Without Museveni, Born-again faith will vanish – Serwadda

Pastor Joseph Serwadda, the Lead Pastor at Victory Church in Ndeeba last weekend delivered a warning to his congregation and the wider Christian community last weekend that the church faces tough times after a change of government.

Serwadda, a member of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, warned that the Born-again faith in Uganda survives today not only because of its spiritual mission but also because of crucial political backing. 

Without this backing, he said, the faith would not last long due to the extensive number of enemies it has in high offices.

“In Uganda, they cannot introduce a bill banning the Born-Again church and it fails to pass in Parliament. It is not possible,” he declared.

“There is not a single religion that would stand up to save us. All born-against Christians are equally hated regardless of their tribe or age. In every region, if you are a born-again, you are an outcast. We are only surviving.”

The pastor during a sermon, gave an example of an unnamed prominent political leader in Jinja who recently vowed to “turn all Balokole churches into grain stores,” once elected into office.

Serwadda says the survival of his faith is now heavily contingent on President Yoweri Museveni who has repeatedly been pushed to ban them and chose not to.

“Some people go as far as accusing us of being bewitched because we support President Museveni. But Museveni is the only one that looked the other way. He said, ‘the Born Agains must be left alone. We shall go after them only when they are involved in crime.’” he said.

“He left us alone and indeed in the years he has been in office; we have benefitted a lot because he turned a blind eye. God will decide when he takes him away but the time he’s been around, we have benefitted.”

The Born-again movement, sometimes referred to in local Luganda as Balokole, has seen tumultuous growth in Uganda over the past decades. 

Although Christianity had deep roots in the country since the late 19th century, the independent Pentecostal and Evangelical churches associated with the Born-again identity expanded rapidly from the 1960s onwards. 

However, during the dictatorship of President Idi Amin, who came to power in 1971, a sweeping clampdown on religious organisations occurred. 

In 1977, Amin’s government abolished or banned a range of Christian groups, including several Pentecostal and evangelical ministries, as part of a broader policy that limited formal recognition to only a few mainline faiths such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox churches. 

Many Born-again believers were forced underground or into home fellowships to maintain their worship in secret.

After Amin’s fall in 1979, Uganda entered a period of relative religious freedom that allowed these charismatic expressions of Christianity to flourish. 

By the time Museveni came to power in 1986, the movement was beginning to take root more visibly.

According to statements from President Museveni and recent reporting, when he assumed leadership in the mid-1980s, some influential religious figures urged him to ban the Born-again movement. 

Museveni reportedly refused, telling opponents that if there were false prophets among them, “God will deal with them” rather than the state doing so. His decision effectively granted the movement freedom to worship and expand.