Apostle Ethan Magoba on the left shaking hands with Apostle Francis Kwezi
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The refusal by President Museveni to lift lockdown on churches is proof that he is worshipper of BACHWEZI DEVILS instead of the Lord Jesus Christ: Museveni rejects pleas by Evangelical pastors to open places of worship
When Uganda Pentecostal Ecumenists and Non-Ecumenicists disagree over the opening of churches: Bishop Kiganda, City Pastors wear Sackcloths in Protest’ Over Closed Churches: Don’t use COVID to settle scores -Bishop Lwere warns Pastors protesting Closure of Churches
Congregational worship amid pandemic: Pastors may challenge shutdown order.
By Our Reporter A pastor in Uganda has announced intentions of filing a petition to challenge enforcement of President Museveni’s order to keep churches closed, even while he permitted certain bussiness establishments to reopen.
On Wednesday, Pastor Francis H Kwezi took to social media seeking legal advice pertaining to the directive that has now turned into a religious liberty issue.
“We are putting up a draft to present to the President and Parliament on reopening Yahweh’s sanctuaries,” he wrote on Facebook. “We are looking for lawyers familiar with constitution law to advise us how place our petition.” Soon, he told fellow pastors, “we shall be requesting your signatures, physically and scientifically (electronically).”
Pastor Kwezi said 476 pastors are so far on board. Under current public health guidelines, Churches all across Uganda are not allowed to hold in-person Church services, and the timeline for the stayed measure is unknown. Some church leaders aren’t happy about that, saying their constitutional right to religious freedom has been infringed, given that certain businesses are allowed to operate.
On his part, Kampala-based Pastor Cyrus Mwase of Zion Saints Ministries International, on 24 June, 2020, said the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), should draft a health guideline series and appeal to the President.
A true believer in Christ cannot support church closure up to now, he said. “Church is not all about preaching and teaching the word as that can be done online. It’s not about praying as everyone can pray in their homes since God is everywhere. It’s more of obeying God’s directive to assemble as commanded (not advised but directed, it’s a God directive) in Hebrews 10:25,” he said. “The church can choose to run 4 very brief services to feed it’s 100 member congregation.”
Pastor Cyrus Mwase believes government has to apply the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions “equally” to all places “to show we’re not just against the church.” The church, he contends, is being treated not on an even ground as bussiness or shopping establishments where you can have scores of people.
“This is why I will never demand churches to open as long as all other similar places are closed. If church buildings aren’t safe are taxis, buses, shopping malls, ‘kikuubo’, even Mulago hospital Kawempe , etc safe?,” he wondered.
President Museveni on Monday stated that Church closure had everything to do with protecting the health and safety of Ugandans. He pointed out, among others, the outbreak cannot be traced within a church setting.
Uganda will know peace if the Church truly turns to God, says Pastor
Francis H. Kwezi OPINION | By Pastor Francis Kwezi People are saying, “Let’s pray for Uganda” I have always warned my fellow ministers and shared the same message on...
People are saying, “Let’s pray for Uganda” I have always warned my fellow ministers and shared the same message on new year. Prophesying prosperity has become the order of the day. Hypocrisy in the church of Christ must end and the gospel be preached in its entirety.
Stop faking revivals, stop faking crusades, stop faking worshipping. We have learned to fake revivals to attract people and make money out of them! Crusades have become a matter of entertainment! Sunday services are nothing but showing off who is who and a way of emptying the innocents of their wealth! The Lord once said, “when I kept silent, you thought we were of equal”. Let’s now dance to the music we have played. I say. If you don’t like what you see and hear, change the album. It’s that simple! Nothing will help our country till the mocking of God stops. Where is the gospel we preached in the 80s? The gospel of holiness and righteousness! The gospel that changed killers to good citizens! The gospel that made people stop lying to each other, and live in harmony!
Mama Mary Nyerere of Tanzania once shared with me, and I was shocked to what the poor lady narrated. When she had a conversation with our president, his Excellence Y Kaguta Museveni, she expressed pride over the prayer movement in Uganda, when the president replied, “our people don’t pray as they used to in the 80s!”
Even the president knows, there is Comedy all over! I call the church to return to God with their heart not lips. I say again, if you don’t like what you see or hear, change the album. No peace for Uganda, until the church truly turn to God. No peace for our country, where greed and materialism is the gospel of salvation. No peace, no peace, no peace when sin is at the heart of the church. From manipulation, lies, false witness, adultery, homosexuality, materialism, hypocrisy, and all works of flesh. No peace.
If it’s true, “Righteousness exalts a nation” then sin abase a nation. We should stop blaming politicians, police and all government agencies. Look at the church. Church faking kidnappings! That is how low we have gotten.
We have the keys but due to hypocrisy, we have denied many to heaven and opened gates of hell to our own. You can pray all you want, if your life is not parted from sin, it’s a waste of time and energy. I have heard a voice, “even when you pray, and spread your hands to the heavens, I will not hear”. Repentance is the way to go. Repentance and turning completely from the old ways, is the way to go. If we are not at peace with God, let’s not expect His protection. We must be in agreement, Amos 3:3, Jesus has commanded (Matthew 5:48) to be perfect and He will not change His mind. We only can see God if our hearts are pure (Matthew 5:8).
No fruits worthy of repentance, no peace period. Lets turn to God with all our hearts then pray for His mercies.
MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine | Preacher Francis H. Kwezi
Preacher Francis H. Kwezi has been known for spreading the gospel in various regions across Uganda, and has used his social media accounts most especially for evangelism. It came as a shock to his followers recently when he took to his Facebook account to talk politics, later striping himself of his Pastoral title.
Francis Kwezi said that Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine is not “presidential material” and that behind him “is a mess.” In a post on 19 October, Kwezi asked his audience: “Can you allow this character to be your next President? Guys, be real.”
Before joining mainstream politics, Kyagulanyi often posed for pictures while smoking marijuana. Francis Kwezi attached some of these photos to his post, as he made efforts to prove his point. “How would you like such to be a role model of your children? [A] Presidential office [carries] more than power, authority and cheap popularity. It digs out your closet, you become exemplary sniffed. But behind Bobi, is a mess,” he wrote.
“I have yet to condemn Bobi, his a good man. But that goodness is not what am looking at, his yet to prove himself to run a country. His lacking in many corners. Beside, Bobi has heard the gospel many times to be preached to. His become immune to our preaching,” Kwezi said. Several Church leaders were quick to weigh in, with the vast majority criticizing the preacher. Bobi Wine, a pop star turned opposition figure officially announced taking on President Yoweri Museveni in the nation’s 2021 national elections just recently.
“I will challenge President Museveni on behalf of the people,” the 37-year-old said in an interview to the Associated Press news agency in July.
As the leader of a popular movement known as “People Power”, media reports show that Wine has captured the imagination of many who want to see the exit of Museveni, who has held power since 1986 and looks set to run for a new term.
In as much as he claimed he was not judging Bobi Wine, Christians and non Christians alike responded to Francis H. Kwezi’s remarks with concern, some accusing him of “character assassination,” and others “ignoring extraordinary grace.” “I didn’t expect a man of God to say such… it doesn’t add up,” said Senior Pastor of Lifeline Ministries David Owot.
Outspoken Pentecostal Church leader Bishop Franklin Mondo Mugisha reserved his comments regarding the claims. Popular Christian media personality King Wesley did the same. Pastor Frey E Warri of Fireplace Church, Waltham, Massachusetts said Kwezi’s remarks make the gospel he preaches “useless”, because “leaders are hand picked by God.”
“With this statement you have put out about Bobi Wine, it means folks should never listen to you preach because you have some bad past, or no preacher should even stand to preach because they have some bad past. Paul the Apostle, who was called Saul, who’s name was changed after Jesus hit him with his power on his way to Demascus, all his past was way ugly than any but he was responsible for almost half the Bible you read and use to preach my Francis H Kwezi,” he said. “Your post makes the gospel you preach useless, because leaders are hand picked by God, not as men see. Prophetic words are about to come into fulfillment in Uganda, go back to preaching true word and believe what you preach don’t you be wishy washy because those who really know you will bring out your skeletons out of your closet my brother. God bless you with those few words,” he added.
“Can we judge you by your past and we see whether you’re a Saint. People change I guess you are not the way you used to be,” social media user under account name Trust Blessing said. Another, Emmanuel Israel, observed: “I know one thing, a national leader/King is not and will never be chosen by emotions and self will. Based on my Bible I read, It’s God who chooses based on His plan He has over that Nation.”
“Balokole in Uganda we have missed it all by engaging into unproductive criticism other than Praying to God over our nation Uganda and for a better leader. In time history, Israel was deceived to think how a King would bring Ice cream on their tables something God warned them of and they turned on a deaf ear but later they tasted him. As for my self and my Uganda, like I have always done when it comes to our transition which is a very sensitive timing, I pour my heart on my knees,” he said. Apostle George Melden Mangeni of Gospel Commission Ministries International said “in politics never underestimate anyone.”
“President Moi was was underestimated by some Kenyan because of his education background but he managed to rule Kenyan intellectuals for 24 years,” he said. In his defense, Kwezi noted, “I posted it as a concerned citizen of Uganda. Beside, am entitled to my opinions, don’t see why all nails are out. Didn’t say a word less or more than what the photos speak. Please forgive me, if I posted as a pastor, of which am not.”
There are some who fully supported the preacher. A case in point being (a one) Esther Asana Sserwadda who said: “I agree with you pastor. As long as Jesus is still on the throne, he will never.” Meanwhile, MP Kyagulanyi on Sunday attended a church service at the True Worship Center Pentecostal Church in Jinja town. In his speech, he likened President Museveni to biblical Kings “who refused to hear the voice of God and received their due reward.”
Like President Museveni, Bobi Wine asserted, “King Pharaoh, King Ahab, King Nebuchadnezzar and King Saul who were at the height of their power thought they had the last word – until God proved to them that they were only mortal beings with blood and flesh.”
People power spokesman Joel Ssenyonyi said Church ought to be the salt and light of the world. “Prophets in the bible used to speak truth to power and condemn injustice. Sadly, some of today’s church leaders get monetary benefits from the regime and they become silent about injustice, they only speak to heap praises on the regime,” he said.
AN American marine Francis Kwezi yesterday revealed to court that Pastor Robert Kyazze spearheaded an anti-Pastor Robert Kayanja crusade in America in 2010 to portray him as a sodomist.
By ANDANTE OKANYA AN American marine Francis Kwezi yesterday revealed to court that Pastor Robert Kyazze spearheaded an anti-Pastor Robert Kayanja crusade in America in 2010 to portray him as a sodomist.
Kwezi, who claims to have left for America on November 15, 1987, is prosecution witness number nine. He was testifying at Buganda Road Court in Kampala before trial magistrate Patrick Wekesa.
Kwezi said he joined the US marines on September 17,1996 but said he was not obliged to reveal his rank.
He claims to be in possession of an audio recording of Kyazze speaking ill of pastor Kayanja. Kyazze, who heads the Omega Healing Centre Church, together with five others, are accused of conspiring to tarnish Kayanja's reputation by claiming he was engaging in homosexuality.
The co-accused are pastors; Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Ministries, Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church and Robert Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre.
Kwezi claims Kyazze spoke ill of Kayanja during a fundraising ceremony attended by some pastors in Massachusetts.
He said he first met Kyazze between 1983 to 1985. Kwezi revealed that they would converge with others in Kayanja's bedroom, to watch the famous American preacher Jimmy Swaggart.
When Kyazze was given the floor, he started describing how Pastor Robert had been sodomising people in Uganda,Kwezi stated.
Kwezi said he was offended by the derogative and abusive language Kyazze used against Kayanja. He said he asked Kyazze why he was preaching such a devious gospel.
The magistrate rejected a plea by defence to strike off Kwezi's testimony, saying the testimony would raise useful issues for the defence.
US Microsoft founder, Co-Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates. AFP PHOTO
Furry from Africans as Merinda Gates foresees dead bodies on African Streets because of COVID-19: Horrendous vision from a horrendous lady with a horrendous husband: We reject it and return it to the sender! The agenda of Satan for Africa shall not stand. Those that have dug a pit for us shall fall into that pit themselves
Bill Gates and the Depopulation Agenda. Robert F. Kennedy Junior Calls for an Investigation: “Mass Sterilization”: Kenyan Doctors Find Anti-fertility Agent in UN Tetanus Vaccine?
THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE: The Catholic Church is the Whore of Revelation 17:4 and USA is the Beast of Daniel 7:7, Revelations 17:3 :Similarities between Washington DC and Rome: Did you know that Washington DC was once called Rome?
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday pushed back against some of the conspiracy theories spreading online accusing him of creating the coronavirus outbreak.
"It's a bad combination of pandemic and social media and people looking for a very simple explanation," the Microsoft founder said during a CNN Town Hall interview.
Doctored photos and fabricated news articles crafted by conspiracy theorists -shared thousands of times on social media platforms and messaging apps, in various languages - targeting Gates have gained traction online since the start of the pandemic.
A video accusing Gates of wanting "to eliminate 15 percent of the population" through vaccination and electronic microchips has racked up millions of views on YouTube. "Our foundation has given more money to buy vaccines to save lives than any group," Gates said, referring to his eponymous foundation.
He has pledged $250 million in efforts to fight the pandemic, and his foundation has spent billions of dollars improving health care in developing countries over the past 20 years. "So you just turn that around. You say, ok, we're making money and we're trying to kill people with vaccines or by inventing something," Gates continued.
"And at least it's true, we're associated with vaccines, but you actually have sort of flipped the connection," he said, adding he hopes the conspiracies don't generate "vaccine hesitancy."
Since the start of the crisis, AFP Fact Check has debunked dozens of anti-Gates rumours circulating on platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in languages including English, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech.
A number of accusations, including posts claiming that the FBI arrested Gates for biological terrorism or that he supports a Western plot to poison Africans, share a common thread.
They accuse the tycoon of exploiting the crisis, whether it is to "control people" or make money from selling vaccines.
"I'm a big believer in getting the truth out," Gates told CNN. It is not the first time Gates has found himself targeted by conspiracy theorists. When Zika virus broke out in 2015 in Brazil, he was one of several powerful Western figures blamed for the disease. Other rumours claim he is secretly a lizard, an old favourite among online trolls.
his article was originally published in 2016. Millions of Nigerians are urging the Nigerian government to reject Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GMO) cotton and maize into the country’s food and farming systems. One-hundred organizations representing more than 5 million Nigerians, including farmers, faith-based organisations, civil society groups, students and local community groups, have submitted a joint objection to the country’s National Biosafety Management Agency (NABMA) expressing serious concerns about human health and environmental risks of genetically altered crops. The groups’ petition follows Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited’s own application to NAMBA that seeks to release GMO cotton (Bt cotton, event MON 15985) into the city of Zaria as well as surrounding towns. Another application seeks confined field trials of two GMO corn varieties (NK603 and stacked event MON 89034 x NK603) in multiple locations in Nigeria. In a press release, the groups said they are particularly alarmed about the commercial release of Bt cotton into Nigeria, which is being phased out in Burkina Faso due to the “inferior lint quality” of the GMO cultivars.
“We are totally shocked that it should come so soon after peer-reviewed studies have showed that the technology has failed dismally in Burkina Faso,” Nnimmo Bassey, the director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, one of the leading opposition groups, said in a statement. “It has brought nothing but economic misery to the cotton sector there and is being phased out in that country where compensation is being sought from Monsanto.”
He asked in the statement:
“Since our Biosafety Act has only recently entered into force, what biosafety legislation was used to authorize and regulate the field trials in the past in accordance with international law and best biosafety practice?”
Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan signed the National Biosafety Management Bill into law last year, basically opening the doors to GMOs cultivation in the country. The groups noted Monsanto’s crops are genetically enhanced to tolerate the use of the herbicide glyphosate which was declared as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) last March.
“Should commercialization of Monsanto’s GM maize be allowed pursuant to field trials, this will result in increased use of glyphosate in Nigeria, a chemical that is linked to causing cancer in humans,” Mariann Orovwuje, Friends of the Earth International’s food sovereignty co-coordinator, said in a statement. “Recent studies have linked glyphosate to health effects such as degeneration of the liver and kidney, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. That NABMA is even considering this application is indeed unfortunate and deeply regrettable, knowing full well about the uncontrolled exposure that our rural farmers and communities living close to farms will be exposed to.”
Besides the potential contamination of local maize varieties, the groups argued that the health risks of introducing GMO maize into Nigeria could be “enormous” considering that maize is a staple food in their diet. Coupled with a lack of resources to adequately control and monitor the human and environmental risks of GMO crops and glyphosate, the groups argued that Nigeria doesn’t have a platform to test for glyphosate or other pesticide residues in food and food products, nor do they have an agency that can monitor the herbicide’s impact on the environment, including water resources. On the flip side, GMO-advocates tout that biotechnology is not only safe for human consumption and the environment, it’s also a solution to malnutrition and global food security, as these crops have been genetically tinkered with to provide certain nutritional benefits and/or spliced-and-diced to resist certain pathogens and other roadblocks. For instance, Monsanto’s Water Efficient Maize for Africa, a five-year development project led by the Kenyan-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation, aims to develop a variety of drought-tolerant maize seeds. The project receives funding from the Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development and Howard G. Buffett Foundation. In an interview with Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Blumenstein, Bill Gatesexplained his views about GMOs:
“What are called GMOs are done by changing the genes of the plant, and it’s done in a way where there’s a very thorough safety procedure, and it’s pretty incredible because it reduces the amount of pesticide you need, raises productivity (and) can help with malnutrition by getting vitamin fortification “And so I think, for Africa, this is going to make a huge difference, particularly as they face climate change … The U.S., China, Brazil, are using these things and if you want farmers in Africa to improve nutrition and be competitive on the world market, you know, as long as the right safety things are done, that’s really beneficial. It’s kind of a second round of the green revolution. And so the Africans I think will choose to let their people have enough to eat.”
But in the video below, Bassey objects to the argument that GMOs are necessary to ensure food security and nutrition in Africa and that the continent can feed itself without the aid of multinational biotech companies.
“Genetically engineered crops are not engineered to help anybody,” he says about six minutes into the video. “They are engineered to help the industry that produces the crops.”
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This article is of relevance to the ongoing debate on vaccines. It was first published in February 2015 According to LifeSiteNews, a Catholic publication, the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association is charging UNICEF and WHO with sterilizing millions of girls and women under cover of an anti-tetanus vaccination program sponsored by the Kenyan government. The Kenyan government denies there is anything wrong with the vaccine, and says it is perfectly safe. The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, however, saw evidence to the contrary, and had six different samples of the tetanus vaccine from various locations around Kenya sent to an independent laboratory in South Africa for testing. The results confirmed their worst fears: all six samples tested positive for the HCG antigen. The HCG antigen is used in anti-fertility vaccines, but was found present in tetanus vaccines targeted to young girls and women of childbearing age. Dr. Ngare, spokesman for the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, stated in a bulletin released November 4:
“This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but a well-coordinated forceful population control mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine. This evidence was presented to the Ministry of Health before the third round of immunization but was ignored.” (Source.)
Dr. Ngare brought up several points about the mass tetanus vaccination program in Kenya that caused the Catholic doctors to become suspicious:
Dr. Ngare told LifeSiteNews that several things alerted doctors in the Church’s far-flung medical system of 54 hospitals, 83 health centres, and 17 medical and nursing schools to the possibility the anti-tetanus campaign was secretly an anti-fertility campaign. Why, they ask does it involve an unprecedented five shots (or “jabs” as they are known, in Kenya) over more than two years and why is it applied only to women of childbearing years, and why is it being conducted without the usual fanfare of government publicity? “Usually we give a series three shots over two to three years, we give it anyone who comes into the clinic with an open wound, men, women or children.” said Dr. Ngare. But it is the five vaccination regime that is most alarming. “The only time tetanus vaccine has been given in five doses is when it is used as a carrier in fertility regulating vaccines laced with the pregnancy hormone, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) developed by WHO in 1992.” (Source.)
UNICEF: A History of Taking Advantage of Disasters to Mass Vaccinate It should be noted that UNICEF and WHO distribute these vaccines for free, and that there are financial incentives for the Kenyan government to participate in these programs. When funds from the UN are not enough to purchase yearly allotments of vaccines, an organization started and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, provides extra funding for many of these vaccination programs in poor countries. (See: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Vaccine Empire on Trial in India.) Also, there was no outbreak of tetanus in Kenya, only the perceived “threat” of tetanus due to local flood conditions. These local disasters are a common reason UNICEF goes into poorer countries with free vaccines to begin mass vaccination programs. Health Impact News reported last year that UNICEF began a similar mass vaccination program with 500,000 doses of live oral polio vaccine in the Philippines after a Super Typhoon devastated Tacolban and surrounding areas. This was in spite of the fact there were no reported cases of polio in the Philippines since 1993, and people who have had the live polio vaccine can “shed” the virus into sewage systems, thereby causing the actual disease it is supposed to be preventing. (See: No Polio in the Philippines Since 1993, But Mass Polio Vaccination Program Targeted for 500,000 Typhoon Victims Under Age 5.) A very similar mass vaccination with the live oral polio vaccine occurred among Syrian refugees in 2013, when 1.7 million doses of polio vaccine were purchased by UNICEF, in spite of the fact that no cases of polio had been seen since 1999. After the mass vaccination program started, cases of polio began to reappear in Syria. (See: Are UNICEF Live Polio Vaccines Causing Polio Among Syrians? 1.7 Billion Polio Vaccines Purchased by UNICEF.) It seems quite apparent that UNICEF and WHO use these local disasters to mass vaccinate people, mainly children and young women. Massive education and propaganda efforts are also necessary to convince the local populations that they need these vaccines. Here is a video UNICEF produced for the tetanus vaccine in Kenya. Notice how they use school teachers and local doctors to do the educating, even though the vaccines are produced by western countries.
At least in Kenya, Catholic doctors are acting and taking a stand against what they see as an involuntary mass sterilization campaign designed to control the population of Africans.
PRESS STATEMENT BY THE CATHOLIC HEALTH COMMISSION OF KENYA – KENYA CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS ON THE NATIONAL TETANUS VACCINATION CAMPAIGN SCHEDULED FOR 13TH– 19THOCTOBER 2014
Health service delivery forms an integral part of evangelization for the Catholic Church. As such, the role played through the Church’s health Apostolate in Kenya cannot be understated. The Church has an extensive network of health facilities that include 58 hospitals, 83 health centers, 311 dispensaries and 17 medical training institutions. Our health facilities offer a wide range preventive and curative health services, including vaccination. The Catholic Church coordinates these services through the Catholic Health Commission of Kenya – Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB). The Catholic Health Commission of Kenya, currently meeting at St Patrick’s Pastoral Center Kabula in Bungoma, with health facility managers from 24 Catholic Dioceses are deeply concerned about the following issues regarding the Tetanus vaccination campaign scheduled for of 13th– 19th October 2014:
There has not been adequate stakeholder engagement for consultation both in the preparation for the campaign. The Catholic Church has not been engaged as members and participants of the Health Sector Coordinating Committee and in the respective Technical Working Group. This is despite previous promises by the Ministry of Health to be engaged as a key stakeholder.
There has been limited public awareness unlike other related campaigns like Polio vaccination.
There has been limited public information on the rationale with a background that has informed the initiative since we raised an issue in March 2014.
We are still keen on having the Ministry of Health give Kenyans adequate responses to the following key pertinent questions:
Is there a tetanus crisis in Kenya? If this is so, why has it not been declared?
Why does the campaign target women of 14 – 49years?
Why has the campaign left out young girls, boys and men even if they are all prone to tetanus?
In the midst of so many life threatening diseases in Kenya, why has tetanus been prioritized?
We are not convinced that the government has taken adequate responsibility to ensure that Tetanus Toxoid vaccine (TT) laced with Beta human chorionic gonadotropin (b-HCG) sub unit is not being used by the sponsoring development partners. This has previously been used by the same partners in Philippines, Nicaragua and Mexico to vaccinate women against future pregnancy. Beta HCG sub unit is a hormone necessary for pregnancy. When injected as a vaccine to a non-pregnant woman, this Beta HCG sub unit combined with tetanus toxoid develops antibodies against tetanus and HCG so that if a woman’s egg becomes fertilized, her own natural HCG will be destroyed rendering her permanently infertile. In this situation tetanus vaccination has been used as a birth control method. We retain that the tetanus vaccination campaign bears the hallmarks of the programmes that were carried out in Philippines, Mexico and Nicaragua. We would want to participate in ensuring that the vaccines to be administered are free of this hormone. The Catholic Church acknowledges that maternal and neonatal care is imperative in prevention of death; the Church therefore maintains that adequate and clear information is provided to the general public to avoid misinformation and propaganda in regard to the vaccine. The sanctity of Life and the dignity of the human person must always be priorities in health care and the Catholic Church, in the absence of proper and adequate information will not shy away from raising moral questions on matters affecting human life.
Rt. Rev. Paul Kariuki Njiru Chairman, Catholic Health Commission of Kenya – KCCB
Rt. Rev. Joseph Mbatia Vice Chairman, Catholic Health Commission of Kenya – KCCB
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) yesterday delayed its vote on the proposed release of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes due to concerns over COVID-19. The decision to delay the vote follows public outcry and scientific dispute over the risks posed to public health and the environment by this experimental release. The approval would have permitted the British company Oxitec to release 750 million GE mosquitoes over a two-year period in Monroe County, Florida, starting as soon as this summer. The delay is an important step for communities in the Keys and environmental groups who have been fighting against release of GE mosquitoes for a decade. The FKMCD vote would have been the last approval officially required, and at least temporarily blocks what would have been the first GE mosquito release ever in the United States. The board members recognized that releasing the mosquitoes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was compounding concerns about public health risks that community members expressed in their opposition to the release.
“The Monroe County Mosquito Control Board is to be commended for carefully listening to the voices of residents, independent scientists, and environmentalists from around the world,” said Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety.“The board held public hearings when neither the EPA nor State of Florida did.” “We are pleased today that the FKMCD has listened to the voice of our community. We encourage the FKMCD to reject this proposal and focus on effective community engagement programs that remove the need for both harsh chemicals and exotic, expensive methods to address mosquito threats to our public health,” said Barry Wray, Executive Director of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition.
At the time of the meeting, neither the FKMCD or Oxitec had publicly announced where or when the releases would have occurred. Documents submitted by Oxitec did not include details about an environmental impact statement (EIS). At Tuesday’s meeting, community members and national organizations critiqued Oxitec’s application for failing to address important environmental risks and potential negative health impacts associated with the release of GE mosquitoes. Community members asked the FKMCD to reject the field trial application, pointing out a lack of data confirming that Oxitec’s mosquitoes will be safe and effective, the likelihood that biting females will be released, thus putting humans and animals at risk, and the lack of free and prior informed consent of people living in the area.
“The Mosquito Control Board would be better served by answering each and every question presented by the public with independent data before moving forward with this unproven experiment in the Florida Keys,” said Ed Russo, President of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition.“Relying on today’s EPA to justify this dangerous and risky experiment and make our families and friends nothing more than ‘lab rats’ for a private company is irresponsible and unprofessional.”
Scientists have raised major concerns that GE mosquitoes could create hybrid wild mosquitoes which could worsen the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and which may be more resistant to insecticides than the original wild mosquitoes.
“We commend the board for delaying this vote,” said Dana Perls, Food and Technology Program Manager with Friends of the Earth-U.S.“We urge the board to reject this proposed release altogether. This risky experiment could threaten the health and environment of a state already at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to support sustainable, proven, community-driven solutions to mosquito-borne diseases that won’t harm people or the planet.”
As highlighted by a public panel of experts speaking on the topic, GE mosquitoes could pose significant threats to sensitive ecosystems in the Florida Keys. A recent field study in Brazil by researchers from the Powell lab at Yale University confirmed that the mosquito’s engineered genes had spread into wild populations of mosquitoes. Recently a group of scholars from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign questioned proceeding with this experiment on scientific and ethical concerns. * Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.
Genetically Engineered Bitting Insects: GE Mosquitoes? Tell FDA No!
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) yesterday delayed its vote on the proposed release of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes due to concerns over COVID-19. The decision to delay the vote follows public outcry and scientific dispute over the risks posed to public health and the environment by this experimental release. The approval would have permitted the British company Oxitec to release 750 million GE mosquitoes over a two-year period in Monroe County, Florida, starting as soon as this summer.
The delay is an important step for communities in the Keys and environmental groups who have been fighting against release of GE mosquitoes for a decade. The FKMCD vote would have been the last approval officially required, and at least temporarily blocks what would have been the first GE mosquito release ever in the United States. The board members recognized that releasing the mosquitoes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was compounding concerns about public health risks that community members expressed in their opposition to the release.
“The Monroe County Mosquito Control Board is to be commended for carefully listening to the voices of residents, independent scientists, and environmentalists from around the world,” said Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety.“The board held public hearings when neither the EPA nor State of Florida did.” “We are pleased today that the FKMCD has listened to the voice of our community. We encourage the FKMCD to reject this proposal and focus on effective community engagement programs that remove the need for both harsh chemicals and exotic, expensive methods to address mosquito threats to our public health,” said Barry Wray, Executive Director of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition.
At the time of the meeting, neither the FKMCD or Oxitec had publicly announced where or when the releases would have occurred. Documents submitted by Oxitec did not include details about an environmental impact statement (EIS). At Tuesday’s meeting, community members and national organizations critiqued Oxitec’s application for failing to address important environmental risks and potential negative health impacts associated with the release of GE mosquitoes. Community members asked the FKMCD to reject the field trial application, pointing out a lack of data confirming that Oxitec’s mosquitoes will be safe and effective, the likelihood that biting females will be released, thus putting humans and animals at risk, and the lack of free and prior informed consent of people living in the area.
“The Mosquito Control Board would be better served by answering each and every question presented by the public with independent data before moving forward with this unproven experiment in the Florida Keys,” said Ed Russo, President of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition.“Relying on today’s EPA to justify this dangerous and risky experiment and make our families and friends nothing more than ‘lab rats’ for a private company is irresponsible and unprofessional.”
Scientists have raised major concerns that GE mosquitoes could create hybrid wild mosquitoes which could worsen the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and which may be more resistant to insecticides than the original wild mosquitoes.
“We commend the board for delaying this vote,” said Dana Perls, Food and Technology Program Manager with Friends of the Earth-U.S.“We urge the board to reject this proposed release altogether. This risky experiment could threaten the health and environment of a state already at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to support sustainable, proven, community-driven solutions to mosquito-borne diseases that won’t harm people or the planet.”
As highlighted by a public panel of experts speaking on the topic, GE mosquitoes could pose significant threats to sensitive ecosystems in the Florida Keys. A recent field study in Brazil by researchers from the Powell lab at Yale University confirmed that the mosquito’s engineered genes had spread into wild populations of mosquitoes. Recently a group of scholars from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign questioned proceeding with this experiment on scientific and ethical concerns. * Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Featured image is from iStock
When the bandits in Museveni’s Neo-liberal government hide their wealth in city tycoons so called: I don’t own all those buildings I work for someone else…Out of the 17 buildings I own only 2
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The magistrate ordered the businessman to pay sh2.6m, which UNBS will use to destroy the illegally produced polythene bags
City businessman Drake Lubega in the dock at Buganda Road Court on Wednesday. Photo by Ramadhan Abbey
City businessman Francis Drake Lubega has pleaded guilty to manufacturing plastic bags, which do not conform to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) standards.
Lubega, 60, who spent a night in Luzira Prison, made the confession on Wednesday when he appeared before the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate's Court. The court was presided over by Grade One Magistrate Marion Mangeni.
Lubega also the managing director of Jesco Industries Limited was on Tuesday charged and remanded to Luzira Prison until Wednesday when he regained his freedom after entering into a plea deal with UNBS to pay a fine instead of facing a jail term.
Lubega was charged with two counts of manufacturing of non-conforming plastic bags and making a false statement or a representation on a commodity contrary to section 26, 27 and 28 of the UNBS Act, 2013, respectively.
When Grade One Magistrate Marion Mangeni read out the charges to him, the visibly dejected Lubega pleaded guilty. Lubega owns a number of properties in Kampala and has been embroiled in a number of property rows with fellow businessmen including former rally driver, Charles Muhangi.
UNBS senior legal officer, Caroline Agonzibwa submitted that on August 6, 2019, a surveillance team from the standards body led by Senior Superintendent of Police, Sarah Nantongo, went to conduct a routine inspection at Jesco Industries in Bweyogerere and found the anomalies. Agonzibwa added that the team found plastic bags that were below 30 microns at Lubega's factory, which is contrary to the UNBS Act, 2013. UNBS allows the manufacture of polythene bags above 30 microns.
Exhibits that were seized by UNBS at Buganda Road Court. Photo by Ramadhan Abbey
The magistrate also ordered Lubega to pay sh2.6m, which UNBS will use to destroy the illegally produced polythene bags by burning. This means Lubega had to pay sh62.2m to regain his freedom.
UNBS says that on August 6, 2019, at Jesco Industries Limited in Bweyogerere, Wakiso district, Lubega manufactured for sale of 111 cartons of Nzito brand packaging bags, 47 cartons of Jesco brand packaging bags and 19 cartons of Jesco black packaging bag brand.
It also says that the packaging bags do not conform to requirements of US773:2017, a specification for plastic carrier and flat bags. UNBS is responsible for the formulation, promotion of the use of, and the enforcement of standards in the protection of the environment, public health and safety.
Local Defence Unit personnel arrest a man during demonstration over food relief at Kasubi, a Kampala suburb, on June 16. PHOTO/MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
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Local Defence Unit personnel have been withdrawn countrywide to undergo refresher training in human rights and law enforcement procedures, Daily Monitor has learnt. They are to be trained by police.
The move comes a few days after President Museveni questioned their human rights record.
The withdrawal of LDUs, who have been very active in enforcement of the lockdown rules, became noticeable on Monday during the crackdown on traders who had attempted to reopen arcades in the capital Kampala.
LDUs have been criticised for civilian killings and torture while on duty.
Maj Bilal Katamba, the spokesman of the army’s 1st Division, confirmed the withdrawal of LDUs from checkpoints but insisted that it is due to the easing of the lockdown and not their bad human rights record.
He said the LDUs will continue with their fight against crime.
“The lockdown has been eased and there was no purpose of the LDUs being at the road checks,” Maj Katamba said yesterday.
On Tuesday night, President Museveni said he would address the nation on the indiscipline of LDUs.
There are more than 25,000 LDUs in the country. Most of them were recruited two years ago following the increased spate of crime in various parts of the country.
On several occasions the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has had to apologise for the behaviour of the LDUs and in some instances prosecuted errant personnel, especially those captured on camera committing crimes.
Asked about why the LDUs did not participate in the enforcement of the re-closure of arcades, he said it is because they were not called upon by the police. “Our task is a supportive role. We support the police when called upon,” he said.
Mr Patrick Onyango, the police spokesman for Kampala Metropolitan region, declined to comment on why they did not invite the LDUs to support them, but said the army spokesman, Brig Richard Karemire was the right person to comment.
In a recent address to the nation, President Museveni shared telephone contacts of Lt Col Edith Nakalema, the head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit, where the members of the public harassed by LDUs should call for help.
President Museveni said the errant LDUs are tarnishing the image of his government in the eyes of the local population and international community.
More than 20 people have been killed by LDUs since January with majority deaths happening during the lockdown, which started in March.
Burundi Youth Militia Compares Opposition to Lice in Video
Burundi human rights activists expressed outrage Tuesday over an online video that shows pro-government youth militia members teaching young students songs comparing the opposition to lice.
The video of Imbonerakure militia members follows a recent video in which they encouraged the rape and impregnation of opposition supporters.
Burundi has been plagued by deadly political violence since President Pierre Nkurunziza successfully sought a disputed third term in 2015. Hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled the country.
Lawyer and activist Lambert Nigarura told The Associated Press that the latest hate messages are meant to depict ethnic Tutsi as bad people, and he called it “the final step in preparation of genocide.” He urged the international community to take action against Imbonerakure activities in schools.
The latest video was filmed by a local human rights group in Burundi. It shows Imbonerakure members singing with schoolchildren in the local Kirundi language, saying their president in 1993 was assassinated in cold blood. Melchior Ndadaye was Burundi's first ethnic Hutu president, and the country's Tutsi-led army was blamed for killing him. In the video, the Imbonerakure asks whether those who killed the president have stopped the killings, and the children reply that the killers have not stopped and they know them well.
Another Burundian human rights activist, Vital Nshimiyimana, called the songs “terrifying.”
Burundi has faced similar tensions between Hutu and Tutsi as neighboring Rwanda, where the 1994 genocide left more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu dead. What sparked it was hate speech against the Tutsi minority spread by Hutu extremists.
In Burundi, ruling party members have called the Imbonerakure peaceful. But Human Rights Watch earlier this year reported that Imbonerakure members had brutally killed, tortured and severely beaten scores of people across the country.
GENEVA - The U.N. high commissioner for human rights says he is alarmed by a growing, widespread campaign of terror in Burundi being waged by government-backed militia against opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza’s party. The U.N. human rights office says a chilling video circulating on social media has laid bare the horrifying and alarming nature of the campaign of terror. Rupert Colville, spokesman for High Commissioner Zeid Ra-ad al-Hussein, says the video shows more than 100 members of the Imbonerakure, the government’s youth wing, inciting violence. He says the young men are heard calling for opponents to be impregnated so they can give birth to Imbonerakure or for them to be killed. “These grotesque rape chants by the young men of the Imbonerakure across several provinces across Burundi are deeply alarming — particularly because they confirm what we have been hearing from those who have fled Burundi about a campaign of fear and terror by this organized militia,” he said. When the video surfaced, the ruling CNDD-FDD party initially said it was fake and had been filmed outside Burundi. After admitting the footage was real, the party said youths at one rally sang a song that "does not conform to the morals or ideology" of the party. However, Colville says the video of this rally, which was released on April 5, is not an isolated incident, but rather the tip of the iceberg. He says his office has documented eight large rallies organized across Burundi where similar slogans inciting rape and violence against opponents have been chanted. Colville says senior government officials reportedly have been present at some of these rallies. While the terror campaigns are ongoing, Colville tells VOA rapes, torture and other serious human rights violations are continuing. “Some of the reports of torture are pretty horrendous — people being burnt with hot knives, acid being poured over parts of their body, teeth broken with rifle butts, attacks on sexual organs, etc. So, very grizzly stuff,” he said. Colville says security forces reportedly have participated in the systematic use of torture. High Commissioner Zeid is calling on the authorities in Burundi to prevent the abhorrent practice and to swiftly condemn the incitement to hatred and violence.
In recent years, Imbonerakure members have been responsible for numerous killings, beatings, threats and other abuses against suspected government opponents, Human Rights Watch said. Imbonerakure often operate alongside the police and intelligence services.
The police, in their brutal suppression of protests against President Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in 2015, used Imbonerakure from neighborhoods where protests were taking place to identify and target demonstrators. Bujumbura residents said they often saw known Imbonerakure wearing police or military uniforms, carrying weapons, and operating side by side with the police. One man detained by Imbonerakure said he watched them put on police raincoats.
Since February 2016, Human Rights Watch has documented several cases of Imbonerakure beating, intimidating, and arresting people in various provinces. Victims, witnesses, and human rights activists say that people rarely report Imbonerakure abuses to the authorities because they fear retribution and believe that some security force members collaborate with the Imbonerakure.
The ruling party and intelligence services have often used Imbonerakure to identify suspected government opponents. Despite having no legal powers of arrest, Imbonerakure have frequently arrested people, beaten them, and handed them over to intelligence agents who tortured some of them.
Residents from some provinces told Human Rights Watch that Imbonerakure often give orders to the police and that low-level police appear powerless to stop Imbonerakure abuses. Imbonerakure often collaborate with provincial intelligence authorities after they arrest perceived opponents. In one northern province, Imbonerakure told a policeman who asked them why they were beating a man: “What are you doing here? Get out of here!” The policeman left.
Victims reported that they have seen Imbonerakure conducting surveillance and sometimes arresting people crossing the border between Burundi and Rwanda. Government authorities have indicated that many Burundians who go to Rwanda have links with the opposition or may be planning to join Burundian opposition members in Rwanda.
In mid-April 2016, four Imbonerakure and a policeman arrested a man on the Burundi side of the border. The Imbonerakure made him take off his shirt and shoes, took his telephone, and bound his arms and legs. They carried him to a makeshift Imbonerakure base in the forest, where he saw another man the Imbonerakure had beaten. The first man said:
They started beating me with cables like those they use to install fiber optic lines. Others used big sticks. When they were beating me, they said they were going to decapitate me … that I maintain relations with Rwandans, and that I’m in touch with “putschists” [those responsible for the failed coup].
A pickup truck belonging to the SNR provincial commissioner arrived at the forest base and four policemen put the man in the back. The policemen beat him as he was driven to the SNR office, where a senior official accused him of collaborating with the armed opposition. After an acquaintance paid a bribe, Burundian authorities released the man.
A student in a northern province said that on April 18, he was in a bar with friends when a group of Imbonerakure wielding wooden rods asked for his identity card and money. When he was unable to give them money, they accused him of helping Burundian rebels cross from Rwanda into Burundi. A truck from the local government office arrived and took him to a nearby province. The student said:
We were held in a cellar of a multi-story house. When we arrived, we were tied up tightly with ropes. [Police] started to beat us with truncheons. We spent four days there and were always tied up. They beat us twice a day: once in the morning about 6 a.m. and once at night about 8 p.m. We were especially beaten on the bottom. Then we were sent to [another province]. The police commissioner drove us there. Wherever we went, we were accused of collaborating with armed groups.
[A senior police official] wanted us to admit that [weapons the police had found] were ours. He intimidated us, saying it’s better that we admit it because, according to him, a mistake admitted to is half-way forgiven. We told him that we can’t admit something we know nothing about. He said: “Are you going to tell human rights organizations [about your arrest] once you’ve been freed?”
A few days later, the senior police official drove him to a rural, uninhabited place and released him.
Imbonerakure arrested a 34-year-old taxi driver in a northern province in early 2016. The taxi driver said:
I saw two Imbonerakure come toward me with a policeman. They jumped on me, and they grabbed me by my belt, one on either side of me. A third Imbonerakure came and hit me, and they took me by force. I said to a policeman who was nearby: “Are you going to let them harm me while you are standing there?” The policeman said: “I can’t do anything for you.”
Imbonerakure tied the man’s arms behind his back and marched him into the forest.
They started to beat me. They all had wooden rods. They lashed me 300 times. An Imbonerakure who said he was the commissioner in charge of operations said: “It’s you who are supplying the rebels. Even Jesus is an Imbonerakure. Whether you want him or not, Nkurunziza should remain president. You’ll have to wait at least 200 years until there’s a Tutsi president.”
The man said one of the Imbonerakure who beat him appeared to be Rwandan.
When they were beating me, I screamed loudly and one of them said [in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda]: Reka nze mbereke! [I will show you]. Then the same person came and stomped on my stomach and put plastic bags and stones in my mouth so I couldn’t yell.
The man paid a bribe of 100,000 Burundian francs (approximately US$60) to an Imbonerakure who released him. The man said he was bruised and swollen and urinated blood after the attack.
Abuses by Armed Opposition Groups
Local journalists and human rights activists have reported several grenade attacks and killings believed to have been committed by armed opposition groups. Former members of armed opposition groups told Human Rights Watch that in the past they had used hit-and-run tactics and grenade attacks to kill ruling party members and suspected collaborators.
Unidentified people have attacked several bars in Bujumbura and other provinces with grenades since early 2016. Burundian media reported that on May 24, 10 men attacked a drinks depot and bar in Mwaro province, killing a judicial policeman and injuring several customers. During the same attack, a guard at the ruling party offices in Ndava, a commune in Mwaro, was also killed as the attackers attempted to burn down the building. Three men were arrested in connection with the attacks.
In Bururi province, unidentified gunmen shot dead several ruling party members in April and May, including Jean Claude Bikorimana, a ruling party member fatally shot on April 9. Three ruling party members were among four people shot and killed at a bar in Bururi province on the night of April 15; another attack on the same night killed a ruling party member, Japhet Karibwami, at his home. Several people were reported arrested after these attacks.
A reported ruling party member, Anitha Nizigama, was shot dead June 12 in Musaga, Bujumbura. The exact circumstances and motive for the shooting have not been confirmed.
In all of these cases, Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm the identity of the attackers. Efforts to interview witnesses to attacks or contact family members of ruling party members or Imbonerakure who were killed were unsuccessful.
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The work, which is stretched out over 4000 words, does not mention Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the Church, prayer, or Christian, making one question how “useful” it would actually be to the believer.
But the most interesting part, which is par for the course, is that the Vatican bases the pandemic on humans monkeying about with mother nature and the environment, writing:
” The Covid-19 epidemic has much to do with our depredation of the earth and the despoiling of its intrinsic value. It is a symptom of our earth’s malaise and our failure to care; more, a sign of our own spiritual malaise (Laudato Si’, n. 119). Will we be able to remedy the fracture that has separated us from our natural world, too often turning our assertive subjectivities into a menace to creation, a menace to one another? Consider the chain of connections that link the following phenomena: increasing deforestation pushes wild animals in the proximity of human habitat. Viruses hosted by animals, then, are passed on to humans, thus exacerbating the reality of zoonosis, a phenomenon well known to scientists as a vehicle of many diseases. The exaggerated demand for meat in first world countries gives rise to enormous industrial complexes of animal farming and exploitation. It is easy to see how these interactions might ultimately occasion the spread of a virus through international transportation, mass mobility of people, business travelling, tourism, etc.
Let us know when the Vatican and Pope Francis offer some reflections and hope that actually involve Jesus and the gospel. We won’t hold our breath.
Useful information on the Document of the Pontifical Academy for Life: Humana Communitas in the age of pandemic: untimely meditations on life’s rebirth, 22.07.2020
Document of the Pontifical Academy for Life: Humana Communitas in the age of pandemic: untimely meditations on life’s rebirth
Covid-19 has brought desolation to the world. We have lived it for so long, now, and it is not over yet. It might not be for a very long time. What to make of it? Surely, we are summoned to the courage of resistance. The search for a vaccine and for a thorough scientific explanation of what triggered the catastrophe speak to it. Are we summoned to deeper mindfulness also? If so, how will our pausing keep us from falling into the inertia of complacency, or worse, connivance in resignation? Is there a thoughtful “stepping back” that is other to inaction, a thinking that might mutate into thanking for life given, thus a passageway to life’s rebirth? Covid-19 is the name of a global crisis (pan-demic) with different facets and manifestations, for sure, yet a common reality. We have come to realize, like never before, that this strange predicament, long-since predicted, yet never seriously addressed, has brought us all together. Like so many processes in our contemporary world, Covid-19 is the most recent manifestation of globalization. From a purely empirical perspective, globalization has effected many benefits to humankind: it has disseminated scientific knowledge, medical technologies, and health practices, all potentially available for everyone’s benefit. At the same time, with Covid-19, we have found ourselves differently linked, sharing in a common experience of contingency (cum-tangere): sparing no one, the pandemic has made us all equally vulnerable, all equally exposed (cfr. Pontifical Academy for Life, Global pandemic and universal brotherhood, March 30, 2020). Such a realization has come at a high cost. What lessons have we learned? More, what conversion of thought and action are we prepared to undergo in our common responsibility for the human family (Francis, Humana Communitas, January 6, 2019)?
1. The Hard Reality of Lessons Learned The pandemic has given us the spectacle of empty streets and ghostly cities, of human proximity wounded, of physical distancing. It has deprived us of the exuberance of embraces, the kindness of hand shakings, the affection of kisses, and turned relations into fearful interactions among strangers, the neutral exchange of faceless individualities shrouded in the anonymity of protective gears. Limitations of social contacts are frightening; they can lead to situations of isolation, despair, anger, and abuse. For elderly people in the last stages of life the suffering has been even more pronounced, for the physical distress is coupled by diminished quality of life and lack of visiting family and friends.
1.1. Life Taken, Life Given: the Lesson of Fragility The prevailing metaphors now encroaching on our ordinary language emphasize hostility and a pervasive sense of menace: the repeated encouragements to “fight” the virus, the press releases that sound like “bulletins of war,” the daily updates on the number of infected, soon turning into “fallen victims.” In the suffering and death of so many, we have learned the lesson of fragility. In many countries, hospitals still struggle with overwhelming demands, facing the agony of resource rationing and the exhaustion of health care personnel. Immense, unspeakable misery, and the struggle for basic survival needs, has brought into evidence the condition of prisoners, those living in extreme poverty at the margins of society, especially in developing countries, the abandoned destined to oblivion in refugee camps from hell. We have witnessed the most tragic face of death: some experiencing the loneliness of separation both physical and spiritual from everybody, leaving their families powerless, unable to say goodbye, even to provide the basic piety of proper burial. We have seen life coming to its end, without heed for age, social status, or health conditions. But “frail” is what we all are: radically marked by the experience of finitude at the core of our existence, not just occasionally there, visiting us with the gentle touch of a passing presence, leaving us undeterred in the confidence that everything will go according to plan. We emerge from a night of mysterious origins: called into being beyond choice, we come soon to presumption and complaint, asserting as ours what we have only been vouchsafed. Too late do we learn consent to the darkness from which we came, and to which we finally return. Some say this is all a tale of absurdity, for it all comes to nothing. But how could this nothing-ness be the final word? If so, why the fighting? Why do we encourage each other to the hope of better days, when all that we are experiencing in this pandemic will be over? Life comes and goes, says the custodian of cynical prudence. Yet its rising and ebbing, now made more evident by the fragility of our human condition, might open us to a different wisdom, a different realization (cfr Ps. 8). For the sorrowful evidence of life’s frailty may also renew our mindfulness of its given nature. Coming back to life, after savoring the ambivalent fruit of its contingency, will we not be wiser? Will we not be more grateful, less arrogant?
1.2. The Impossible Dream of Autonomy and the Lesson of Finitude With the pandemic, our claims to autonomous self-determination and control have come to a sobering halt, a moment of crisis that elicits deeper discernment. It had to happen, sooner or later, for the bewitchment had lasted long enough. The Covid-19 epidemic has much to do with our depredation of the earth and the despoiling of its intrinsic value. It is a symptom of our earth’s malaise and our failure to care; more, a sign of our own spiritual malaise (Laudato Si’, n. 119). Will we be able to remedy the fracture that has separated us from our natural world, too often turning our assertive subjectivities into a menace to creation, a menace to one another? Consider the chain of connections that link the following phenomena: increasing deforestation pushes wild animals in the proximity of human habitat. Viruses hosted by animals, then, are passed on to humans, thus exacerbating the reality of zoonosis, a phenomenon well known to scientists as a vehicle of many diseases. The exaggerated demand for meat in first world countries gives rise to enormous industrial complexes of animal farming and exploitation. It is easy to see how these interactions might ultimately occasion the spread of a virus through international transportation, mass mobility of people, business travelling, tourism, etc. The phenomenon of Covid-19 is not just the result of natural occurrences. What happens in nature is already the result of a complex intermediation with the human world of economical choices and models of development, themselves “infected” with a different “virus” of our own creation: it is the result, more than the cause, of financial greed, the self-indulgence of life styles defined by consumption indulgence and excess. We have built for ourselves an ethos of prevarication and disregard for what is given to us, in the elemental promise of creation. This is why we are called to reconsider our relation to the natural habitat. To recognize that we dwell on this earth as stewards, not as masters and lords. We have been given everything, but ours is only an endowed, not an absolute, sovereignty. Mindful of its origin, it carries the burden of finitude and the mark of vulnerability. Our condition is a wounded freedom. We might reject it as a curse, a provisional situation to be soon overcome. Or we can learn a different patience: capable of consent to finitude, of renewed porosity to neighborly proximity and distant otherness. When compared to the predicament of poor countries, especially in the so called Global South, the plight of the “developed” world looks more like a luxury: only in rich countries people can afford the requirements of safety. In those not so fortunate, on the other hand, “physical distancing” is just an impossibility due to necessity and the weight of dire circumstances: crowded settings and the lack of affordable distancing confront entire populations as an insurmountable fact. The contrast between the two situations throws into relief a strident paradox, recounting, once more, the tale of disproportion in wealth between poor and rich countries. To learn finitude and to consent to the limits of our own freedom is more than a sober exercise in philosophical realism. It entails opening our eyes to the reality of human beings who experience such limits in their own flesh, so to speak: in the daily challenge to survive, to secure minimal conditions for subsistence, to feed children and family members, to overcome the threat of diseases in spite of the availability of cures too expensive to afford. Consider the immense loss of life in the Global South: malaria, tuberculosis, lack of drinkable water and basic resources still sow the destruction of millions of lives per year, a situation that has been known for decades. All these predicaments could be overcome by committed international efforts and policies. How many lives could be saved, how many diseases eradicated, how much suffering avoided!
1.3. The challenge of interdependence and the lesson of common vulnerability Our pretentions to monadic solitude have feet of clay. With them, there crumbles the false hopes for an atomistic social philosophy built on egoistic suspicion toward what is different and new, an ethics of calculative rationality bent toward a distorted image of self-fulfillment, impervious to the responsibility of the common good on a global, and not only national, scale. Our interconnectedness is a matter of fact. It makes us all strong or, conversely, vulnerable, depending on our own attitude toward it. Consider its relevance at a national level, to begin. While Covid-19 may affect everyone, it is especially harmful for particular populations, such as the elderly, or people with associated diseases and compromised immune systems. Policy measures are taken for all citizens equally. They ask for the solidarity of the young and healthy with those most vulnerable. They ask for sacrifices from many people who depend on public interaction and economic activity for their living. In richer countries these sacrifices can be temporarily compensated, but in the majority of countries such protective policies are simply impossible. For sure, in all countries the common good of public health needs to be balanced against economic interests. During the early stages of the pandemic, most countries focused on maximally saving lives. Hospitals and especially intensive care services, were insufficient, and were only expanded after enormous struggles. Remarkably, care services survived because of impressive sacrifices of doctors, nurses, and other care professionals, more than technological investment. The focus on hospital care, however, diverted attention from other care institutions. Nursing homes, for an example, were severely affected by the pandemic, and sufficient protective equipment and testing only became available in a late stage. Ethical discussions of resource allocation were primarily based on utilitarian considerations, without paying attention to people experiencing higher risk and greater vulnerabilities. In most countries, the role of general practitioners was ignored, while for many people they are the first contact in the care system. The result has been an increase in deaths and disabilities from causes other than Covid-19. Common vulnerability calls for international cooperation as well, and the realization that a pandemic cannot be withstood without adequate medical infrastructure, accessible to everyone at the global level. Nor can the plight of a people, suddenly infected, be dealt with in isolation, without forging international agreements, and with a multitude of different stakeholders. The sharing of information, the provision of help, the allocation of scarce resources, will all have to be addressed in a synergy of efforts. The strength of the international chain is given by the weakest link. The lesson awaits deeper assimilation. For sure, the seeds of hope have been sown in the obscurity of small gestures, in acts of solidarity too many to count, too precious to broadcast. Communities have struggled honorably, in spite of everything, sometimes against the ineptitude of their political leadership, to articulate ethical protocols, forge normative systems, re-imagining lives on ideals of solidarity and reciprocal solicitude. The unanimous appreciations for these examples shows a deepest understanding of the authentic meaning of life and a desirable way of self-fulfillment. Still, we have not payed sufficient attention, especially at the global level, to human interdependence and common vulnerability. While the virus does not recognize borders, countries have sealed their frontiers. In contrast to other disasters, the pandemic does not impact all countries at the same time. Although this might offer the opportunity to learn from experiences and policies of other countries, learning processes at the global level were minimal. In fact, some countries have sometimes engaged in a cynical game of reciprocal blame. The same lack of interconnectedness can be observed in efforts to develop remedies and vaccines. Absence of coordination and cooperation is now increasingly recognized as an obstacle to address Covid-19. The awareness that we are in this disaster together, and that we can only overcome it through cooperative efforts of the human community as a whole, is stimulating shared endeavors. The articulation of cross-border scientific projects is an effort going in that direction. It should also be demonstrated in policies, through strengthening of international institutions. This is particularly important since the pandemic is enhancing already existing inequalities and injustices, and many countries lacking the resources and facilities to adequately cope with Covid-19 are dependent on the international community for assistance.
2. Toward a New Vision: Life’s Rebirth and the Call for Conversion The lessons of fragility, finitude, and vulnerability bring us to the threshold of a new vision: they foster an ethos of life that calls for the engagement of intelligence and the courage of moral conversion. To learn a lesson is to become humble; it means to change, searching for resources of meaning hitherto untapped, perhaps disavowed. To learn a lesson is to become mindful, once more, of the goodness of life that offers itself to us, releasing an energy that runs even deeper than the unavoidable experience of loss, that need to be elaborated and integrated in the meaning of our existence. Can this occasion be the promise of a new beginning for the humana communitas, the promise of life’s rebirth? If so, under what conditions?
2.1. Toward an Ethics of Risk We must come, first, to a renewed appreciation of the existential reality of risk: all of us may succumb to the wounds of disease, the killing of wars, the overwhelming threats of disasters. In light of this, there emerge very specific ethical and political responsibilities toward the vulnerability of individuals who are at greater risk for their health, their life, their dignity. Covid-19 might be seen, at first glance, as only a natural, if certainly unprecedented, determinant of global risk. The pandemic, however, forces us to look at a number of additional factors, all of which involve a multifaceted ethical challenge. In this context, decisions must be proportionate to the risks, according to the precaution principle. To focus on the natural genesis of the pandemic, without heed to the economic, social, and political inequalities among countries in the world, is to miss the point about the conditions that make its spread faster and more difficult to address. A disaster, whatever its origin, is an ethical challenge because it is a catastrophe that impacts human life, and harms human existence in multiple dimensions. In the absence of a vaccine, we cannot count on the ability to permanently defeat the virus that caused the pandemic, except for a spontaneous exhaustion of the pathological strength of the disease. Immunity against Covid-19, therefore, remains something of a hope for the future. This also means recognizing that to live in a community at risk calls for an ethics on a par with the prospect that such a predicament might actually become a reality. At the same time, we need to flesh out a concept of solidarity that extends beyond generic commitment to helping those who are suffering. A pandemic urges all of us to address and reshape structural dimensions of our global community that are oppressive and unjust, those that a faith understanding refers to as “structures of sin”. The common good of the humana communitas cannot be had without a real conversion of minds and hearts (Laudato si’, 217-221). A call for conversion is addressed to our responsibility: its shortsightedness is imputable to our unwillingness to look the vulnerability of weakest populations at a global level, not to our inability to see what is so obviously plain. A different openness can expand the horizon of our moral imagination, to finally include what has been blatantly passed over in silence.
2.2. The Call for Global Efforts and International Cooperation The basic contours of an ethics of risk, grounded in a broader concept of solidarity, entail a definition of community that rejects any provincialism, the false distinction between insiders, i.e., those who can exhibit a claim to fully belonging to the community, and outsiders, i.e., those that can hope, at best, in a putative participation to it. The dark side of such separation must be thrown into relief as a conceptual impossibility and a discriminatory practice. No one can be seen as simply standing “in waiting” for full status recognition, as if at the doors of the humana communitas. Access to quality health care and to essential medicines must be effectively recognized as a universal human right (cfr. Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, art. 14). Two conclusions follow logically in the wake of such premise. The first concerns universal access to the best preventive, diagnostic, and treatment opportunities, beyond their restriction to a few. The distribution of a vaccine, once available in the future, is a point in case. The only acceptable goal, consistent with a just allocation of the vaccine, is access for all without exceptions. The second conclusion touches upon the definition of responsible scientific research. The stakes here are very high and the issues complex. Three are worth highlighting. First, with respect to the integrity of science and the notions that drive its advancement: the ideal of controlled, if not entirely “detached,” objectivity; and the ideal of freedom of investigation, especially freedom from conflicts of interests. Secondly, at stake is the very nature of scientific knowledge as social practice, defined, in a democratic context, by rules of equality, liberty, and fairness. In particular, scientific freedom of inquiry should not subsume policy decision making under its sphere of influence. Policy decision making and the realm of politics as a whole maintain their autonomy from the encroachment of scientific power, especially when the latter turns into manipulation of public opinion. Finally, what is in question here is the essentially “fiduciary” character of scientific knowledge in its pursuit of socially beneficial results, especially when knowledge is gained through experimentation on human subjects and the promise of treatment tested in clinical trials. The good of society and the demands of common good in the area of health care come before any concern for profit. And this because the public dimensions of research cannot be sacrificed on the altar of private gain. When life and the well-being of a community are at stake, profit must take the back seat. Solidarity extends also to any efforts in international cooperation. In this context, a privileged place belongs to the World Health Organization (WHO). Deeply rooted in its mission to lead international health work is the notion that only the commitment of governments in a global synergy can protect, foster, and make effective a universal right to the highest attainable standard of health. This crisis emphasizes how much is needed an international organization with a global outreach, including specifically the needs and concerns of less developed countries coping with an unprecedented catastrophe. The narrow mindedness of national self-interests has led many countries to vindicate for themselves a policy of independence and isolation from the rest of the world, as if a pandemic could be faced without a coordinated global strategy. Such an attitude might pay lip service to the idea of subsidiarity, and the importance of a strategic intervention based on the claim of a lower authority taking precedence over any higher one, more distant from the local situation. Subsidiarity must respect the legitimate sphere of autonomy of the communities, empowering their capabilities and responsibility. In reality, the attitude in question feeds into a logic of separation that is, to begin, less effective against Covid-19. The disadvantage, furthermore, is not only de facto short sighted; it also results in the widening of inequalities and the exacerbation of resource imbalances among different countries. Though all, rich and poor, are vulnerable to the virus, the latter are bound to pay the highest price, and to bear the long term consequences of lack of cooperation. It is clear that the pandemic is worsening the inequalities that already are associated with processes of globalization, making more people vulnerable and marginalized without health care, employment, and social safety nets.
2.3. Ethical Balancing Centred on the Principle of Solidarity Ultimately, the moral, and not just strategic, meaning of solidarity is the real issue in the current predicament faced by the human family. Solidarity entails responsibility toward the other in need, itself grounded in the recognition that, as a human subject endowed with dignity, every person is an end in itself, not a mean. The articulation of solidarity as a principle of social ethics rests on the concrete reality of a personal presence in need, crying for recognition. Thus, the response required of us is not just a reaction based on sentimental notions of sympathy; it is the only adequate response to the dignity of the other summoning our attention, an ethical disposition premised on the rational apprehension of the intrinsic value of every human being. As a duty, solidarity does not come for free, without cost and the readiness of the rich countries to pay the price required by the call for the survival of the poor and the sustainability of the entire planet. This holds true both synchronically, with respect to the different sectors of the economy, and diachronically, that is, in relation to our responsibility for the well-being of future generations and the gauging of available resources. Everyone is called to do their part. To mitigate the consequences of the crisis entails giving up on the notion that “help will come from the government”, as if from a deus ex machina that leaves all responsible citizens out of the equation, untouched in their pursuit of personal interests. The transparency of policy and political strategies, together with the integrity of democratic processes, call for a different approach. The possibility of a catastrophic shortage of resources for medical care (protective materials, test kits, ventilation and intensive care in the case of Covid-19), might be used as an example. In the face of tragic dilemmas, general criteria for intervention, based on fairness in the distribution of resources, the respect for the dignity of every person, and the special solicitude for the vulnerable, must be outlined in advance and articulated in their rational plausibility with as much care as possible. The ability and willingness to balance principles that could compete with each other is another essential pillar of an ethics of risk and solidarity. Of course, the first duty is to protect life and health. Although a zero-risk situation remains an impossibility, to respect physical distancing and to slow down, if not entirely stop, certain activities have produced dramatic and lasting effects on the economy. The toll on private and social life will have to be taken into account as well. Two crucial issues come into place. The first refers to the threshold of acceptable risk, whose enforcement cannot produce discriminatory effects with respect to conditions of power and wealth. Basic protection and the availability of diagnostic means must be offered to everyone, according to a principle of non-discrimination. The second, decisive clarification concerns the concept of “solidarity in risk.” The adoption of specific rules by a community requires attentiveness to the evolution of the situation on the field, a task that can be carried out only through a discernment grounded in ethical sensibility, not just in obedience to the letter of the law. A responsible community is one in which burdens of caution and reciprocal support are shared proactively with an eye to the well-being of all. Legal solutions to conflicts in the assignment of culpability and blame for wilful misconduct or negligence are sometimes necessary as a tool for justice. However, they cannot substitute trust as the substance of human interaction. Only the latter will guide us through the crisis, for only on the basis of trust can the humana communitas finally flourish. We are called to an attitude of hope, beyond the paralyzing effect of two opposite temptations: on the one hand, the resignation that passively undergoes events; on the other, the nostalgia for a return to the past, only longing for what was there before. Instead, it is time to imagine and implement a project of human coexistence that allows a better future for each and every one. The dream recently envisaged for the Amazon region might become a universal dream, a dream for the whole planet to “integrate and promote all its inhabitants, enabling them to enjoy ‘good living’” (Querida Amazonia, 8). Vatican City, July 22, 2020
A “Baptist pastor” who gave the congregation the shock of their lives when he announced during a sermon that he was coming out as a “transgendered woman” (see video below) has been fired by the church in what came down to a nail-biter vote.
The “right Reverend” Justin Joplin of Lourne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ontario, had appeared in front of his congregation during a zoom sermon dressed as a woman, and explained that he was in fact a “she” and had taken on a new name and all, saying:
“With divine joy, as one finally getting her hands on the most precious pearl, I want you to hear me when I say I’m not just supposed to be a pastor, I’m supposed to be a woman. Hi, friends. Hi, family. My name is Junia. You can call me June. I’m a transgender woman and I’m my pronouns are she and her. That’s the treasure, folks. That’s the truth I can’t help but speak.”
As a result, the church fired him following a vote by its congregation members. Out of the 111 votes, 52% were in favor of removing Joplin from his position as pastor, demonstrating that at least 48% of the congregation is apostate and likely far more than that.
“I believed that the vote would be close, I wasn’t sure how it was going to come out and I was nervous that that might be the result,” Joplin said in an interview with CTV News. In a statement to news organizations, Lorne Park Baptist Church confirmed the termination:
“The Church has journeyed for the past month through a process of attempting to discern God’s will resulting from June’s announcement of June 14, 2020 that she is a transgender woman.” “After a month of prayerful discernment and discussions between June and the congregation, it was determined, for theological reasons, that it is not in God’s will that June remain as our pastor. We wish June God’s grace and peace as she departs from us.”
The fact that the congregation didn’t gather for an emergency meeting that day, immediately after it happened, and sent him packing to be handed over to Satan is a damning indictment on the church.
Notice the compromise existing. It took the church over 5 weeks to make their decision, the vote was squeaker close, and they send him off using female pronouns.
Michael Rennie, a member of 23 years announced that he was leaving over the pastor’s termination.
“I was disappointed because I’m going to have to leave that particular church. I can’t stay with a congregation that, for one of a better phrase, treated her so badly.”
Rennie said he completely supports Joplin and will stick with him as he searches for a new congregation, because “she’s a deep thinker, great parent, somebody who’s great to be around. She really understands God’s call to help the marginalized.” Joplin, for his part, said that he’s received lots of offers to guest preach in the meantime, all at equally theologically compromised non-churches, and will continue to do so while he figures out his next step.
When Lucifer’s mermaids invaded the pulpits: Pastor Mrs. Veronica, the founder of Life of Faith and Prosperity Ministry in Asaba, Delta State says “God Anointed My Vagina, Sleep With Me And Cure Your Infertility’’.
When the devils of sexual lust invaded West Africa’s Top Universities : Nigeria university suspends 'sex for grades' pastor : Sex for Grades: undercover inside Nigerian and Ghanaian universities - BBC Africa Eye documentary
When Lucifer uses his pastors to turn God’s people into Pawns of Amusement : From eating Grass to striping and jumping on Congregants: The demonic anointing of Prophet Penuel Mnguni of the End Times Disciples Ministries in Soshanguve extension 13, in Tshwane, South Africa: Prophet Penuel Mnguni of the End Times Disciples Ministries in Soshanguve extension 13, in Tshwane, South Africa
Mind control religion = Zombie Christian = Mad cow diseased Christian = Faith fools =Religion as the opium of society: South African preacher makes congregation eat GRASS to 'be closer to God
When a satanic pastor repents at a luciferian pastor’s church : What I did was not scriptural, ‘snake pastor’ Penuel Mnguni tells TB Joshua : Breast and honey harvesting church international exposed
For several weeks, the video of a Tanzanian pastor, Nabii Tito, who allegedly opened a debauchery church in Kenya, has been circulating on social media.
According to information shared by a Twitter user @AdvBarryRoux, in this church, they drink beer, have an hour of s3x with the person sitting next, exchange their wives and husbands for sexual desires.
The shared photos and videos have angered many citizens who say they are the signs of the end of the world.
“It’s official, the end of time is near,” wrote a user.
Some comments suggest that similar churches exist in other African countries. “I learned that there is a church of this kind in Zimbabwe called wapusa wapusa. Apparently, all the clothes are left at the entrance of the church. When everyone is in place, the lights are out,” tweeted Thandekile Moyo
The end of time one would say is really very close.
About That Tanzanian Pastor Whose Feet Must Not Touch The Ground Until His Sermon Is Over
African pastors have recently hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons for their weird methods of ministration to their followers. Last month a notable number of pictures circulated on Social media of an identified Tanzanian pastor who claims that his anointing will leave him when his feet touch the ground. So, how to achieve this feat? People must carry him around on their backs standing up, or he steps on their backs whilst they lie down.
“My feet should never touch the ground-Papa. Anointing would leave me.”
The pastor told his congregants. The pictures show him being carried around on people’s backs and also show him stepping on their backs while they kneel.
The Pastor Preaching: Zambian ObserverThe pictures attracted an ungodly amount of bad press from across the globe, with many citizens and media outlets saying the clergy has gone too far in his ‘pious’ conduits. This case has stimulated more stern dialogue on the weird practices that the new age clerics are doing.
Many pastors and prophets have been in the spotlight for the various antics they use in conveying their messages, curing medical conditions and exorcising demons. Most of the methods are incredulous and comical; from spraying congregants with insecticides, making people eat grass, live snakes and weave, drink petrol, to touching derrieres of naked women seeking miracle husbands. As horrible and insensitive it may look, all this is done in the name of Jesus Christ and presented with this, the world can picture Jesus as a very disturbing Lord.
With exception of a few whose practises are still ethical and less shocking, it appears every day our clergies try to discover a new way to make us look stupid or say, very superstitious in front of the rest of the world. Like, what would people make out of a prophet who makes people eat grass or spray a hazardous doom in congregants’ faces, an insecticide that’s specifically labelled “avoid contact with skin‚ eyes and clothing”?
It is this stubborn clinging to religion, which strips away all faculties of reason, which makes Africa a laughingstock, and perhaps the most backwards continent in the world at this point in time. Matter of fact, this also gives a bad impression of our highly regarded Christian faith.
So, to members of our community we say this, yes we love miracles and God’s touch, but we also need to be very careful who we follow, men of God or God because as long as we continue to let people control our lives without discernment, we are not getting anywhere. We would end up being hypnotised by exploitative human beings who claim to be a godsend.
And to all pastors, preachers and prophets or ministers who are doing these practices, you may need to reconsider, lest we will continue to cry that our Religious freedom is eroding! Shepherd the Lord’s flock as the Bible instructs and do it in ways that do not have Christianity smeared. Remember, you are ambassadors of Christ.
By Vigilant Citizen In a now-deleted Twitter rant, Kanye said that the Kardashians were trying to “lock him up with doctors” and that he’s been trying to get a divorce for years. Furthermore, several tweets allude to Hollywood’s darkest secret: MKULTRA.
Kanye West has been dropping all kinds of truth bombs regarding his wife Kim Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner, and the entire system surrounding them. And, judging by the severity of his accusations, it appears that West is desperately trying to leave Kim Kardashian and distance himself from her family. Oh, and he’s also running to become the President of the United States. What is going on?
To put things in context, we need to go back to 2016 when Kanye West was forcefully handcuffed and hospitalized for “acting erratically”. He was placed in “5150 Hold”, California law code for “temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness”.
Kanye spent 10 days at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center and came out of there a changed person. It should be noted that industry slaves Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes were both placed in 5150 Hold at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
So what happened to Kanye during these 10 days? While there’s a shroud of mystery surrounding this bizarre episode, Kanye provided some insight during an interview with David Letterman. “They handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
Did these things actually happen to him? One thing is for sure, Kanye was subjected to some rather extreme treatments because he literally lost his memory for several months afterward. Indeed, about four months after Kanye’s forced hospitalization, his longtime collaborator Malik Yussef provided some important insight:
“I’ve been to his house sat down with him for about six, seven hours, just walking through his health and recovery. His memory is coming back, which is super good. [He’s] just healing, spending time with his family.”
What happened to Kanye for him to lose his memory while not being able to recover it for months? Did he undergo MKULTRA-like “treatments” such as electroshock therapy (ECT)?
Kanye West has been dropping all kinds of truth bombs regarding his wife Kim Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner, and the entire system surrounding them. And, judging by the severity of his accusations, it appears that West is desperately trying to leave Kim Kardashian and distance himself from her family. Oh, and he’s also running to become the President of the United States. What is going on? To put things in context, we need to go back to 2016 when Kanye West was forcefully handcuffed and hospitalized for “acting erratically”. He was placed in “5150 Hold”, California law code for “temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness”.
Kanye spent 10 days at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center and came out of there a changed person. It should be noted that industry slaves Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes were both placed in 5150 Hold at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center. So what happened to Kanye during these 10 days? While there’s a shroud of mystery surrounding this bizarre episode, Kanye provided some insight during an interview with David Letterman.
“They handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.''
Did these things actually happen to him? One thing is for sure, Kanye was subjected to some rather extreme treatments because he literally lost his memory for several months afterward. Indeed, about four months after Kanye’s forced hospitalization, his longtime collaborator Malik Yussef provided some important insight:
“I’ve been to his house sat down with him for about six, seven hours, just walking through his health and recovery. His memory is coming back, which is super good. [He’s] just healing, spending time with his family.”
What happened to Kanye for him to lose his memory while not being able to recover it for months? Did he undergo MKULTRA-like “treatments” such as electroshock therapy (ECT)?
“Memory loss is the primary side effect associated with ECT treatment. Most people experience what’s called retrograde amnesia, which is a loss of memory of events leading up to and including the treatment itself. Some people’s memory loss is longer and greater with ECT. Some have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks leading up to treatment, or the weeks after treatment. Others lose memories of events and experiences in their past. Memory loss generally improves within a few weeks after ECT treatment. As with psychiatric medications, no professional or doctor can tell you for certain what kind of memory loss you will experience, but virtually all patients experience some memory loss. Sometimes the memory loss in some patients is permanent.” – PsychCentral, Risks of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
When Kanye was released from the hospital, he had bleached hair. MK slaves are often identified with blond hair or wigs.
Kanye with bleached hair shortly after his release from the hospital.
Kanye with bleached hair shortly after his release from the hospital.
Since this episode, Kanye simply hasn’t been the same. He’s yet another man who got involved with the Kardashians and ended up in a disastrous situation. A few years ago, Scott Disick went to rehab several times and kind of disappeared. Bruce Jenner became a woman and kind of disappeared as well. In 2015, Lamar Odom (Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband) was found unconscious in a brothel and almost died. In my article about Odom, I concluded:
“When you get involved with a family that is controlled by the occult elite, bad things often happen. Watch out Kanye.”
Back in 2015, things between Kanye and Kim K were seemingly great. But it was only a matter of time before this family of succubi got the best of him. And, in the past days, Kanye basically confirmed everything I’ve been discussing for years. And then some.
Dropping Bombs
On July 19th, Kanye held in South Carolina his first political campaign rally. And it was probably the most bizarre campaign rally in US history. But what else would you expect from the year 2020? In a lengthy and sometimes emotional speech, Kanye covered a wide variety of topics. For instance, Kanye talked about how he’d like to meet George Soros to build homes in Africa.
“George Soros knows how to build homes. That’s what we would like to do. I would like to meet with George Soros.”
If that wasn’t weird enough, Kanye also yelled “I almost killed my daughter” a couple of times because he wanted Kim Kardashian to have an abortion.
Kanye cries as he talks about the near abortion of his daughter North.
A few days later, Kanye launched Twitter bombs aimed at the people closest to him (he deleted them about an hour later). Here are some screenshots.
Kanye West has been dropping all kinds of truth bombs regarding his wife Kim Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner, and the entire system surrounding them. And, judging by the severity of his accusations, it appears that West is desperately trying to leave Kim Kardashian and distance himself from her family. Oh, and he’s also running to become the President of the United States. What is going on? To put things in context, we need to go back to 2016 when Kanye West was forcefully handcuffed and hospitalized for “acting erratically”. He was placed in “5150 Hold”, California law code for “temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness”.
Kanye spent 10 days at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center and came out of there a changed person. It should be noted that industry slaves Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes were both placed in 5150 Hold at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center. So what happened to Kanye during these 10 days? While there’s a shroud of mystery surrounding this bizarre episode, Kanye provided some insight during an interview with David Letterman.
“They handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
Did these things actually happen to him? One thing is for sure, Kanye was subjected to some rather extreme treatments because he literally lost his memory for several months afterward. Indeed, about four months after Kanye’s forced hospitalization, his longtime collaborator Malik Yussef provided some important insight:
“I’ve been to his house sat down with him for about six, seven hours, just walking through his health and recovery. His memory is coming back, which is super good. [He’s] just healing, spending time with his family.”
What happened to Kanye for him to lose his memory while not being able to recover it for months? Did he undergo MKULTRA-like “treatments” such as electroshock therapy (ECT)?
“Memory loss is the primary side effect associated with ECT treatment. Most people experience what’s called retrograde amnesia, which is a loss of memory of events leading up to and including the treatment itself. Some people’s memory loss is longer and greater with ECT. Some have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks leading up to treatment, or the weeks after treatment. Others lose memories of events and experiences in their past. Memory loss generally improves within a few weeks after ECT treatment. As with psychiatric medications, no professional or doctor can tell you for certain what kind of memory loss you will experience, but virtually all patients experience some memory loss. Sometimes the memory loss in some patients is permanent.” – PsychCentral, Risks of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
When Kanye was released from the hospital, he had bleached hair. MK slaves are often identified with blond hair or wigs.
Kanye with bleached hair shortly after his release from the hospital.
Since this episode, Kanye simply hasn’t been the same. He’s yet another man who got involved with the Kardashians and ended up in a disastrous situation. A few years ago, Scott Disick went to rehab several times and kind of disappeared. Bruce Jenner became a woman and kind of disappeared as well. In 2015, Lamar Odom (Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband) was found unconscious in a brothel and almost died. In my article about Odom, I concluded:
“When you get involved with a family that is controlled by the occult elite, bad things often happen. Watch out Kanye.”
Back in 2015, things between Kanye and Kim K were seemingly great. But it was only a matter of time before this family of succubi got the best of him. And, in the past days, Kanye basically confirmed everything I’ve been discussing for years. And then some.
Dropping Bombs
On July 19th, Kanye held in South Carolina his first political campaign rally. And it was probably the most bizarre campaign rally in US history. But what else would you expect from the year 2020? In a lengthy and sometimes emotional speech, Kanye covered a wide variety of topics. For instance, Kanye talked about how he’d like to meet George Soros to build homes in Africa.
“George Soros knows how to build homes. That’s what we would like to do. I would like to meet with George Soros.”
If that wasn’t weird enough, Kanye also yelled “I almost killed my daughter” a couple of times because he wanted Kim Kardashian to have an abortion.
Kanye cries as he talks about the near abortion of his daughter North.
A few days later, Kanye launched Twitter bombs aimed at the people closest to him (he deleted them about an hour later). Here are some screenshots. In these tweets, Kanye says that Kim was trying to “lock him up with a doctor” (MKULTRA reprogramming?) because he talked about the near-abortion. To drive his point further, Kanye compares his situation to the movie Get Out which is about black men being “recruited” by a white family and kept under mind control until they can be harvested for body parts and brain transplants. The entire movie is based on mind control. Indeed, the slaves are taken to the “sunken place” (a state of complete dissociation) using hypnotic triggers, elements of neuro-linguistic programming, and references to childhood trauma.
Kanye West has been dropping all kinds of truth bombs regarding his wife Kim Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner, and the entire system surrounding them. And, judging by the severity of his accusations, it appears that West is desperately trying to leave Kim Kardashian and distance himself from her family. Oh, and he’s also running to become the President of the United States. What is going on? To put things in context, we need to go back to 2016 when Kanye West was forcefully handcuffed and hospitalized for “acting erratically”. He was placed in “5150 Hold”, California law code for “temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness”.
Kanye spent 10 days at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center and came out of there a changed person. It should be noted that industry slaves Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes were both placed in 5150 Hold at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center. So what happened to Kanye during these 10 days? While there’s a shroud of mystery surrounding this bizarre episode, Kanye provided some insight during an interview with David Letterman.
“They handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
Did these things actually happen to him? One thing is for sure, Kanye was subjected to some rather extreme treatments because he literally lost his memory for several months afterward. Indeed, about four months after Kanye’s forced hospitalization, his longtime collaborator Malik Yussef provided some important insight:
“I’ve been to his house sat down with him for about six, seven hours, just walking through his health and recovery. His memory is coming back, which is super good. [He’s] just healing, spending time with his family.”
What happened to Kanye for him to lose his memory while not being able to recover it for months? Did he undergo MKULTRA-like “treatments” such as electroshock therapy (ECT)?
“Memory loss is the primary side effect associated with ECT treatment. Most people experience what’s called retrograde amnesia, which is a loss of memory of events leading up to and including the treatment itself. Some people’s memory loss is longer and greater with ECT. Some have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks leading up to treatment, or the weeks after treatment. Others lose memories of events and experiences in their past. Memory loss generally improves within a few weeks after ECT treatment. As with psychiatric medications, no professional or doctor can tell you for certain what kind of memory loss you will experience, but virtually all patients experience some memory loss. Sometimes the memory loss in some patients is permanent.” – PsychCentral, Risks of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
When Kanye was released from the hospital, he had bleached hair. MK slaves are often identified with blond hair or wigs.
Kanye with bleached hair shortly after his release from the hospital.
Since this episode, Kanye simply hasn’t been the same. He’s yet another man who got involved with the Kardashians and ended up in a disastrous situation. A few years ago, Scott Disick went to rehab several times and kind of disappeared. Bruce Jenner became a woman and kind of disappeared as well. In 2015, Lamar Odom (Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband) was found unconscious in a brothel and almost died. In my article about Odom, I concluded:
“When you get involved with a family that is controlled by the occult elite, bad things often happen. Watch out Kanye.”
Back in 2015, things between Kanye and Kim K were seemingly great. But it was only a matter of time before this family of succubi got the best of him. And, in the past days, Kanye basically confirmed everything I’ve been discussing for years. And then some.
Dropping Bombs
On July 19th, Kanye held in South Carolina his first political campaign rally. And it was probably the most bizarre campaign rally in US history. But what else would you expect from the year 2020? In a lengthy and sometimes emotional speech, Kanye covered a wide variety of topics. For instance, Kanye talked about how he’d like to meet George Soros to build homes in Africa.
“George Soros knows how to build homes. That’s what we would like to do. I would like to meet with George Soros.”
If that wasn’t weird enough, Kanye also yelled “I almost killed my daughter” a couple of times because he wanted Kim Kardashian to have an abortion.
Kanye cries as he talks about the near abortion of his daughter North.
A few days later, Kanye launched Twitter bombs aimed at the people closest to him (he deleted them about an hour later). Here are some screenshots. In these tweets, Kanye says that Kim was trying to “lock him up with a doctor” (MKULTRA reprogramming?) because he talked about the near-abortion. To drive his point further, Kanye compares his situation to the movie Get Out which is about black men being “recruited” by a white family and kept under mind control until they can be harvested for body parts and brain transplants. The entire movie is based on mind control. Indeed, the slaves are taken to the “sunken place” (a state of complete dissociation) using hypnotic triggers, elements of neuro-linguistic programming, and references to childhood trauma. In 2018, Kanye said that he was out of the “sunken place” – a clear reference to mind control. Are they trying to bring him back in?
A tweet from 2018 about Kanye being “out of the sunken place”.
In another recent tweet, Kanye claims that the Kardashians are trying to “5150 him”. He also states that he’s been trying to divorce Kim for years while calling Kris Jenner “Kris Jong-Un”. That’s because she is the undisputed dictator of the family. In another tweet, Kanye tells Kris Jenner that she is not allowed near his children. That’s pretty harsh. What did she do to them? In other tweets, Kanye accuses Kris Jenner of photographing Kim Kardashian for Playboy and being behind the selling of her infamous sex tape with Ray J.
Interesting “typo” at the end.
Kris Jenner taking picture of naked Kim for Playboy.
Like Kanye stated, there are strong rumors claiming that Kris Jenner was behind the entire Kim Kardashian sex tape stunt.
In April 2016, Ian Halperin alleged in his book Kardashian Dynasty that Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, had deliberately leaked the sex tape to Vivid Entertainment. According to Halperin, “A mutual friend of Kim and Paris Hilton had advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go … Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family beforehand … It was Kris who engineered the deal behind the scenes [with Vivid Entertainment] and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day”. Upon the release of Kardashian Dynasty, a representative for Kardashian and Jenner denied all of Halperin’s assertions – Wikipedia, Kim Kardashian, Superstar
In another tweet, Kanye talked about Michael Jackson and Tommy Mottola. While this seems to have nothing to do with his other tweets, the core subject remains the same: MKULTRA in the entertainment industry.
In this tweet, Kanye refers to Michael Jackson’s feud with Tommy Mottola who was the CEO of Sony. In the following video, Jackson talks about his financial dispute with Sony and how Tommy Mottola controlled his ex-wife Mariah Carey. Yes, you heard correctly. Michael literally said that “Tommy Mottola is the devil”. He was basically the MK handler of Mariah Carey. Jackson went on to explain the extent of Mottola’s control and surveillance of Mariah Carey. About seven years later, Michael Jackson died in very mysterious circumstances. Therefore, Kanye theorized that Jackson was killed for rebelling against Tommy Mottola and Sony. In short, Kanye might seem like a rambling lunatic. But everything he tweeted makes sense when one understands the MKULTRA context of the entertainment industry.
Response from the Kardashians
Kanye attacked his wife and his mother-in-law. He accused them of wanting to “lock him up”. He exposed their MKULTRA ways and even claimed that he was trying to break away from them. How do you respond to that? Well, the Kardashians did some very slick PR. Kim posted on Instagram a message asking people to be “compassionate about Kanye’s mental health”. In other words, she says, in the most politically-correct way: Don’t listen to him, he’s crazy.
“As many of you know, Kanye has bi-polar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand. I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health. But today, I feel like I should comment on it because off the stigma and misconceptions about mental health. I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder. Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.”
In response to this message, Kanye tweeted: He’s really trying to get out of that marriage.
Kanye West has been dropping all kinds of truth bombs regarding his wife Kim Kardashian, her mother Kris Jenner, and the entire system surrounding them. And, judging by the severity of his accusations, it appears that West is desperately trying to leave Kim Kardashian and distance himself from her family. Oh, and he’s also running to become the President of the United States. What is going on? To put things in context, we need to go back to 2016 when Kanye West was forcefully handcuffed and hospitalized for “acting erratically”. He was placed in “5150 Hold”, California law code for “temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness”.
Kanye spent 10 days at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center and came out of there a changed person. It should be noted that industry slaves Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes were both placed in 5150 Hold at the Reagan UCLA Medical Center. So what happened to Kanye during these 10 days? While there’s a shroud of mystery surrounding this bizarre episode, Kanye provided some insight during an interview with David Letterman.
“They handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
Did these things actually happen to him? One thing is for sure, Kanye was subjected to some rather extreme treatments because he literally lost his memory for several months afterward. Indeed, about four months after Kanye’s forced hospitalization, his longtime collaborator Malik Yussef provided some important insight:
“I’ve been to his house sat down with him for about six, seven hours, just walking through his health and recovery. His memory is coming back, which is super good. [He’s] just healing, spending time with his family.”
What happened to Kanye for him to lose his memory while not being able to recover it for months? Did he undergo MKULTRA-like “treatments” such as electroshock therapy (ECT)?
“Memory loss is the primary side effect associated with ECT treatment. Most people experience what’s called retrograde amnesia, which is a loss of memory of events leading up to and including the treatment itself. Some people’s memory loss is longer and greater with ECT. Some have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks leading up to treatment, or the weeks after treatment. Others lose memories of events and experiences in their past. Memory loss generally improves within a few weeks after ECT treatment. As with psychiatric medications, no professional or doctor can tell you for certain what kind of memory loss you will experience, but virtually all patients experience some memory loss. Sometimes the memory loss in some patients is permanent.” – PsychCentral, Risks of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
When Kanye was released from the hospital, he had bleached hair. MK slaves are often identified with blond hair or wigs.
Kanye with bleached hair shortly after his release from the hospital.
Since this episode, Kanye simply hasn’t been the same. He’s yet another man who got involved with the Kardashians and ended up in a disastrous situation. A few years ago, Scott Disick went to rehab several times and kind of disappeared. Bruce Jenner became a woman and kind of disappeared as well. In 2015, Lamar Odom (Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband) was found unconscious in a brothel and almost died. In my article about Odom, I concluded:
“When you get involved with a family that is controlled by the occult elite, bad things often happen. Watch out Kanye.”
Back in 2015, things between Kanye and Kim K were seemingly great. But it was only a matter of time before this family of succubi got the best of him. And, in the past days, Kanye basically confirmed everything I’ve been discussing for years. And then some.
Dropping Bombs
On July 19th, Kanye held in South Carolina his first political campaign rally. And it was probably the most bizarre campaign rally in US history. But what else would you expect from the year 2020? In a lengthy and sometimes emotional speech, Kanye covered a wide variety of topics. For instance, Kanye talked about how he’d like to meet George Soros to build homes in Africa.
“George Soros knows how to build homes. That’s what we would like to do. I would like to meet with George Soros.”
If that wasn’t weird enough, Kanye also yelled “I almost killed my daughter” a couple of times because he wanted Kim Kardashian to have an abortion.
Kanye cries as he talks about the near abortion of his daughter North.
A few days later, Kanye launched Twitter bombs aimed at the people closest to him (he deleted them about an hour later). Here are some screenshots. In these tweets, Kanye says that Kim was trying to “lock him up with a doctor” (MKULTRA reprogramming?) because he talked about the near-abortion. To drive his point further, Kanye compares his situation to the movie Get Out which is about black men being “recruited” by a white family and kept under mind control until they can be harvested for body parts and brain transplants. The entire movie is based on mind control. Indeed, the slaves are taken to the “sunken place” (a state of complete dissociation) using hypnotic triggers, elements of neuro-linguistic programming, and references to childhood trauma. In 2018, Kanye said that he was out of the “sunken place” – a clear reference to mind control. Are they trying to bring him back in?
A tweet from 2018 about Kanye being “out of the sunken place”.
In another recent tweet, Kanye claims that the Kardashians are trying to “5150 him”. He also states that he’s been trying to divorce Kim for years while calling Kris Jenner “Kris Jong-Un”. That’s because she is the undisputed dictator of the family. In another tweet, Kanye tells Kris Jenner that she is not allowed near his children. That’s pretty harsh. What did she do to them? In other tweets, Kanye accuses Kris Jenner of photographing Kim Kardashian for Playboy and being behind the selling of her infamous sex tape with Ray J.
Interesting “typo” at the end.
Kris Jenner taking picture of naked Kim for Playboy.
Like Kanye stated, there are strong rumors claiming that Kris Jenner was behind the entire Kim Kardashian sex tape stunt.
In April 2016, Ian Halperin alleged in his book Kardashian Dynasty that Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, had deliberately leaked the sex tape to Vivid Entertainment. According to Halperin, “A mutual friend of Kim and Paris Hilton had advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go … Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family beforehand … It was Kris who engineered the deal behind the scenes [with Vivid Entertainment] and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day”. Upon the release of Kardashian Dynasty, a representative for Kardashian and Jenner denied all of Halperin’s assertions – Wikipedia, Kim Kardashian, Superstar
In another tweet, Kanye talked about Michael Jackson and Tommy Mottola. While this seems to have nothing to do with his other tweets, the core subject remains the same: MKULTRA in the entertainment industry.
In this tweet, Kanye refers to Michael Jackson’s feud with Tommy Mottola who was the CEO of Sony. In the following video, Jackson talks about his financial dispute with Sony and how Tommy Mottola controlled his ex-wife Mariah Carey. Yes, you heard correctly. Michael literally said that “Tommy Mottola is the devil”. He was basically the MK handler of Mariah Carey. Jackson went on to explain the extent of Mottola’s control and surveillance of Mariah Carey. About seven years later, Michael Jackson died in very mysterious circumstances. Therefore, Kanye theorized that Jackson was killed for rebelling against Tommy Mottola and Sony. In short, Kanye might seem like a rambling lunatic. But everything he tweeted makes sense when one understands the MKULTRA context of the entertainment industry.
Response from the Kardashians
Kanye attacked his wife and his mother-in-law. He accused them of wanting to “lock him up”. He exposed their MKULTRA ways and even claimed that he was trying to break away from them. How do you respond to that? Well, the Kardashians did some very slick PR. Kim posted on Instagram a message asking people to be “compassionate about Kanye’s mental health”. In other words, she says, in the most politically-correct way: Don’t listen to him, he’s crazy.
“As many of you know, Kanye has bi-polar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand. I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health. But today, I feel like I should comment on it because off the stigma and misconceptions about mental health. I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder. Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.”
In response to this message, Kanye tweeted: He’s really trying to get out of that marriage.
In Conclusion
Upon seeing all of this, one might ask: Is Kanye crazy? Well, it is obvious that he is not doing great. I don’t believe that many people would do great after being forcibly hospitalized and drugged for months. And he might be bipolar, I don’t know. However, when one knows about the dark side of the entertainment industry and its MKULTRA tendencies, everything he says actually makes sense. He would probably make more sense to people if he wasn’t prone to rambling and jumping from one topic to another. But to those who get what he is saying, he’s making perfect sense. By viciously attacking his wife and her mother (the “Grand Priestess” of that family), Kanye is clearly trying to burn bridges and break away from the Kardashian coven. He is currently at his ranch in Wyoming, far away from Hollywood. Shortly after this Twitter rant, Dave Chapelle came by to visit him. That’s 100% appropriate because Chapelle knows that those who are deemed “crazy” in Hollywood are often the sanest ones. Check out this video about Chapelle talking about Martin Lawrence: P.S. The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has caused a massive drop in advertising revenues, making it difficult for independent websites such as The Vigilant Citizen to remain afloat. If you appreciated this article, please consider showing your support through a small monthly donation on Patreon. If you prefer, you can also make a one-time donation here. Your support will help this site navigate these difficult times as it continues to provide vital information and analysis on a regular basis. Thank you!
The article below is from a born again Christian
The Redemption Of Kanye West – What The Bible Says About Kanye’s Christianity
Kanye West is proclaiming faith in Christ. And all Christians should rejoice.
Is Kanye West Really a Christian? Why did Kanye convert to Christianity? Is Kanye West a false teacher? Who is Kanye West’s Pastor? Is Kanye West pretending to be a Christian?
In 2012 Beginning And End wrote an extensive article on rapper, producer and fashion designer Kanye West – who at the time was one of the biggest pop stars in the world. He was also one of the biggest proponents of the sin glorification, God-mocking and blasphemous messages and outright satanic symbolism that has pervaded so much of Hollywood entertainment today. And now, in 2019, Kanye has proclaimed that he is a born-again Christian, no longer an “entertainer” and has fully devoted his life to Jesus Christ and service to Him. And his newest album, Jesus Is King, is 100% Gospel music. But is it true? Is he truly saved? The Christian world has been in a frenzy trying to determine if Kanye’s conversion is genuine of this is all just an Illuminati satanic deception. This article will examine what the Biblical approach to Kanye’s profession of faith should be and why Born Again Christians should rejoice. In our article: The Rise And Fall of Kanye West: Illuminati Superstar, Beginning And End closed with the following:
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:5-6. “This is what the real God has done for you. Because He loves you. And just as Jesus rose from the dead, so can any person be made alive eternally by believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God for the forgiveness of their sins. Let’s hope Kanye goes back to his roots and remembers this.” (source).
Our sincere prayer was for the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to enter Kanyes heart and for God to work a miracle in bringing him to believing faith in the Savior.
“The Only Superstar Is Jesus”
Pastor Adam Tyson preaches the Gospel at Kanye West’s Sunday service. By God’s grace, Kanye has humbled himself to submit himself to serving Jesus Christ. By his own professed words, he is seeking to glorify God, use his music to share the Gospel and share the Christian faith.
“Every time I stand up…I feel I’m drawing a line in the sand to say ‘I’m here to serve God and no weapon formed against me shall prosper.’” (source).
In the face of Kanye’s profession, there has been a flurry and frenzy of responses in the Church. Excitement, hesitancy, doubt and skepticism have all been seen in the millions of social media posts regarding Kanye’s conversion. This article will address the many doubts and challenges that have been brought towards Kanye West.
Did Kanye Really Become A Christian? Is This A Hoax?
The mainstream media are quite upset that Kanye is no longer promoting sinful rebellion.
“Told the devil that I’m going on a strike I’ve been working for ya my whole life.” – Kanye West
“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” – Acts 7:57-60; Acts 8:1-3
The Apostle Paul, whose birthname was Saul, was originally a Pharisee who hated the Christian Church with a passion. When the Apostle Stephen was murderer unjustly, the killers laid his garments at Saul’s feet. He hunted Christians to imprison or kill them. And yet, in a moment, he encountered Jesus Christ and changed forever:
“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” – Acts 9:3-6
Just that quickly Saul was transformed from a Christ-hating, murderous, blasphemous enemy of the faith, into a humbled, tender-hearted believer. Jesus spoke to him and blinded him, commanding him to wait 3 days for God to reach out to him once more. But what is particularly striking and relevant for this study is when a faithful Christian named Ananias was commanded by God to go and greet the newly-converted Saul:
“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.”
Notice the response from Ananias as he speaks to God directly. Like Kanye, Saul was famous, or rather, infamous. Saul was known throughout the church as an enemy who would jail anyone who dare utter the name of Jesus Christ. In his flesh, Ananias had a knee-jerk reaction to question the salvation of Saul, even though God Himself was telling him to go see the new convert to the faith. Ananias was likely very scared that he would end up in jail or even worse if he went anywhere near Saul. But God encouraged him:
“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
With God’s reassurance, Ananias went and notice the way he greeted Saul
“And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” – Acts 9:17
Notice that Ananias called Saul “Brother.” This is one of the most important verses in the Bible. Ananias, trusting only God’s power to radically change the heart of Saul in a moment, fully embraced this persecutor of the Church as a brother. Kanye has promoted sinful rebellion, fornication, materialism, covetousness and the occult. This website has chronicled his blasphemy against the name of Jesus. And yet, he never persecuted the church. He never consented to the murder of a Christian. And yet just for making sinful music, so many have casted doubt and aspersions on him.
We Need To Wait And Examine The Fruits Of Kanye West To See If He Is Truly Saved
Reformed Pastor Justin Peters encouraged his followers to “hold off” on believing in Kanye’s testimony until he “tested” thoroughly. There is no Biblical support for this position whatsoever. “Nothing worse than a hypocrite Change, he ain’t really different He ain’t even try to get permission Ask for advice and they dissed him Said I’m finna do a gospel album What have you been hearin’ from the Christians? They’ll be the first one to judge me Make it feel like nobody love me They’ll be the first one to judge me Feelin’ like nobody love me”– Kanye West, Hands On The notion that Christians should withhold judgment on Kanye’s conversion because we have to wait to “examine his fruits” has also been a very common reaction to Kanye’s profession of faith. And it is also one that is highly unbiblical. “By their fruits ye shall know them” is one of the most misquoted and misapplied verses in the church today. Let’s examine the verse in context:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” – Matthew 7:15-20
The subject of Jesus’ warning is quite clear: false teachers. The Lord specifically said they “come in sheep’s clothing” – meaning, their outward behavior would appear Christian, but their teachings and doctrine would be contrary to the sound teachings of Jesus. Notice, many, many Christians use this verse to state the exact opposite of what Christ said – namely, that we should examine the outward behavior of someone professing to be a Christian to determine if they are truly saved. This is a serious misunderstanding of the text. In this passage Jesus states that the false teacher’s behavior will definitely, appear to be righteous and Christian. That is not the issue. The “fruits” are what they teach – that is how you identify them. Charles Spurgeon wrote this on this passage:
“By “fruits” are meant, not so much their external works in life and conversation; for a false prophet may so behave, as not to be discovered thereby. So the Pharisees were outwardly righteous before men; and false teachers among Christians may have the form of godliness, and keep it up, though they are strangers to, and even deny the power of it: but their doctrines are here meant, and the effects of them. When doctrines are contrary to the perfections of God, repugnant to the Scriptures of truth, tend to depreciate the person and offices, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, to lessen the glory of God’s grace, to exalt the creature, and to fill men’s minds with notions of the purity, self-sufficiency, and ability of human nature; when they are calculated to feed the pride and vanity of men, to get money, and gain applause, to serve their own interests, and gratify men’s lusts and passions, they may be easily discerned who they are, and from whence they come.” (source).
Kanye in prayer at one of his Sunday Services. Kanye has made it clear that he is not a pastor and not looking to head a church. He refers to himself as a “new convert” stating he was saved in April 2019. Since that time:
He has now renounced making secular music.
He has stated that he is no longer an entertainer and see himself as a servant of God.
He pledged to only make Gospel music.
He has held “Sunday Service” concert events where he only plays his newer music that is God-honoring, clean and Gospel promoting.
He attends weekly Bible studies with a pastor who initially spent three hours explaining the Gospel to him. (source).
So, what if TMZ posts a video this weekend of a drunken Kanye cursing out someone in the street? Does that now “invalidate” his faith? Is that the “bad fruit” that “proves” he is not saved? God forbid, or else we would all be disqualified from Christianity as all Christians still sin in some form or fashion (whether other people are there to witness it or not). Rather than being “fruit inspectors” we should rejoice that God has turned the heart of another lost soul.
Kanye Needs To Renounce His Old Lifestyle And Give All of His Money Away
“Switch my, switch my attitude I’m so, I’m so radical All these people mad at dude This for who it matter to What if Eve made apple juice? You gon’ do what Adam do? Or say, “Baby, let’s put this back on the tree” ’cause We have everything we need.”– Kanye West, We Have Everything We Need (source).
Some Christians have stated Kanye needs to retract and renounce everything he has done in his worldly career and return the many millions of dollars he has made to “establish” he is “truly” a Christian. Again, where is this in the Bible. Did Ananias wait for Saul to renounce his prior lifestyle? Did Saul go to every church he persecuted and apologize? No. Once God restored his vision, he immediately went share the Gospel:
“And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.” – Acts 9:19-22
When the Ethiopian eunuch asked the Apostle Philip what he needed to do in order to be baptized, Philip responded:
“And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” – Acts 8:36-38
What did the eunuch need to do? Did he have to renounce his former lifestyle? Did he have to demonstrate and show the change in his behavior? Did he have to go and make atonement to everyone he had done wrong in his life? No, he merely had to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This beloved should be our standard. Jesus Christ stated clearly: “…The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”– (Luke 17:20-21). Salvation happens in the heart. No Christian can identify the moment of another’s conversion. And it is not for us to judge if the conversion truly happened. It is a supernatural experience that is not visible to the human eye. We are to accept professing Christians based on their very profession, not on fruits, or works righteousness or other unbiblical requirements added on to salvation by grace alone.
For several months Kanye has paid for his hundreds of choir sings, musicians and producers to travel across the country for his Sunday Service performances. He also held a Sunday Service performance at 2 Harris County Texas prisons, bringing his God-glorifying music and Gospel preaching to inmates:
Is Kanye’s New Opera Nebuchadnezzar An Illuminati Satanic Deception?
Kanye West said the arrogance and pride of King Nebuchadnezzar reminded him of himself – and both were humbled by God. Some websites have gone so far as to try to paint the entire conversion of Kanye West as a satanic deception. Now The End Begins, a ministry that seeks to point out issues that affect the end times has been obsessed with the Kanye story, posting 9-10 articles in 2 weeks on the converted rapper. One of their most recent focused on Kanye’s decision to produce an opera called “Nebuchadnezzar.” Here is a statement from their article:
“The Kanye West deception is slick and smooth, and he has a huge portion of the church eating out of his hand. He is so sure of his ability to deceive that he has the boldness to create an opera dedicated to a type of Antichrist, and proudly call it ‘Nebuchadnezzar’. Nebuchadnezzar is not a good guy, he is a bad guy of the highest order, and this is how Kanye West sees himself, as a type of Antichrist. He even had his designer create promotional material showing what they thought was the evil and terrible ‘image of gold’ that Antichrist Nebuchadnezzar forced the people to worship. (actually they put King Darius as the artwork instead of Nebuchadnezzar, but you get the idea). And what was the name of the magazine where Kanye first broke this news? It’s called Pitchfork! If you cannot figure this out by now you are not only deaf, dumb and blind, you are likely unsaved as well. Wake up, church, wake up, the wolf is not only at the door he is now inside your house.” (source).
The first thing to notice is the angry, haughty tone of this excerpt. Scripture says: “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.” (Colossians 3:8). Secondly, it is inaccurate. King Nebuchadnezzar, when introduced in Daniel Chapter 2, was a pagan, idolater king in Babylon, who would not hesitate to order the death of anyone who upset him in the slightest. Beginning And End chronicled how this king was so satanic in his behavior that he even foreshadowed the Antichrist. However, over the course of 3 chapters of the Bible, he comes to know, understand praise the true God of the Bible. Daniel Chapter 4 is a chapter penned by Nebuchadnezzar himself in which he explains how God gave him a dream of a great tree being cut down to a stump. The prophet Daniel interpreted the dream to be a direct reference to Nebuchadnezzar and his sinful rebellion against God:
“Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace: I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.” – Daniel 4:1-5
The Babylonian King dreamed of a supernaturally all and flourishing tree overshadowed all the nations of the earth. But in the next moment, angels called Watchers appeared who announced that the tree should be cut down to the stump for seven years. The prophet Daniel interpreted the dream and told the king that the tree was a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar himself and that if he continued to be a sinful, prideful and wicked king, God was going to punish and humble him:
“This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king: That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” – Daniel 4:24-25
Nebuchadnezzar eventually did boast in the kingdom of Babylon being won by his own power and might and the prophetic dream was fulfilled. In a moment, he was transformed into an animal-like being with long claws, hair and feathers and lived like an animal for 7 years. After being restored to his right mind, he professed faith in God:
“And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.” – Daniel 4:34-37
Does this sound like the words of a pagan? No. The king was humbled by God during those 7 years, saw God’s supernatural word come true right before his eyes and emerged humbled and praising The Lord as a result. This can only happen through faith.
Kanye has many people seeking and searching out Christianity. Nebuchadnezzar also wrote Daniel chapter 4. The entire chapter is his decree following this incident. Here are some of the most studied and popular commentaries on the authorship of Daniel 4:
Adam Clarke Commentary: “This is a regular decree, and is one of the most ancient on record; and no doubt was copied from the state papers of Babylon. Daniel has preserved it in the original language.” Jonathan Wesley Commentary: “Daniel here sets down another strange relation in the words of the king’s own proclamation, sent to all his vast kingdoms, and put into the king’s archives, and court-rolls.” Jonathan Gill’s Exposition Of The Entire Bible: “This chapter was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself; and was either taken out of his archives, or given by him to Daniel, who under divine inspiration inserted it into this work of his; and a very useful instruction it contains, showing the sovereignty of God over the greatest kings and potentates of the earth, and this acknowledged by one of the proudest monarchs that ever lived upon it.”
Kanye stated the was once prideful like Nebuchadnezzar which led to the inspiration for the Opera:
“Nebuchadnezzar was the king…And he looked at his entire kingdom and said, ‘I did this.’ And God said, ‘Oh, for real? You did this?’ Sounds kind of similar, right?” West explained, according to Forbes. “I’m standing on the tip of the mountain talking about Yeezus. Saying, ‘I did this!’ That I’m a God! And I would—I could talk to Jesus at the end of my show. I had (laughs) a guy dressed up as Jesus, at the end of my show.”
Notice West is comparing himself to Nebuchadnezzar in that they were both full of sinful pride. This was exactly what Beginning And End detailed in our article The Rise And Fall Of Kanye West. He is acknowledging his sin and mockery of Jesus Christ. This is repentance. And rather than try to “sniff fruits” and question, we should rejoice that a man who promoted sin, blasphemy, the occult and even compared himself to Jesus, is now turning from that lifestyle and publicly proclaiming his faith in Christ.
Rejoice And Give Kanye Grace In This Time
“Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” – Philippians 1:15-18
“And Jesus spake this parable unto them, saying,What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” – Luke 15:3-7
So, what if Kanye slips up? What if he goes to the church of Joel Osteen (someone this ministry has gone into detail exposing his false teachings)? Well, for the pastors who embrace sound doctrine and criticize Kanye (a babe in the faith) for doing this we say this – invite him to your church. Go on social media and publicly invite Kanye West to your service to speak to him and minister to him. Welcome him with open arms. How are we as Christians supposed to treat gang bangers, strippers, drunks, adulterers, ex-convicts and other “unpopular groups” in worldly society when they enter the doors of our churches? How do we treat the gay person or transgender person who comes to us and says they believe in Jesus or have questions and want to learn more? We should rejoice! We should be excited that the light of Christ has led that person to seek The Lord. Even if they don’t understand the Bible fully. Even if they are still keeping one foot in the world, we should embrace them. Do you doubt God’s power to humble and convert Kanye West? Do you think there is any sin-promoting pop star who is “too far gone” to serve Christ? Is anything too hard for God? Trust His Word. Like Ananias, trust the power of Christ. Celebrate the unbelievers who come to Christ. We should comfort them. We should love them. Lord willing more Christians will do this for Kanye West. Here is a sermon by Pastor Adam Tyson of Palencia Bible Church from Kanye’s Sunday Service:
And here is Kanye’s full interview with Joel Osteen:
Biblical Racism: When White Bible Translators Challenged God for calling his church Black : The book of Song of Songs was included among the books of the bible because it pictures the Love between Jesus Christ and his Church
For most of American history, the light-skinned Jesus conjured up by white congregations demanded the preservation of inequality as part of the divine order.
By Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder PRRI
Over the last several weeks, the United States has engaged in a long-overdue reckoning with the racist symbols of the past, tearing down monuments to figures complicit in slavery and removing Confederate flags from public displays. But little scrutiny has been given to the cultural institutions that legitimized the worldview behind these symbols: white Christian churches.
In public opinion polls, a clear pattern has emerged: White Christians are consistently more likely than whites who are religiously unaffiliated to deny the existence of structural racism.
A close read of history reveals that we white Christians have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the nation's dominant cultural power, we have constructed and sustained a project of perpetuating white supremacy that has framed the entire American story. The legacy of this unholy union still lives in the DNA of white Christianity today — and not just among white evangelical Protestants in the South, but also among white mainline Protestants in the Midwest and white Catholics in the Northeast.
This disparity in attitudes about systemic racism between white Christians and whites who claim no religious affiliation is important evidence that the common — and catalyzing — denominator here is religious identity. This consistent perception gap was the central research finding that launched the work on my new book, "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity," out on Tuesday.
When confronted with unsettling results such as these, many of my fellow white Christians tend to explain them away with two objections. First, they assert that it is not white Christian identity itself but other intervening variables that account for such correlations. Second, they argue that even if white Christian identity is implicated, the results are muddied by the inclusion of people who have no real connection to actual churches, folks who are "Christian in name only."
For more than two decades, I've studied the attitudes of religiously affiliated Americans across the country. And year over year, in question after question in public opinion polls, a clear pattern has emerged: White Christians are consistently more likely than whites who are religiously unaffiliated to deny the existence of structural racism.
For example, surveys conducted by PRRI in 2018 found that white Christians — including evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics — are nearly twice as likely as religiously unaffiliated whites to say the killings of Black men by police are isolated incidents rather than part of a pattern of how police treat African Americans.
And white Christians are about 30 percentage points more likely to say monuments to Confederate soldiers are symbols of Southern pride rather than symbols of racism. White Christians are also about 20 percentage points more likely to disagree with this statement: "Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class." And these trends generally persist even in the wake of the recent protests for racial justice.
As a white Christian who was raised Southern Baptist and shaped by a denominational college and seminary, it pains me to see these patterns in the data. Even worse, these questions only hint at the magnitude of the problem.
To determine the breadth of these attitudes, I created a "Racism Index," a measure consisting of 15 questions designed to get beyond personal biases and include perceptions of structural injustice. These questions included the three above, as well as questions about the treatment of African Americans in the criminal justice system and general perceptions of race, racism and racial discrimination.
Even at a glance, the Racism Index reveals a clear distinction. Compared to nonreligious whites, white Christians register higher median scores on the Racism Index, and the differences among white Christian subgroups are largely differences of degree rather than kind.
Not surprisingly, given their concentration in the South, white evangelical Protestants have the highest median score (0.78) on the Racism Index. But it is a mistake to see this as merely a Southern or an evangelical problem. The median scores of white Catholics (0.72) and white mainline Protestants (0.69) — groups that are more culturally dominant in the Northeast and the Midwest — are not far behind. Notably, the median score for each white Christian subgroup is significantly above the median scores of the general population (0.57), white religiously unaffiliated Americans (0.42) and Black Protestants (0.24).
This disparity in attitudes about systemic racism between white Christians and whites who claim no religious affiliation is important evidence that the common — and catalyzing — denominator here is religious identity. This consistent perception gap was the central research finding that launched the work on my new book, "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity," out on Tuesday.
When confronted with unsettling results such as these, many of my fellow white Christians tend to explain them away with two objections. First, they assert that it is not white Christian identity itself but other intervening variables that account for such correlations. Second, they argue that even if white Christian identity is implicated, the results are muddied by the inclusion of people who have no real connection to actual churches, folks who are "Christian in name only."
But even when controls are introduced in a statistical model for a range of demographic characteristics, such as partisanship, education levels and region, the connection between holding racist attitudes and white Christian identity remains stubbornly robust.
The results point to a stark conclusion: While most white Christians think of themselves as people who hold warm feelings toward African Americans, holding racist views is nonetheless positively and independently associated with white Christian identity. Again, this troubling relationship holds not just for white evangelical Protestants, but also for white mainline Protestants and white Catholics.
The legacy of this unholy union still lives in the DNA of white Christianity today — and not just among white evangelical Protestants in the South.
Moreover, these statistical models refute the assertion that attending church makes white Christians less racist. Among white evangelicals, in fact, the opposite is true: The relationship between holding racist views and white Christian identity is actually stronger among more frequent church attenders than among less frequent church attenders.
I suspect many of my fellow white Christians will be appalled by these findings, asking with genuine dismay: "How can this be?" Haven't white Christians created charities of all kinds, built the infrastructure of much of our civil society and provided leadership on a host of social reforms, including the abolitionist movement, which was led in part by Christians moved by their faith?
But when we allow ourselves to cast our gaze beyond the rosy stories we tell about ourselves as champions and representatives of all that is good in America, a terrifyingly troubled alternative history emerges.
While it may seem obvious to mainstream white Christians today that slavery, segregation and overt declarations of white supremacy are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, such a conviction is, in fact, a recent development for most white American Christians and churches, both Protestant and Catholic.
The unsettling truth is that, for nearly all of American history, the light-skinned Jesus conjured up by most white congregations was not merely indifferent to the status quo of racial inequality; he demanded its defense and preservation as part of the natural, divinely ordained order of things.
Consider the cultural context in which American Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, was born. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as Protestant churches were springing up in newly settled territories after Native American populations were forcibly removed, it was common practice — observed, for example, at the Baptist church that was the progenitor of my parents' church in Macon, Georgia — for slaveholding whites to take enslaved people to church with them.
The practice had it that whites sat in the front while enslaved Blacks sat in the back or in specially constructed galleries above. In late 18th-century Maryland, one-fifth of those included in a Catholic census were enslaved people owned by white Catholics or white Catholic institutions. And as late as the 1940s, urban Catholic parishes in major cities such as New York still required Black members to sit in the back pews and approach the altar last to receive the bread and wine of the Eucharist.
Moreover, the content of what was preached confirmed that white supremacy was part of the Christian worldview. Sermons, by necessity, tended to be light on the themes of freedom and liberation in Exodus, for example, and heavy on the mandates of obedience and being content in one's social station from the New Testament writings of Paul.
In these seedbeds of American Christianity, an a priori commitment to white supremacy shaped what could be practiced (a slave master could not share a common cup of Christian fellowship with his slaves) and preached (white dominance and Black subservience were expressions of God's ideal for the organization of human societies). Such early distortions influenced how white Christians came to embody and understand their faith and determined what was handed down from one generation to the next.
Our fellow African American citizens, and indeed the entire country, are waiting to see whether we white Christians can finally find the humility and courage and love to face the truth.
The plain testimony of history is that, alongside what good we white Christians have done, white Christian theology and institutions have also declared the blessings of God on the enslavement of millions of African Americans, the construction of a brutal system of racial segregation enforced by law and lynchings, the resistance to the civil rights movement and the mass incarceration of millions of African Americans. When the patterns in the current public opinion data are seen in this light, they seem unsurprising and, indeed, inevitable.
As monuments to white supremacy are falling all across America, a great cloud of witnesses is gathering. Our fellow African American citizens, and indeed the entire country, are waiting to see whether we white Christians can finally find the humility and courage and love to face the truth about our long relationship with white supremacy and to dismantle the Christian worldview we built to justify it.
Author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
This is your last free article.
Don Cravens / The LIFE Images Collection / GettThe Christian denomination in which I grew up was founded on the proposition that slavery could flourish alongside the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its founders believed that this arrangement was not just possible, but divinely mandated. Yet many white Christians, like myself, came of age in churches and communities where we seldom heard anything substantive or serious about the white-supremacist roots of our faith.
I was raised in a Southern Baptist family, participated actively in my Southern Baptist church, and graduated from Mississippi College, a Southern Baptist institution. But it wasn’t until I was a 20-year-old seminary student that I began to grasp the central role that my denomination, and white Christians generally, have played in sustaining and legitimizing white supremacy. I knew that there had been a split between Northern and Southern Baptists, but the narrative was vague. Baptists in the South, I was taught, were caught in larger cultural and political fights that were rending the country in the mid-1800s. And—just as I had learned from my Mississippi public-school education—the true causes of the Civil War were “complicated.” Slavery was not the central issue but merely one of many North-South conflicts precipitating the split. As the prominent Baptist historian Walter “Buddy” Shurden has pointed out, it wasn’t until the last quarter of the 20th century that white Baptist historians confronted the denomination’s pro-slavery, white-supremacist origins.
The Baptist denominational history is not unique in American Christianity. Virtually all of the major white mainline Protestant denominations split over the issue of slavery. For example, Northern and Southern Methodists parted ways in 1845, the same year as the Baptists, producing an additional spark for the tinderbox of Southern political secession. While they disagreed about slavery, both Southern and Northern Methodists agreed that Black Methodists should hold a subservient place not just in society but also in Christian fellowship. When the branches reunited in 1939, they segregated Black congregations into a deceptively named “Central Jurisdiction,” thereby limiting their influence in the denomination for three decades, until this system was finally abolished in 1968. And while the national United Methodist Church publicly supported the civil-rights movement, most white Methodists in the pews rejected or simply ignored national denominational directives and actions. In the South, white Methodists and other mainline Protestants were hardly distinguishable from white Baptists in their support of a white-supremacist social order during the civil-rights era.
The history of white supremacy among white Catholics is more complex, but the connection to white supremacy is equally clear. With its roots in Western Europe, Roman Catholicism has a long history of colonialism, particularly in Africa and the global South, where centuries of atrocities against Black and brown peoples were justified by the conviction that white Christians were God’s chosen means of “civilizing” the world. In the United States, Catholics and Catholic institutions were prominent slaveholders in the 18th and 19th centuries and forced enslaved people to convert to the religion. In late-18th-century Maryland, for example, one-fifth of Catholics were enslaved people owned by white Catholics or white Catholic institutions. This post was adapted from Jones’s recent book.Given this pervasive history, it is well past time for white Christians to reckon with the racism of our past and the willful amnesia of our present. For most white Christians, this journey will be challenging because, as I have found, it is deeply personal. My 1815 family Bible gives witness to ancestors from middle Georgia who were Baptist preachers, slave owners, and Confederate soldiers. My family moved from Virginia to Georgia after receiving land grants as a reward for military service in the Revolutionary War. This occurred while the government was forcibly removing Native Americans from Georgia and supporting the growth of white settlements. Underneath the glossy, self-congratulatory histories that white Christian churches have written about themselves—which typically depict white Christians as exemplars of democratic principles and pillars of the community—is a thinly veiled, deeply troubling past. White Christian churches have not just been complacent or complicit in failing to address racism; rather, as the dominant cultural power in the U.S., they have been responsible for constructing and sustaining a project to protect white supremacy. Through the entire American story, white Christianity has served as the central source of moral legitimacy for a society explicitly built to value the lives of white people over Black people. And this legacy remains present and measurable in the cultural DNA of contemporary white Christianity, not only among evangelicals in the South but also among mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast.
In my day job, I am the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts research on issues at the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. I’m a social scientist by training and have always been fascinated by the ways in which beliefs, institutional belonging, and culture impact opinions and behaviors in public space. I strive to conduct research and write as an impartial observer. In our work at PRRI, we’ve found that white Christian groups—including evangelicals, mainline Protestants, and Catholics—consistently hold views that are at odds with African American Protestants’ views. The attitudes of nonreligious white Americans, conversely, tend to be more aligned with African Americans’. For white Americans, the data suggest that Christian identity limits their ability to see structural injustice, and even influences them to see themselves, rather than African Americans, as a persecuted group. For example, attitudes about what the Confederacy symbolizes today are one of the most noticeable differentiators among these groups. Last year, in a national survey of more than 2,500 Americans, PRRI found that 86 percent of white evangelical Protestants, along with 70 percent of white mainline Protestants and 70 percent of white Catholics, believe that the Confederate flag is more a symbol of southern pride than of racism. By contrast, only 41 percent of white religiously unaffiliated Americans and 16 percent of African American Protestants agree; approximately six in 10 religiously unaffiliated white people and three-quarters of African American Protestants see the Confederate flag mostly as a racist symbol.
Similarly, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of white Christians see the killings of African American men by police as isolated incidents rather than part of a broader pattern. There is some daylight here among white evangelicals (71 percent), white Catholics (63 percent), and white mainline Protestants (59 percent), but the differences are more a matter of degree than kind. And there is a 26-percentage-point gap between white Christians overall and religiously unaffiliated whites (38 percent agree they are isolated incidents) and a nearly 50-percentage-point gap between white Christians and African American Protestants (15 percent agree). These patterns—of nonreligious white people holding attitudes closer to African American Protestants’ than white Christians’ of all stripes—persist in question after question on issues of racial justice. In order to see this more clearly, I developed a Racism Index comprising 15 separate questions that cover four broad areas: attitudes about Confederate symbols; racial inequality and African American economic mobility; racial inequality and the treatment of African Americans in the criminal-justice system; and general perceptions of race and racism.
Analysis of the composite Racism Index confirms the general pattern: White Christians are more likely than white religiously unaffiliated Americans to register higher scores. The median scores reveal similar attitudes among white Christian groups. Not surprisingly, given their history and strong presence in the former states of the Confederacy, white evangelical Protestants have the highest median score (0.78) on the Racism Index. But the median scores of white Catholics (0.72) and white mainline Protestants (0.69) are not far behind. These numbers stand out compared with the median scores of the general population (0.57), white religiously unaffiliated Americans (0.42), and Black Protestants (0.24). Even when employing more sophisticated statistical models that control for a range of demographic characteristics, holding more racist attitudes is independently predictive of identifying as a white Christian and vice versa. The results of these models lead us to some remarkable and damning conclusions:
White Christians think of themselves as people who hold warm feelings toward African Americans, while simultaneously embracing a host of racist attitudes that are inconsistent with that assertion.
Holding more racist views is a positive independent predictor of white Christian identity overall and for each of the three white Christian subgroups individually. By contrast, holding more racist views has only a very weak effect on white religiously unaffiliated identity, and that effect is in the negative direction.
Attending church more frequently does not make white congregants less racist. On the contrary, there is a positive relationship between holding racist attitudes and white Christian identity among both frequent (weekly or more) and infrequent (seldom or never) church attenders.
When we reverse the analysis to predict racist attitudes, being affiliated with each white Christian identity is independently associated with an approximately 10 percent increase in racist attitudes. By contrast, there is no significant relationship between white religiously unaffiliated identity and holding racist attitudes.
Putting this in plain language, our models reveal that the more racist attitudes a person holds, the more likely he or she is to identify as a white Christian and vice versa.
Today, 400 years after the first enslaved African landed on our shores, and more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery in America, a combination of social forces and demographic changes has brought the country to a crossroads. We white Christians must find the courage to face the fact that the version of Christianity that our ancestors built, “the faith of our fathers” as the hymn celebrates it, was a cultural force that, by design, protected and propagated white supremacy. We have inherited this tradition with scant critique, and we have a moral and religious obligation to face the burden of that history and its demand on our present. Inaction is a tacit blessing on white supremacy’s continued presence as a Christian habit and virtue. Doing nothing will ensure that, even despite our best conscious intentions, we will continue to be blind to the racial injustice all around us. Members of West Point Baptist Church pray during a service at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Jacksonville, Ala. (Calla Kessler / The New York Times / Redux)White Christians must seek justice, rather than reconciliation, as the goal. Even when white Christians try to engage in this work, too many reach immediately for racial reconciliation, which they believe can be achieved through a straightforward transaction: white confession in exchange for Black forgiveness. For example, when the Southern Baptist Convention’s leaders issued a formal apology for defending slavery, opposing civil rights, and “condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime” at their national convention in 1995, they coupled it with a piece of contrived cultural theater that seemed to imply that a kind of magical reconciliation had instantaneously occurred. Reverend Gary Frost, a Black minister, rose to the podium to accept the apology and issued this brief declaration: "On behalf of my Black brothers and sisters, we accept your apology, and we extend to you our forgiveness in the name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ." The overwhelmingly white delegates erupted into applause. In less than 15 minutes, 150 years of Southern Baptist white supremacy was seemingly absolved. While some African Americans supported the apology, others were skeptical that it reflected meaningful change. This approach is really a strategy for making peace with the status quo, since it allows white Christians to move past the thornier issues of repair and restitution that real repentance requires.
If we are finally going to live into the fullness of the promise of liberty and justice for all Americans, we will have to recover from our white-supremacy-induced amnesia. Confronting historical atrocities is indeed difficult, and at times overwhelming. But if we want to root out an insidious white supremacy from our institutions, our religion, and our psyches, we will have to move beyond forgetfulness and silence. Importantly, as white Americans find the courage to embark on this journey of transformation, we will discover that the beneficiaries are not only our country and our fellow nonwhite and non-Christian Americans, but also ourselves. We will understand that this project is not an altruistic one, but rather a desperate life-and-death struggle for our own future.
As James Baldwin provocatively said in a speech nearly 50 years ago, the genesis of the civil-rights movement was when an oppressed and despised people began to wake up collectively to what had happened to them. The question today is whether we white Christians will also awaken to see what has happened to us, and grasp once and for all how white supremacy has robbed us of our own heritage and of our ability to be in right relationships with our fellow citizens, with ourselves, and even with God. We have to accept, given the way in which white supremacy has burrowed into our Christian identity, that refusing to address this sinister disorder in our faith will continue to generate serious negative consequences not just for our fellow Americans but also for ourselves and our children. Reckoning with white supremacy, for us, is now an unavoidable moral choice.
When the beast of Revelation 17 went to pick the whore of Revelations 17 for a ride: Trump continues religious focus amid George Floyd riots with visit to John Paul II shrine
When make America great Again meant , make America, racist, sexist, Anti-poor and predatory Again:Trump is an avowed sinner – so why did American evangelicals vote for him?
THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE: The Catholic Church is the Whore of Revelation 17:4 and USA is the Beast of Daniel 7:7, Revelations 17:3 :Similarities between Washington DC and Rome: Did you know that Washington DC was once called Rome?
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Channel surfing this AM I caught a meeting of ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ on C-Span. White House Spiritual Advisor Paula White-Cain was addressing the group on the importance of re-electing Trump.
Funny, how I have heard from more than one acquaintance that Trump was actually ‘Sent by God’. Where? I asked. Here? Donald Trump AKA THE DONALD, who makes the late John Gotti look like an amateur in the area of Teflon? HE was sent by God to do what, perhaps hasten up the coming Armageddon? After all, those phony ‘Love Israel while we await the Rapture’ Christians care as much for Jews as the Israeli Jews care for the Palestinians: ZERO! No, Trump represents what all those right wing Christians (Perhaps including Trump’s press secretary with her always visible crucifix?) really care about: Family values, no abortions and freedom from the Blacks and Browns… except when they need a Nanny or landscape worker on their estates. Oh yeah, and of course making sure that Amerika’s jackboot is permanently on the neck of those 3rd world countries… especially where the A-Rabs live.
So, Mr. Trump has had a history of misogynist behavior. The transcript from the conversation he had in 2005 about those ‘Kitty cats’ he just loved to grab and dominate could come straight out of what, The New Testament? Yet, those Bible thumping fools who think They own both Jesus AND our flag seem to overlook all he has said and done… for decades! I mean, because Trump said he made those comments in a ‘Private conversation’ trumps (no pun intended) any critique of it. It is like when we played stoopball, and someone yelled out ‘Hindu’ and said ‘Do over’. After all, this writer comes from Brooklyn, NYC and was blue collar all the way. I have made many foolish comments at times, but never speaking of women in that manner. Never!! I have had many wild times as a young man, but never behaved insuch a low class and savage manner. For it is low class and savage to grab a woman by her genitals and have with her. Oh, I forgot, Trump was such a star that the woman in question would not mind being manhandled that way. I have known ‘Working Women’ as they call them, who would not put up with that behavior… even at a price! Yet, the holy rollers just loved him in 2016 and again this year.
When the economy sinks faster than ‘A speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive..’ we won’t have Superman to save the day. If the ‘Trump thumping Evangelicals have their way, like it or not, we will step into a Fascist/Neo Nazi rabbit hole that will assure that the coming Time of Tribulation is before us!
When USA the 4th Beast of Daniel 7:7 Ordered its client the British Government to Detain Julian Asange: Assange Could Die in Prison, There Is No Time to Lose: Civil Liberty Vanishes. Free Assange. Suppressing Legitimate Dissent
JULIAN ASSANGE: HUNTED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT [A secularist whose courage to speak out against the wickedness of the American Empire puts Christians to shame]
THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE: The Catholic Church is the Whore of Revelation 17:4 and USA is the Beast of Daniel 7:7, Revelations 17:3 :Similarities between Washington DC and Rome: Did you know that Washington DC was once called Rome?
The book of hours on Julian Assange is now being written. But the scribes are far from original. Repeated rituals of administrative hearings that have no common purpose other than to string things out before the axe are being enacted. Of late, the man most commonly associated with WikiLeaks’ publication project cannot participate in any meaningful way, largely because of his frail health and the dangers posed to him by the coronavirus. Having already made an effort to attend court proceedings in person, Assange has come across as judicial exotica, freak show fodder for Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s harsh version of Judge Judy. He was refused an application to escape his glass commode when he could still attend in person, as permitting him to descend and consult his defence team in a court room would constitute a bail application of some risk. This reading by the judicial head was so innovative it even puzzled the prosecutors.
What we know to date is that restrictions and shackles on Assange’s case are the order of the day. Restricted processes that do nothing to enable him to see counsel and enable a good brief to be exercised are typical. Most of all, the ceremonial circus that we have come to expect of British justice in the menacing shadow of US intimidation has become gloomily extensive. On July 27, that circus was given yet another act, another limping performance. As before, the venue was the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London.
During the proceeding, Assange did appear via video link from Belmarsh Prison, albeit it an hour late, and only at the insistence of his legal team. The Guardian report on his presence reads like an account of a sporting engagement. “Wearing a beige sweater and a pink shirt, Assange eventually appeared from Belmarsh prison after an earlier attempt was aborted.”
Others were alarmed. During his call-over hearing, noted Martin Silk of the Australian Associated Press, “neither the Australian, nor his guards, were wearing face masks. I don’t understand the reason for that given we have to wear them inside shops.” This point was also made by Assange’s partner, Stella Moris: “Belmarsh hasn’t provided Julian with a face mask throughout this #covid crisis. The prison guards he interacts with don’t wear them either.” WikiLeaks supporter Juan Passarelli also felt that Assange “was having trouble following the proceedings due to the Judge and lawyers not speaking loud enough and into the microphones.”
Arrangements for the hearing for observers proved characteristically sloppy. Freelance journalist Stefania Maurizi was unimpressed by being on the phone for two hours during which she “couldn’t understand more than 20 percent of what has been discussed.” She was adamant that “UK authorities don’t care at all about international reporters covering” the Assange proceedings. “Dial in system is, as usual,” agreed Passarelli, “a shambles!”
The topic of discussion during this administrative hearing was what was announced by the US Department of Justice on June 24, namely the second superseding indictment. That document proved to be a naked exercise of political overreach, adding no further charges to the already heavy complement of eighteen, seventeen of which centre on the US Espionage Act. The scope of interest, however, was widened, notably on the issue of “hacking” and conferencing. Assange is painted as devilish recruiter and saboteur of the international secret order, a man of the conference circuit keen to open up clandestine governments and make various reasons for doing so. “According to the charging document, Assange and others at WikiLeaks recruited and agreed with hackers to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks.”
Edward Fitzgerald QC, in representing Assange, fulfilled his norm, submitting that the recently revised document did little to inspire confidence in the nature of clarified justice. “We are concerned about a fresh request being made at this stage with the potential consequences of derailing proceedings and that the US attorney-general is doing this for political reasons.” Fitzgerald reminded the court that US President Donald Trump had “described the defence case as a plot by the Democrats.”
This should have been obvious, but Baraitser’s court would have none of it. To admit at this point that Assange is wanted for political reasons would make it that much harder to extradite him to the United States, given that bar noted in the US-UK Extradition Treaty. Whilst it was good of Fitzgerald to make this point, he should know by now that his audience is resolutely constipated and indifferent to such prodding. Assange is to be given the sharpest, rather than the most balanced, of hearings. Accordingly, Baraitser insisted that Fitzgerald “reserve his comments” – she, in the true tradition of such processes, had not been supplied, as yet, with the US indictment. This made the entire presence of all the parties at the Westminster Magistrates’ not merely meaningless but decidedly absurd.
Assange’s defence team could draw some cold comfort from Baraitser’s comments that July 27 was the deadline for any further evidence to be adduced by the prosecution before the September extradition hearing. One exception was permitted: psychiatric reports.
The current chief publisher of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson had a few choice words for the prosecutors of Wikileaks. “All the alleged events have been known to the prosecution for years. It contains no new charges. What’s really happening here is that despite its decade start the prosecution are still unable to build a coherent case.” The scrapping of the previous indictments suggested that they were “flagrantly disregarding proper process.”
Assange is facing one of the most disturbing confections put together by any state that claims itself to be free. Should this stratagem work, the publisher will find himself facing the legal proceedings of a country that boasts of having a free press amendment but is keen on excluding him from it. What is even more troubling is the desire to expand the tent of culpability, one that will include press outlets and those who disseminate classified information.
To the next circus instalment we go: a final call-over hearing in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 14, then the September 7 extradition hearing, to be held at the Central Criminal Court most of us know as the Old Bailey. Will justice prove blind, or merely blinded?
Posted by Bruce Hausknecht | Jul 31, 2020 | The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) has a legendary history of bravery and esprit de corps when it comes to defending America’s freedom. From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the Corps hasn’t shrunk back from meeting any foe of the United States. So it may surprise some to learn that recently the Marines surrendered to a single activist who complained that an instructor at an upcoming seminar on strategy and tactics was a Christian.
The USMC scheduled an annual training for military lawyers earlier this month, at which the Battle of Gettysburg would be discussed. The instructor for one portion of that training was supposed to be Jay Lorenzen, an Air Force veteran who taught for 10 years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Lorenzen’s biography, provided to the military lawyers in advance of the training, included references to Christianity, including his affiliation with Campus Crusade for Christ, now known as Cru, and a couple of religious-themed courses he teaches in his spare time. Several of those lawyers complained to Mikey Weinstein, who heads up a secular, anti-Christian group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that Lorenzen was going to teach about religion. That allegation was false. It didn’t matter.
Weinstein, himself an Air Force veteran, is adamantly opposed to any form of Christian expression within the military, and immediately contacted the USMC to voice his displeasure at Lorenzen’s scheduled appearance at the training, calling Lorenzen a “fundamentalist Christian extremist parachurch official.” Within 64 minutes, according to Weinstein, the USMC informed him that the event had been canceled. It was replaced with an instruction regarding systemic racism within the military.
First Liberty Institute, a public interest law firm specializing in religious liberty, represents and has represented military personnel, including chaplains, who have seen their religious freedom rights unfairly and unconstitutionally curtailed by the various military branches. The legal firm is calling a foul.
Jeremy Dys is the Special Counsel for Litigation and Communications for First Liberty. In an op-ed this week, he explained why the USMC is making a big mistake in this case.
“Let us be very clear: the Marine Corps bravely cancelled a speaker chosen to lead a discussion on the battlefield tactics and leadership lessons of Gettysburg based upon his expertise as a retired military officer and academy professor because that retired officer, in his speaker’s bio, confessed to be religious and associated with a religious organization,” Dys said.
“Such open discrimination against people of faith is unbecoming of our beloved Marine Corps. From Article VI of the U.S. Constitution to cases like Trinity Lutheran to numerous Department of Defense (DOD) policies, the law is clear: the government cannot require a religious test for office, nor insist that religious people be excluded from benefits—like teaching to a class of Marine Corps reservists—because they are religious.”
In a statement furnished to Fox News, the USMC confirmed only that the event had been cancelled when scheduled attendees “raised concerns” about Lorenzen. When the Marines go into full retreat mode over the issue of religious freedom, it’s time for an explanation and some new direction from the Department of Defense. The treatment of this instructor should not be allowed to stand.
Protesters burn Bible, American flag as tensions rise in Portland
Protesters burned an American flag and a Bible in Portland, Oregon, sparking outrage just as weeks of violent demonstrations seemed to be coming to a close.
For more than 60 days, Black Lives Matter demonstrators, including a “Wall of Moms” and a “Wall of Vets,” have clashed with federal agents in the city, drawing national attention as authorities blasted marchers with tear gas and the civilians at times responded with weapons of their own — such as feces, bleach, bricks or batteries.
Friday night’s demonstrations were largely peaceful, appearing to mark a break from the chaos as federal agents made a recent deal to allow local authorities to handle the protests.
But just after midnight, marchers were caught on video using the flag and holy book as kindling for bonfires lit outside the federal courthouse, which has been a focal point of rioting after the death of George Floyd in police custody in May, according to a news report.
“Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland,” claimed Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter Saturday.
Enlarge ImageA US flag is burned next to a plastic pig in Portland, Oregon.EPAThe post featured a video that showed protesters with “Black Lives Matter” signs tossing Bibles into a raging bonfire. The video, which has gone viral, had more than 1.8 million views and thousands of retweets.
“Now we move to the book burning phase,” said Donald Trump Jr. in a tweet Saturday. “I’m pretty sure ANTIFA doesn’t actually stand for what they say it stands for. Maybe just remove the anti part of [their] name and it’s perfect,” he wrote.
The fire was later put out by members of Moms United for Black Lives Matter, who doused the flames with bottles of water and stomped on the embers, according to KOIN 6, a local CBS affiliate television station in Portland.
When ministers of Satan are used by the devil to prevent people from being born again: Devil anointed Prophet Samuel Kakande of Synagogue church of all nations Uganda buys acres of land belonging to the poor: Poor Peasants in Nabyewanga, on Masaka road resist being evicted by Prophet Samuel Kakande
Mbale High Court has evicted Pastor Michael Mukhono also known as Musayi (priest)from plot 9, Pallisa Road in Mbale Municipality after the rightful owner, an old woman, Alice Kimono Kimaswa,86, successfully challenged the pastor who is synonymous with land grabbing in Mbale Municipality.
The eviction order, also stopping the notorious pastor from collecting the rent from tenants of the said building was made by Her Worship Lillian C.N Mwandha on January 23, 2020 in the absence of Pastor Mukhono who is wanted by the same court on various cases related to land grabbing as well as others.
Mukhono, who some sources say financially comprises some of the security officials in the district, is into hiding and security in the whole Bugisu sub region has failed to trace his whereabouts as plaintiffs he grabbed their land from continue to suffer in court.
According to available records, Pastor Mukhono’s church was supposed to help the old woman Alice Kimono Kimaswa build a commercial building after which they would discuss how to compensate the church but upon finishing three floors, Mukhono turned against Ms Kimaswa and claimed ownership of the property located in Mbale’s city centre.
However, Ms Kimaswa says she also contributed money as a church member to kick start the project, only for the pastor to turn against her and look for ways of chasing her from her property. Mukhono had by force brought his family to stay on the old woman’s property despite protests from her family.
He would later in 2010 sue Ms Kimaswa claiming she was disorganising the construction process. Court did not agree with him and instead gave give a go ahead to finish the building, give Shs650,000 per month to the old Kimaswa but he never fulfilled any of the directives, claiming he has his own “heavenly powers)and that he does not respect court processes.
The eviction order also bars Mukhono from collecting rent from the old Alice Kimono Kimaswa’s property which has three levels. He has been collecting rent since 2006, without accounting for the funds.
Widow Kimaswa’s lawyer, Samuel Wekoye has written to tenants stopping them from paying monthly rent to Mukhono and now instead it will be paid to Ms Kimaswa, the true owner of the property as per available documents, including a land title and lease.
When asked Ms Kimaswa lauded her lawyer Wekoye and the court for “doing the right thing” at last as she has been in court since 2010 when Mukhono sued her. Ms Kimaswa has spent over Shs100 million and in legal fees and other costs and would want that money recovered when the main case (Civil Suit No.40 of 2019) is concluded as said by Her Worship Lillian C.N Mwandha.
Ms Kimaswa had tried several approached to have Mukhono evicted from her property. She had tried politicians and police but all these never gave any help. She also registered her case with Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s land commission but the widow was never helped for unknown reasons.
Records also show that Mukhono has not been compliant in paying tax to URA much as he claimed to be the landlord of the said property. Sources say he has been conniving with some of officers URA Mbale Branch.
Ms Kimaswa says she will consult her lawyers to see how she can pay the URA taxes, even though officials in URA Mbale Branch have some questions to answer as regards documentation.
Meanwhile Mukhono’s first lawyer, Magellan Olubwe of Olubwe & Co. Advocates deserted him after realising he could not win the case. Mukhono had to rely on the services of a second lawyer, Ronald Wetete who also could not stop court from issuing the order as he had no valid arguments.
On November 26, 2012; Justice V.T Zuhurikize while still at Mbale High Court issued a consent decree between the two sides, but it did not favour widow Alice Kimaswa as it favoured Pastor Mukhono, who started operating on the former’s plot from 2006 and has been collecting the rent he has never accounted for.
One of the directives was that Mukhono pays the old woman Shs650,000 per month as he completed the building. He never completed the building and stopped paying the old lady the money. Instead he used the money collected as rent from her property to set up other businesses in town, including a commercial building in Doko a few kilometres from Mbale’s city centre.
Her Worship Lillian C.N Mwandha established that order was wanting, as it lacked signatures key court officials and therefore dismissed it.
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs recently released a list of lawyers who are not supposed to represent anyone in court yet Olubwe does so under the watchful eye of Mbale High Court officials.
Residents of Namabasa also want the self-styled priest to be evicted from their area because he is a big problem to them. But they say the RDC Barasa Ogajo has always defended the man who also keeps a group of criminals who beat those opposed to him.
Mukhono not long ago organised his men who seriously beat and injured UMEME workers who had gone to disconnect his buildings due to nonpayment of electricity bills. That case is recorded at Mbale Central Police Station. Days ago his men also beat up residents over land, one is nursing serious injuries at Cure Hospital in Mbale.
Mukhono is also on record for attempting to grab about 70 acres of land from a family in Doko, neighbouring on Mbale-Tirinyi road the Sino-Uganda Industrial park in Mbale being developed by Tian Tang Group.
A religious cult with hundreds of followers in eastern Uganda, has stopped its followers from using modern medicine. Followers of Mt. Elgon Independent Baptist Mission which has 87 churches located in Mbale, Manafwa, Bududa and parts of Western Kenya believe in divine healing. Michael Muhono, the Mission Priest and founder, says members of his church turn to him for divine healing whenever they fall sick. The reclusive Muhono who claims to have got a vision from God in 1990 to start the religion says he intercedes between the followers and God.
Muhono explains that whenever a sick person comes to him he examines the person carefully to know the cause of their sickness and uses spiritual powers to offer healings. There's a way i examine#i Cue out i#iam beyond the treatment of hospital Muhono claims that his spiritual powers are usually very powerful on Saturdays between noon and 3.p.m where he is able to offer solutions to job seekers, the sick and people faced with court cases. // Cue in: iThey come on#i Cue out i#midday to threei // To Muhono members of his church should only seek medical treatment as a primary thing but turn to him.
However leaders of Pentecostal churches in Mbale have dismissed Muhono as a leader of a cult and asked government to investigate his activities. Chris Mukama, the Chairman of Mbale Pastors and Elders Association says the practices of Mt. Elgon Baptist Church are suspect and contradict the teachings of the bible. Mukama says government should intervene urgently and investigate the leaders of the cult. However the police say they are not aware of the existence of the church. Ibbin Ssekumbi, says the police can only investigate the church if it receives complaints or when it endangers the security of the people.
"I believe Muhammad is a false prophet; I would suggest that Muslims have a false understanding of God because they've been led by a false prophet," 30-year-old Joshua Sutcliffe explained in a video titled "What does the Bible say about False Prophets."
St. Aloysius' College invites Marxist leader Jeremy Corbyn"I know this is controversial, and I know that people might be offended by what I'm saying, but I do it in love and because I want to speak the truth," Sutcliffe, a mathematics teacher at St. Aloysius' College, Highgate, a leafy suburb of North London, said in his video.
St. Aloysius' College advertises itself as "privileged to be the oldest surviving foundation of its kind in the archdiocese of Westminster." It boasts that it previously celebrated the month of the Rosary with boys who "gave up their time to be together in prayer." Speaking to Church Militant on Tuesday, Sutcliffe said he began posting videos on YouTube in Oct. 2019. The videos on his channel are evangelistic and offer "biblical reflections."
"On Nov. 1, I was brought in the Head's office and told by the deputy head that I was being suspended for five days to be investigated for saying Mohammed is a false prophet. A Muslim parent complained about the video," Sutcliffe explained.
At the meeting, Sutcliffe offered to resign and signed a piece of ruled paper stating he would resign.
Jesus is the only true prophet because He is God in the flesh; He is the voice of God; He brings true revelation and understanding because He is God.Tweet
The next day, the teacher retracted his resignation writing to Associate Headteacher Andy English, "As you can imagine, emotions were running high for me yesterday. You could say that I was bullied into writing a letter of resignation."
Sutcliffe asked for a meeting to "look at other possible options" and offered to bring a friend along. When he received no response, Sutcliffe wrote a second letter on Aug. 4 officially retracting his resignation, which he was "trapped into submitting."
"I was taken out of the lunch queue in front of all the students. I was then paraded through the school, which was very humiliating, and told I had a meeting. I was then told that I was being suspended for five days!" he wrote.
"I do submit to the disciplinary proceeding," he added, asking: "Can you make it very clear, what you'd like me to do during this time, as I consider myself to still be an employee of St. Aloysius' College?"
However, his contract was terminated on Nov 1. At the time, a court order prevented him from being named by the media. The ban expired on Aug 1.
"I have not filed legal proceedings, although I understand there are good grounds to take them to tribunal because of the pressure they applied during the meeting," Sutcliffe noted. Sutcliffe's video affirms Jesus as "the only true prophet because He is God in the flesh; He is the voice of God; He brings true revelation and understanding because He is God."
All these people bring destructive heresies which are against the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and so they are false prophets.Tweet
Alongside Muhammad, the teacher also called out British celebrity Russell Brand, Mormon founder Joseph Smith and evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin as "false prophets." "All these people bring destructive heresies which are against the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and so they are false prophets," he said.
Sutcliffe called Russell Brand a "false prophet" Russell Brand has "got this multi-faith idea that all faiths lead to the top of the mountain," he noted. Sutcliffe's video carries a "trigger warning" stating, "Only watch if you can handle the truth." Church Militant contacted Headteacher Andy English, who describes himself as an "experienced senior leader with a demonstrated history of working in the secondary education industry." We asked English why Sutcliffe was terminated for expressing a view that has been the traditional and official position of the Catholic Church since the very inception of Islam. Church Militant also wrote to Catholic Education Services of England and Wales. No reply was received as of press time. In 1936, English Catholic thinker Hilaire Belloc wrote an essay declaring Islam to be a "heresy" and labeled Muhammad "the chief heresiarch." Islam "began as a heresy, not as a new religion. ... It was a perversion of Christian doctrine. ... It differed from most (not from all) heresies in this, that it did not arise within the bounds of the Christian Church," wrote Belloc. The Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, often used by liberal Catholics to color Islam favorably, does not mention Muhammad. The prophet of Islam is also not mentioned in the Catholic Catechism's statement on the Church's relationship with Muslims.
Islam began as a heresy, not as a new religion.Tweet
In 2017, Sutcliffe faced disciplinary action after he refused to refer to a transgender student by her preferred pronoun ("he"). "I did not intentionally refer to the pupil as a 'girl' and I do not believe it is unreasonable to call someone a girl if they were born a girl,” he stated.
Bp. Nicholas Hudson at St. Aloysius' College "While the suggestion that gender is fluid conflicts sharply with my Christian beliefs, I recognize my responsibility as a teacher and a Christian to treat each of my pupils with respect," he said. Sutcliffe took legal action against the Cherwell School in Oxfordshire after he was dismissed. Sutcliffe told Church Militant he has found "other means to earn an income." The teacher said he goes regularly into public square seeking out lost souls and making videos where he "discusses ideas that stand against biblical orthodoxy." Earlier this year, St. Aloysius' Collegehosted the Marxist and anti-Semitic Labor Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Last year, the National Education Union raised concerns about an "alleged bullying-management culture" at the Catholic boys' school. Around 150 students joined a protest outside school gates, demanding a change in management. The United Kingdom's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) gave the school a "requires improvement" rating — the second-worst rating — in 2019.
While reintroducing Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the NRM’s 2021 elections top-ticket-bearer, on July 28, 2020, Dr Tanga Odoi, the party’s electoral commission chairman, alleged that their candidate is 75 years of age. I stand to strongly disagree.
Although, Museveni’s age has always been the mysteriously unsolved puzzle, it is easier to nail it down using the available information - about his baptism, the age he started school and even his current looks (quite usual for a well-kempt individual).
In his book, Sowing the Mustard Seed, Museveni gives several details that are very helpful. Whereas he writes that he was barely three years old at the time of his baptism, normally, it is quite unusual for children to exhibit such memory of the detailed account of events which happened at that age. However, he provides very significant details.
First, that in the same year of Museveni’s baptism (1947), his parents also ‘abandoned their pagan faith and became Christians’. Therefore, since Museveni was born to parents who had not yet professed the Christian faith, they could not have been married in church.
He was Ekinyandaro (Runyankore) or Omwana w’Ekibi (Luganda) – that is exactly how the Native Anglican Church (NAC) regarded children born outside wedlock. Second, since his birth was not a product of a holy matrimony, he could not by any means, be received for infant baptism.
Until 1968, the canons of the NAC (which was eventually surnamed Church of Uganda in 1965), barred the baptism of children born outside Holy Matrimony. This canon was strictly observed, and priests would be defrocked for disobeying the canonical dictum.
Children born out of wedlock had to wait until a later age when they would be old enough to undergo the mandatory two-year’ Catechumen (Catechism) training offered by the lay-readers (Babulizi). Thereafter, they would be orally examined by the local parish priest before they were eventually allowed to be baptised.
Unlike today, this process was strictly observed and the ill-prepared students, who failed the parish-priest’s oral examination, would be dropped out of the process, and their baptism delayed until a later date, whenever they proved proficient enough. During the baptism service, all adults (younger and older), were required to outwardly profess their faith before being eventually baptised. Once again, those who were not ready could be dropped out, even at that late hour.
As an incentive for parents to send their children to school, [where they also learnt religion (Ediini)], the NAC required that the young adults acquire the ability to read and write before they were presented and accepted for baptism. The baptism candidates underwent an arduous preparatory process during which they read out the words of the catechism to the lay-reader, and later on, to the examining parish priest.
The age for attaining such proficiency before adult baptism could not by any means be any younger than eight years, in most cases, it was 10 years of age. The former was common for children from urban settings while the latter was common for children from rural areas.
In one of the very first presidential addresses, regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, (available on Youtube), Museveni gave another relevant detail when he revealed that he started school when he was eight years old. That detail was so amazing to me, although it led me into the temptation of assuming foul-play. I couldn’t understand how somebody who knew his age when he started school, could not tell his age – after he became President in 1986.
Could it be that Museveni has always been aware of his exact age, but chose to keep it a secret thereby flouting Ugandans into suspense as a means of perpetuating his presidency?
If, Museveni started school in January of that year when he was eight years old, later in September of the same year, he turned nine. Similarly in September of his second grade year he turned 10. To this day, most children from the rural schools become proficient readers towards the end of second grade.
These details only stand to affirm that Museveni must have been introduced for baptism when he was around 10 years old – an age appropriate for having such a vivid memory of the event – the way he does.
Putting one and one together, it is, therefore, obvious that the man who was probably baptised when he was 10 years old, and later celebrated his 70th baptism anniversary in 2017, plus the three years since that celebration, will be turning 83 years old, come September 2020.
Rev John Ssebalugga Kalimi is an Anglican priest, a Church historian and student of Canon Law.
Churches are of course, important when the situations are normal.. This implies that in abnormal situations like COVID 19, they are bogus and useless.
Churches are of course, important when the situations are normal.. This implies that in abnormal situations like COVID 19, they are bogus and useless.
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The refusal by President Museveni to lift lockdown on churches is proof that he is worshipper of BACHWEZI DEVILS instead of the Lord Jesus Christ: Museveni rejects pleas by Evangelical pastors to open places of worship
5) The negative groups also try to lecture me about the importance of the church and mosques, not knowing probably, that they are talking to the former President of the Scripture Union at Ntare School and a Bible enthusiast of some little weight. The one thing the actors should be careful about is bringing hypocrisy in the House or work of God. You remember what happened to Ananias? In the book of Acts, chapter 5. He deceived God and died promptly.
When you press for the unplanned opening of places of Worship or criticize our actions on that, are you bearing in mind the safety of the children of God or are you thinking about something else? Be careful with that side of opportunism. Churches and mosques are, of course, important when the situations are normal. However, "Ruhaanga ari omu myaanya yoona" - God is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent and He cannot be duped. The Inter - Religious Council (IRC) is discussing with the scientists until they find a safe-way of re-opening. Many of our scientists are devout Christians or Moslems.
Museveni responds to hostile, negative, arrogant people
On one user who says they do not have time to read his long essays, President Museveni responds: "Unfortunately, problems in the world are not short. Many are long and need long analysis."
President Yoweri Museveni has taken to social media to respond to a number of his followers on a number of issues.
Below is the President's missive:
_____________________________
Countrymen, Countrywomen and, especially the Bazukulu.
Greetings again from the old man with a hat. When I last sent out a missive, it was talking about the prominent Ugandans that had died and what I knew about them. These were: Kirunda, the footballer; Kasirye - Ggwanga, Erica Mukasa, Bell and Nkeera. 489, 235 saw the message by the time I got the printout and many reacted- some positively and some negatively. The responses were in three categories: the positive, the positive but unhappy with the lockdown and the hostile, negative and arrogant.
I salute the positive responders such as Alierson, Brian, Henseley, Arabian Restaurant, Jordan, Sebunya Shafique, HBB, Vice-President small Acco, Mcedgars, Naiga Mooza, Owori Moses, DewishJa, Jesus Loves you, Mulekwa, Godfrey, Ryder 256 (only worried about my hair-style), Kiganira Enock, Kip , Weyale Andrew, Busobozi Emmanuel, Raymond, Lwanga Charles, Hussein Sadda, Moseyz K Kiribwaz, Kasule David, Shisha Elijah, Kairanga Moses, Paul Opolot, Mujjuzi (who informed me about footballer Fimbo Mukasa that needs support), Tamale Mirundi, Sanford, Mugweri, Fix¬_IT, Publicity Nateete (that advised me to put ykm when I write myself), Paul Kirimbi, Twende Kazi Uganda (but they need capital), Knight king talking about Makerere Ventilators, The ancestor (wants bibanda to open), Dr. Jenipher Tigs, Kiranda David, Zigo, Born Word Radio (inviting me for Bible Society), etc. I thank and salute these positive responders.
The second category, are the ones that were positive but were not happy with the lockdown. These were appreciating the NRM work but pointing out that the lockdown has killed some businesses, many jobs and created hardships for many families. They were also complaining about the indiscipline of the LDUs. What we need to remind ourselves is that while we do not have a direct cure against COVID-19, there are alternatives to all the other problems and inconveniences as we shall see.
However, before I go into those in details, let me first mention the third category. These are hostile, negative, rude and arrogant. It will be my pleasure to dismantle their erroneous and dangerous positions.
Before I go for each category, I need to thank all responders and also congratulate the NRM for its good work. I congratulate both the responders and the NRM because it is only people who are alive that post on social media. I, therefore, congratulate the responders for using the gift of life to positively, negatively or maliciously post on social media. I also congratulate the NRM for decisively contributing to keeping the responders alive by immunizing them when they were young and for aggressively keeping at bay the coronavirus since it descended on us in March, 2020, by using the lockdown method.
The USA, which is a highly modernized country, has lost, in these few months, 152,000 people according the CNN news of Saturday. The USA has a population of 328 million people. This means that the population of the USA is 7 times bigger than ours. If we divide the population of the USA by a factor of 45 million, it would mean that if the same death rate had descended on us, we would, by now, have lost 152,000 divided by 7, a figure of 21,717 dead people from the coronavirus. If you were to democratically distribute this to the 135 districts, each district would have, by now, lost 160 people from COVID-19. I am, therefore, very proud, with the assistance of God, to have, so far, stopped such scale of deaths descending on Ugandans. David Cisse Sisye calls me a "disgrace". I am very proud to be a disgrace that saved Ugandans. At one time I was called a bandit. Nothing new.
I congratulate the NRM for, in addition to immunization and the lockdown, defending the Ugandans and Bazukulu from war and terrorism so that, before the lockdown, they could have the bikesa (transnights) etc. You remember the Bijambiya? What happened to them? They were defeated. I also congratulate the NRM for guaranteeing freedom of speech where the social media actors, for instance, can insult everybody with no repercussions. That is not very common in Africa. I enjoy it except where the unwise want to cause insecurity and unconstitutionalism and those who say there is no danger from corona like Doreen Kyohairwe said.
Again, I salute the positive responders and I welcome the positive suggestions like the idea of sports without audiences that have been tried in other countries of Europe.
There are also ideas of isolating the tourism areas that I saw in Cuba. However, all this must be subsidiary to life. I salute the positive but unhappy responders but I would like to advise them on their stand of let us reopen with SOPs. I totally agree. If any activity can be reopened with safety, with SOPs, then let us do it. The people involved should agree with the scientists. [Health minister Jane Ruth] Aceng is not the only scientist. There are very many quiet and serious scientists who will produce good results for Uganda if they are assisted. Aceng stumbled into a mistake. She is not, however the only scientist. She apologized to me and to you, the citizens.
Any activity that can be opened safely, with SOPs, will be opened. I am one of the people most interested in good economic performance. However, economic performance should never be more important than lives. If you care about the people, you cannot say that an activity that can cause mass death should be tolerated because it is bringing money. Female circumcision in Sebei had to be stopped when science proved that it was dangerous. This was a big economic activity for those female cutters. That is why they still try to operate underground. With new problems, cultural and spiritual practices should, if no alternative, change. With AIDS, Bishop Misaeri Kawuma, on my encouragement, started doing away with the shared communion cups in the Church of Uganda. Banyankore used to share drinking straws (ebishekye), clothes, etc., until science told them of the health hazards. We decampaigned those practices as Bukafiiri (lack of enlightenment). The good thing is that corona is not likely to be here forever without a solution. Indications are that we shall, most probably, get a vaccine and a cure. The problem is the interim. I cannot accept the logic that let people die but we make money.
Both category two and three are making the mistake of comparing the incomparable. Some say, people are dying from lack of money, lack of jobs etc., just as they would die from corona. This is wrong. Dying from corona has no treatment other than supporting the body to fight or avoiding. Other diseases, even AIDS now, have solutions - medical solutions - drugs that either cure or control the disease. There are scientific solutions. The rest is organizational boda boda and taxis taking women to hospital. If there is a problem, the possibility of causing mass death, with the boda boda, let us look for another way. Let the pregnant woman go early and be near the dispensary. You cannot rationally say that we insist on the boda boda whether it will spread the dangerous disease or not because we must make money. The only way to defend the boda boda is to render it undangerous to the people. Therefore, that argument is wrong.
If some of the economic activities cannot pass the test of safety with this pandemic, are there no alternatives? In about 1350AD, there was a muchweezi man in the Ssembabule area (Bweera) who was a cattle keeper. It seems the cattle died and he shifted to Ssese and became a fisherman. The Banyankore were calling him Mugasha. In Ssese, he became Mukasa (Lubaale w'enyanja). When there was the war of Kony, many Northerners came to the lake. They are now fishermen. Economic activity is Omwooga (an area of economic specialisation). It is not comparable to life (amagara, obulamu). There is no alternative to one's life.
There are activities that were never suspended: commercial farming, manufacturing, fisheries sector, internal tourism, artisanship, cargo transporting, produce buying and recently public transport etc.
The other wrong argument of the two categories is the line that LDUs, by mistake, have killed some people and the police have misbehaved here and there and, therefore, dying by corona is the same. Wrong. Why? Every LDU that has killed a person is in jail and is on trial. The coronavirus has killed 700, 000 (emitwaaro nshaanju) in the world. Who has arrested the coronavirus? In which court is it on trial? Besides, the LDU shooting a person and being arrested becomes a lesson for others not to repeat the mistake. An infected corona person will infect 20. That is how the problem snowballs and becomes unmanageable. It is the total reverse of the LDU problem.
Coming to category 3 - the hostile, the negative and the arrogant, here below are their positions:
1) You old man, you are too weak, you must retire and hand power to the capable young people. The NRM answer, young and old, is that politics (which means management of society) is not biology (young, old, woman, man) but ideology. Ideology is like diagnosis of a patient and prescribing treatment. Similarly, political actors, individuals or groups, must first carry out diagnosis of the society they want to lead and prescribe a cure in the form of ideology, strategy and programmes (manifesto).
The ideology of the NRM right from the early days, is based on 4 principles: Patriotism - love Uganda; Pan-Africanism - love Africa; Social - economic transformation - (from peasantry to middle and skilled working classes); and democracy (power of the people, by the People, for the people).
This love for Uganda (anti-sectarianism) and love for Africa (Pan-Africanism) is not a fashion or mere slogans. It is because that is the only way we can guarantee the prosperity of each of us by creating big markets for our products. Currently, we have surplus sugar, surplus milk, surplus maize, surplus bananas etc. In some parts of Africa, they have need for these products. That is why the NRM always works for the integration of Africa - both economic and political. Social- economic transformation is in order to create a modern Ugandan - educated and knowledgeable.
That is how many of you are on social media, using the internet and the telephone systems the NRM put in place. You are not shouting across valleys with unaided voices (okweeta, kuyita, etc.), but using the systems that the NRM put in place. Democracy is how you are able to give your frank opinions, vote for the ones you prefer, socialize freely the way we have been doing until COVID-19 came in. Every principle of the NRM has got serious implications for the destiny of the Black and African races (nations). Therefore, please, discuss these issues seriously and with respect so that we get correct solutions. Number one and number two mean maximum unity within Uganda and economic and political integration in Africa and number three and four are clear. These are very serious historical tasks where we need all people capable to contribute. That is how the NRM Govt is a multi-generational Govt of grandparents, parents and grandchildren. That is how Uganda has developed so much and has become an island of stability. How would 1.4 million refugees come here if it was not for stability?
That is how we have defeated the combined problems of the rising waters, the landslides, the locusts and the virus, the latter being a phenomenon that the negative group were cursing as to why we should have a lockdown when nobody has died. Well, they have recently been rewarded with five deaths from corona. I am in leadership because my party nominated me and I accepted because I know there is work for all of us to do. The majority of the people in Govt are young people, but young people working with the old ones: Museveni, Moses Ali, Kivejinja, Rugunda etc yes; however, also Namuganza, Evelyn Anite, Kasolo, Kibuule, Galabuzi, Tumwebaze, Kaducu, Bahati, Adoa, Kasule Lumumba etc. It is a solid group: ideology, experience and energy of youth in a combined package.
If you are not happy with this, you have your parties. Peacefully, compete for votes like the others have done: Mzee Ssemwogerere, Besigye, Mama Miria, the late Mzee Ssebaana, Mayanja Kibirige etc.
To argue for only biology and not ideology is a disaster for the country. Actually, that is what happened at Independence, in 1962. All the leaders were young: Obote-35; Muteesa-39, Kakonge-26, Ibingira-28; Nekyon-28; etc. The only one in his 40s may have been BK Kirya or maybe Nadiope. What happened? Disaster. Biology did not work. Idi Amin was 39, I had forgotten.
2) Why is this old man always talking about history, bush etc. etc.? Oh dear!! Why do we read the Bible? Why do we read the Quran? They are old books but with a lot of wisdom. They were also inspired by God. The NRM documents were not inspired by God like the Holy Books; but they capture a rich experience. Nobody can stop me from talking about the glorious history of the People of Uganda.
However, coming to the missive I sent out on the 14th of July, 2020, it was actually a subject of history. Some of our important people had died: Ggwanga, Erica Mukasa, Kirunda, Nkeera, Bell, Sikaji earlier on. I had been too busy with the virus, but I had been reading commentaries in the newspapers and, of course, I had a lot of information about the people being talked about except some of the ones that were active in the 20 years of our struggle 1966-1986. I knew that I would talk about the virus and the lockdown later. It was, therefore history, history.
3) Some of the group accused me of singing the same song all the time. First of all, there is everything right with singing the same song for a long time. It is called consistency. As long as the problems persist, we must address them until they vanish. How long have we been fighting with the problem of subsistence farming? I started dealing with the problem of subsistence farming in 1966 in North Ankole. There, it has been partially dealt with. We broke off to fight wars in 1971 and for 16 years, we were away. I resumed dealing with the problem until 1995, when I got good results; I started my countrywide campaign of bonna bagagawale. Up to now, many of the communities are still Kukolera Kidda kyoonka, tic me cam keken. Should I leave this unsolved problem and start singing Hollywood songs and watching European Clubs of football only? No, NRM sings old songs as long as they are needed and new songs as is necessary. In 1986, the song was to deal with shortages of sugar, soap, paraffin, textiles, beer, etc. Where are the shortages now? Instead, the song now is how to market surplus sugar, surplus electricity, surplus maize, surplus milk, surplus industrial products etc. Be serious.
4) The other wrong malignment is trying to cast the NRM as a system monopolized by people from western Uganda. Since you are allergic to history, otherwise, I would have reminded you that much of my time I was in Tanzania, Mozambique etc. How many Banyankore or Westerners were there? We fought in the Luwero Triangle. Many Ugandan groups were there: Baganda, Banyankore, Barugwaara, Baruuru, Barundi, Banyarwanda, Baruuli, Banyoro.
There was an unclear picture trying to show some army people. Kindly, leave our Armed Forces out of the nonsense of tribal debates. They have serious work to do and they have done it well. Leave them out of your confusion. The only point one can say about that is recruitment in the Armed Forces is by quotas per district. You check during the recruitment time. However, you can look at your fellow civilian officers. Here in the Presidency, I am quite comfortable without many Banyankore, or, indeed, any munyankore around.
1) Mitala- Unless he became a munyankore today - Head of Civil Service. ii) Katuramu- Westerner- Kabalega's land; iii) President's Office - Kakande- only munyankore through enkaanda, otherwise muganda from Ddwaniro- Masuliita. iv) State House Comptroller- Nakyobe - only guilty on the nkaanda side, Muganda of some place. v) PPS to the President- Omona - Originally Acholi, but somehow Kumamunized by residence.
I am quite comfortable without any big Munyankore in the vicinity. Do not tell us about those cheap things of tribes and religious sectarianism. The LDUs that you are complaining about were all recruited from Kampala and Wakiso. Are you trying to say that people of Wakiso and Kampala are bad because of mistakes of individuals against laid down laws, who are, moreover, punished for those mistakes?
5) The negative groups also try to lecture me about the importance of the church and mosques, not knowing probably, that they are talking to the former President of the Scripture Union at Ntare School and a Bible enthusiast of some little weight. The one thing the actors should be careful about is bringing hypocrisy in the House or work of God. You remember what happened toAnanias? In the book of Acts, chapter 5. He deceived God and died promptly. When you press for the unplanned opening of places of Worship or criticize our actions on that, are you bearing in mind the safety of the children of God or are you thinking about something else? Be careful with that side of opportunism. Churches and mosques are, of course, important when the situations are normal. However, "Ruhaanga ari omu myaanya yoona" - God is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent and He cannot be duped. The Inter - Religious Council (IRC) is discussing with the scientists until they find a safe-way of re-opening. Many of our scientists are devout Christians or Moslems.
6) There is a dangerous line by Agnes Akullo who was saying that God will protect us and we should not bother to take precautions. We should just open the schools. In the book of Genesis, God created man in His image (God's image) and directed him (man) to establish "dominion over the creations", including the viruses.
7) Then there is the attack on the old man with a hat. "Why are you writing long essays? We do not have time to read long pieces". Unfortunately, problems in the world are not short. Many are long and need long analysis. If the social media contributors only deal with short issues, they may not be able to deal with protracted issues.
8) I welcome the comments about the corrupt police that extorts money to give exemptions in the lockdown. Why don't you expose them? Ring Nakalema's number 0800202500. If she does not, or her office does not, come to your rescue, put the issue on social - media here with facts. Besides, you are the ones that elect the Local Councillors to the district, to KCCA, the municipalities; you are the ones who elect the MPs of all types - Constituency MPs, Women MPs, MPs for the Disabled, Workers' MPs etc. If you confront a problem of officials or policemen extorting money, why don't you confide in any of those? There is no corrupt person that we cannot deal with. However, we need evidence. It is true that the corrupt people will try to hide the evidence. However, if you confide in the leaders you elected, whether they are opposition or NRM, we can trap these thieves. You saw what happened to the thieves in the Prime Minister's office. Use Nakalema or the leaders you elected. Or put it in the social - media. However, get some evidence. Of course, the lGP and his senior officers should also carry out inspection. I may ask one of my retired police officers to go through the population and find out information about these thieves. However, whatever you say about the LDUs, they have helped us to fight the criminals that were attacking factories, the bijambiyas etc. Their mistakes are being sorted out by re-training and punishing those who make mistakes.
9) Finally, for now, one point of principle. FAD wondered why I use Bazzukulu which is a Luganda word. Why don't I use the Runyankore word, abaijukuru? Then FAD added: "Otweesibako" (you tie yourself on us when you are not welcome). FAD, munnange nkwesibako Kubanga nkwetaaga nsobole kubeela obulungi (prosperous). Atte, naawe FAD, singa oleengela wala, wandibadde onesibako kubanga onetaaga osobole okubeela obulungi. I tie myself on you because I need you for my prosperity. Also, if you could see far, you should be tying yourself on me because you need me for your prosperity. How? FAD is one, most probably, of the people that buy my milk from Rwakitura and bananas from Ntungamo. Hence, FAD is supporting my prosperity. Yoweri Museveni and all the non-Baganda that live in Kampala are also buying a lot of things from the Baganda shops in Kampala.
Hence, Museveni and other non-Baganda in Kampala, plus the Baganda of course, we are supporting the prosperity of many Baganda businessmen. What does FAD do? Therefore, if you do not love Museveni and do not welcome him and other non-Baganda in your midst, you are, actually, an enemy of the Baganda first and foremost and enemy of Africa. Why? Kubanga olinya musowaani kwebaliira - you are stepping in the plate from where the respective group feed (that prosperity). I hope the ones that wanted to understand our thinking and the facts have benefitted from my long essay.
When Pope Francis’ paganism baffles even Catholics: When silly Catholics think they can reform the catholic church : The catholic church is rotten with pagan filth, you cannot reform it : Just get out of mystery Babylon
Jude Mbabaali, the DP candidate for Masaka LC V chairperson\'s seat praying at Father Ngobya's Grave
The grave of the late Monsignor Aloysius Ngobya of Kitovu Cathedral in Nyendo Masaka has become a busy place as politicians seek spiritual blessings ahead of the 2016 polls. Ngobya's grave is located at Kitovu Cathedral in Nyendo-Ssenyange Division in Masaka municipality.
The late Ngobya died in 1986. Masaka Diocese declared his grave a holy shrine in 2013 because the late Ngobya is believed by some Christians to perform miracles. In 2012, a team of priests from the Vatican exhumed Ngobya's remains to get scientific evidence to pave way for his canonization.
Vatican is yet to pronounce itself on the matter. In January this year, Masaka Diocese launched fresh inquiries to hunt for scientific evidence to prove reports that Ngobya performs miracles to back up their push for him to be declared a saint. Although the chances of declaring the late Father Ngobya a saint are still slim, his grave has become a center of attraction for politicians seeking victory in the 2016 polls.
Some of those who have flocked the grave for spiritual blessings include the incumbent Bukoto East Member of Parliament and vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, Joseph Kalungi, the incumbent Masaka LC 5 Chairman, Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga and Bukomansimbi Woman MP Susan Namaganda.
Jude Mbabaali, the Democratic Party candidate for the Masaka LC V chairperson's seat and Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga believe that the late Reverend Father Ngobya intercedes for them through prayers. Mbabaali says he has achieved a lot through praying at Ngobya's grave. According to Mbabaali, he hopes for victory in the coming elections after praying at Ngobya's grave.
Matia Mulindwa Kagugube, an Independent candidate for the Masaka district LC V chairperson's seat has also visited Ngobya's grave for prayers. Kagugube says he went to the grave to pray so that he wins the 2016 general elections. Kagugube says as a staunch catholic believer, he believes Ngobya can help him achieve his political ambitions.
Francis Kimuli, who seeks to retain his Buwunga sub county LC 3 chairperson's seat says he prayed at the grave in the 2011 polls, which saw him win the seat. According to Kamuli, he has been praying at the grave since he was a young boy.
Reverand Father Henry Kasule of Kitovu Cathedral says Ngobya\'s grave remains an attraction because of the testimonies given by those who have experienced his miracles. According to Father Kasule, people of all walks of life from as a far as Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and Kenya flock father Ngobya's grave for blessings.
He says of the late the grave has become a center of attraction for politicians vying for different political offices. Reverend Father Edward Ssekabanja, the Chancellor Masaka Diocese says they are still hunting for genuine scientific evidence to submit to Rome for the canonization of father Ngobya.
He says some of the evidence that was earlier on submitted was more of religious and theoretical, which couldn't be relied on to canonize Father Ngobya.
Exhibits that were seized by UNBS at Buganda Road Court. Photo by Ramadhan Abbey
