Musaazi NAMITI | SUNDAY THOUGHT
Question: If a newspaper has been shut down by a government that claims that it is biased, and there is uncertainty about when its staff will be paid or whether they will keep their jobs, how can prayers resolve the matter?
In my humble opinion, they can do little or nothing. You cannot measure their efficacy. You cannot see how they can persuade the person or individuals who shut down the paper to reopen it.
You cannot turn them into money that buys groceries or pays rent. A Daily Monitor employee who needs to consult a doctor, for example, and does not have medical insurance cannot go to hospital and somehow find that they do not have to pay the bill because of prayers.
Yet the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba, prayed fervently for Daily Monitor staff and, by extension, the staff of the paper’s sister broadcasters—NTV, Spark TV and Ddembe FM—who have been affected by the shutdown.
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“We love you, we pray for you, be assured of our prayers, and I trust the Lord will take care of you even amidst this,” Archbishop Kaziimba prayed.
He went on: “The Lord will take care of your daily bread, the Lord will take care of your daily challenges, the Lord will take care of your daily living, the Lord will take care of your daily food and clothing, the Lord will take care of you.
“Don’t resort to drinking alcohol, don’t resort to—some others resort to even visiting, go to witchcraft [sic]. No, that cannot help you. It’s only God who knows you. The Psalms said, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I’m not a lamb [sic].’”
You can argue that for a religious leader, offering prayers to people facing problems is only to be expected. In fact, some people swear that prayers work for them. But what happens when prayer becomes the response to problems that require human accountability?
Rightly or wrongly, Ugandans have accused Archbishop Kaziimba of siding with the government and failing to speak out against repression, torture and abductions.
Curiously, he did not question the legality of shutting down media outlets by security forces when the Uganda Communications Commission and the Media Council could have addressed the matter.
He resorted to prayer. But pivoting to prayer, instead of speaking out, takes us back to the age-old way religion appears to provide solutions to problems when, in fact, it is doing little or nothing.
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DISCLOSURE: The author writes a column for the Weekend Monitor as an independent contractor.
🔴 Sunday Thought cuts through the noise of prayer, piety and superstition to ask the questions most people avoid. It discusses God, faith and religion—not to preach, but to probe, challenge and sometimes unsettle. Whether you believe, doubt or have stopped looking altogether, Sunday Thought will make you think, question and maybe even rethink everything you thought you knew about the divine—and about life itself.