has told\nBorn-Again Christian leaders in the country that the proposal by State Minister\nfor Ethics, Hon. Simon Lokodo, requiring all Pastors to obtain formal\ntheological training from a recognized institute before they lead people, will\nbe discussed until a consensus is reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimon Peter had never been to the\nseminary. He was a fisherman who was called by Jesus. St. Paul, who prosecuted the church, later\njoined it. This is, therefore, the foundation of the church. I will call you,\nFather Lokodo and all other religious leaders and we discuss. Should we\nemphasize rituals and formalization or take advantage of the calling on\npeople\u2019s lives? When they brought me a death penalty for Rwakasisi, I went\nalone and prayed to God to help me. In this meeting we will also pray,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President was yesterday addressing the conference of Pastors and Evangelists from all districts of Uganda at Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga-based Miracle Centre Cathedral in Kampala organized the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Museveni also told the Pastors\u2019\nconference despite the pressure that had been exerted on him to close the\nso-called Biwempe<\/em><\/strong> churches in 1986, he did see the need for that because,\nhe clarified, the Christians in those churches were not against the Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He hailed Pastor Robert Kayanja and Bishop Joshua Lwere who is the General Overseer of the National Fellowship of Born-Again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda, for encouraging Christians to participate in wealth creation activities in order to remove their families from the pangs of household poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He stressed that Pastors must not only focus on the spiritual but also on the temporal issues adding that they would do this through teaching Christians on how to transition from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, if they are to live well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNRM did not come for the rich\npeople. I never went to the bush because of Madhavani. I found him there and\nrich. It is the people who did not have anything that became a burden to us and\nso we went to the bush. The 68% of the people who are still in subsistence\nfarming should be taught to start earning. Archbishop Odama brought me an idea\nof making cassava a cash crop. When we\ndid the economics, we realized it could work. We are now working with him in\nthe north,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Museveni further advised\nChristians to be tolerant of the traditional beliefs, seek to be patient and\nhumble enough to engage with them so as to make them see some of the wrong\nthings that they are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He encouraged Christians to follow\nthe two commandments that Jesus gave them namely to love God with all one\u2019s\nheart and also to love their neighbors as they love themselves. He noted that\nthis forms the basis on which God would judge them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Robert Kayanja, on his part,\nthanked President Museveni for granting the Balokole<\/em>\nfreedom of worship adding that since the Pentecostals were the fastest growing\ngroup and are sober people, an empowerment to them would create a great army\njust like the Puritans were.\n\n\u201cToday\nwe ordain you as the Chief Puritan because of your dedicated heart for the\nnation. The NRM has the correct ideology and we have the correct theology,\u201d he\nsaid\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Yoweri Museveni has told Born-Again Christian leaders in the country that the proposal by State Minister for Ethics, Hon. Simon Lokodo, requiring all Pastors to obtain formal theological training from a recognized institute before they lead people, will be discussed until a consensus is reached. \u201cSimon Peter had never been to the seminary. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":11413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-11412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n