Those attacking Gashumba may have misconstrued his message and may not appreciate how many lives have been ruined by fake pastors through false prophecies. I know a man who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in hospital. When he approached a pastor whose name I withhold, he was given a contrary opinion and stopped taking his medication on the promise that he would be healed through a miracle.
By Badru Walusansa
Frank Gashumba, a man known for being controversial, hit the headlines this week for calling out fake pastors and prophets. His no-holds-barred approach seems to have kept him relevant long after many of his contemporaries faded. He belongs to the same club as the late Tamale Mirundi, Alex Mukulu and the surviving John Segawa. Borrowing from Uganda Law Society president Isaac Ssemakadde, the right description for such a group is “anti-clockwise thinkers” — and Ssemakadde himself belongs to the same club.
This is not to say that Gashumba and his ilk are always right, but they are brave enough to say what makes the rest of us uncomfortable. That is why we often wait for them to do the heavy lifting, then emerge from the closet to share their frustrations and defend them against attacks.
That is exactly what many netizens have done by rallying behind Gashumba and raising their voices against fake pastors and prophets. If I understood him correctly, Gashumba’s stance was not an attack on the Church or ordained men of God. It was about fake pastors and prophets who peddle false miracles as merchandise.
Those attacking Gashumba may have misconstrued his message and may not appreciate how many lives have been ruined by fake pastors through false prophecies. I know a man who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in hospital. When he approached a pastor whose name I withhold, he was given a contrary opinion and stopped taking his medication on the promise that he would be healed through a miracle.
Until his death, the man sold all his belongings to raise the hefty sums demanded for the promised healing miracle by the so-called man of God, who held him to ransom. He eventually raised the money and went for his coveted miracle, which never came. The pastor disappeared, and a few months later, the man went to meet his Creator.
How do you convince me that his death was not hastened by a false prophecy? This is not to suggest that the man was not destined to die, but why defraud him to the point of leaving nothing for his young family? We therefore ignore Gashumba’s message at our own peril.
Instead of dismissing him, we need to reflect on how to protect society from fake pastors and prophets, given how desperate and gullible much of our population has become. Imagine young men and women flocking to churches day and night in search of financial deliverance, yet their pastors fail to guide them on the need to combine faith with practical action.
The continued silence on these issues has long given rise to what has been termed “Jesus-preneurship”, in which fake pastors use the pulpit to rob their followers. They rob them by driving many into bankruptcy through false claims. What baffles many is that criticism of fake pastors is not new; it has come from different messengers before, including Pastor Isaac Rwomushana, who became a household name for this style of evangelism.
So why did the message hit so hard when Gashumba became the messenger? Did he use charcoal to roast his targets? Did that charcoal produce so much smoke that the Government is now threatening to ban it?
This, too, is a battle the Government should be prepared to lose. The proposed ban is not only misinformed but also miscalculated because the available policy alternatives are too costly for ordinary Ugandans. While the intentions may be good, as is often the case with government policies, the devil lies in the alternatives proposed by the line ministry, which are unrealistic and unaffordable.
If deforestation is the real concern, the Government should invest in affordable alternatives while protecting the charcoal value chain, which employs millions of people. This is the same charcoal Gashumba metaphorically used to roast fake pastors and prophets peddling false miracles.
Badru Walusansa is a social-political analyst