Black Boxes and Decoders-Political and Pastoral Power

My...our Startimes decoder has a mind of its own. It chooses when to install and update itself and will often do so at the most inconvenient times. Say like when I am about to watch my favorite English soccer team? Not really!

The Americans are more farmiliar with the blackbox at least in regards to TV and even made a movie about it. Cable TV is rather costly but with a few extra bucks you can request the services of a 'helper'-the cable guy. This brings me back to the local scene where we are fast tracking the speed at which we switch from Analogue to Digital. Sometimes though, some of our 'channels' seem to be similar to someone who subscribes to something bigger and then lets you see what he thinks you will like after which he even lets you pay him a small fee to place your ad on his space. Once in a while this system fails which allows you to see him slip as the name of the real channel appears on the screen.

That said though, we are off and into the election season and someone has turned up the heat. A few months ago I wrote about how the pastoral space was slowly being transformed into a political space and how these changes were being expressed in stadia every years end. In short the pastoral teams in the city were making their credentials known by their unique ability to draw in crowds and fill these ancient roman inventions. I wrote with a little bit of concern given some of the history the early church had with the ancient romans. I guess I was puzzled that the church was gathering in a place where not too far back, converts were used for sport in crowd-filled theatres to entertain locals.

The growth of these churches has produced some unexpected results. These mega-churches have also decided to invade the media space. We've seen it done before with expert skill in the late seventies and early eighties with the growth of televangelism but our move here is a little different. One leader stands out in his approach and in a way expresses some aspects of the larger picture of our religious psyche.

Our preachers are not preachers in the strictest sense of the the term, what they are is life coaches. This makes sense and probably was the same in Paul's day. Maybe this is why he mentioned that we had “many  instructors but few Fathers”. On the local scene though, it is more common to find references from the preacher that attempts to assist his followers to deal with daily grind of life from business to family relations to moving to big cities to being street smart. As a result for some of these converts there is very rarely a complex conflict moment like what the apostle spoke of in which, the saint will feel the need to “resolve to know nothing amongst them except the message of Christ and him Crucified”.

There is a sense in which we have quickly replaced the words of the prayer we were taught into...your will be done in Uganda as it is in America. And maybe this is not a bad thing, the church leader quickly learns how to use the tools that are at his disposal to put out his message to many more followers and then creates a radio station and TV to expand his reach. With time he at least is able to hire some of his members (in a employment challenged nation) and pay with the money generated from ads on both audio and visual channels.   

If the ideas on the ground are as they seem, we are living in a largely religious community but with very strong communist leanings and ideologies. The people at the helm borrowed heavily from the ideas championed by people like Marx as well as historical accounts that favored the Revolution in France, Russia and China. The last two treated religion and faith with much scorn but we may have been a little luckier in this regard. Prior to this administration, we had a man who rose out of Obscurity and was aptly named after the Greek God. He did not seem to have any strong overt religious expressions but his conflicts with one of the larger tribes has him forever etched in a place of infamy with this one tribe. He was replaced by a seasoned shrewd army man who opened pandora box to the possibility of governance and usurpation by military force. So while certain forms of persecutions are not as overt as others, I argue that what we have seen and will see here will be more of an inflitration of the church and not a direct attack that shuts down and closes places of gathering as was the manner before.

While many of the men that brought a spark to the faith (Muwanguzi) have gone after clouds of controversy, we are left with words and phrases they coined and memories some sweet others not so sweet (we speak here of Kiwedde-a term used to signify an end or as the greeks put it-a financial term stating that the debt has been paid in full-a word said to have been used by the messiah as he hand on the cross and at the point of death proclaimed victory). Yes the shepherd has been struck and the sheep are scattering. But one prays and hopes for the few that are left. We have to bet that are is a man on the inside. We have to bet on Peter (not on his skill with the knife but on the conversion that was promised to him by his master. “I have prayed for you” ) and the other men in the upper room. We have to believe in the nature of the deposit and in heaven's invasion. We have to believe that if they wait, there will once again be a sound from heaven and a flame on the head to confirm a visit.

Another two have emerged both preaching healing and performing deliverance (controvertial but necessary and also existant in the Catholic Church). The first one displays quite a lot of skill in dealing with his members. He reminds the viewer of the King who sits on a throne and at day break has to deal with the questions that are presented to him. He uses a mixture of widsom, tact and faith as he deliberates and listens. In addition to the use faith, is able to capitalize on media by making the supplicants address directly those with whom they have grievance.

Recently though he has had a direct confrontation with other participants in the media space who have brought against him some charges. He contends as do some of his followers that these are direct attacks against his Station which (given the advances we have made in digitalization is pulling in a lot of crowds and therefore ad revenue).

The Second has made some bold attempts to cast his net wide across the religious landscape by making reference to the prayer. From what the figures tells us, they have made some inroads. What we have also noted though are under currents that demonstrate a slightly political angle to the pastoral move. Maybe this is the mastery of The consumate strategist. Use the naivete of the saints and their love for regligious things to endear yourself to them and once in a while to show favor or dislike for one against another. But it has worked. Give coverage to those who are not necessarily telling the truth and use the coverage and the success to make them think that the spirit is still with them. Which brings me back to Samson (“and Samson wist not that the spirit had left him”). Both main stream churches and members of the balokole movement have had a struggle fighting off the affections of the state. How can you publicly refuse to receive a gift given to you....