What a month! August 2020, COVID-19 still dominated the headlines in Uganda, alongside the
political atmosphere that was expected to be heating up around this time. Joshua Cheptegei
continued to engrain his name on gold, making the Pearl of Africa proud. However, it will also go
down in history, that August 2020 was also the month a Church building in Ndeeba, Kampala, was
taken down in the dead of night. (https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Church-demolition-
Ndeeba-St-Peter-KCC-Dodovico–Covid19/688334-5609768-8r3c24/index.html).

As most Ugandan affairs are managed, you could almost predict the script once a particular name was mentioned to be involved. After a few days of mourning, ranting, fire-spitting and media show-offs, a mild denial and a promise of UGX. 60 Billion through Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) quietened things down. At least temporarily. Please don’t ask me about sources, and whether the promised funds will get to the final beneficiaries in its entirety.

Amidst all the back and forth, mine is to do the unpopular task of checking whether we still have
the option to love Dodoviko Mwanje and his “friends”. Or now that we’ve been assured by those
whom we already love, who possibly love us, that we will get back the land, and rebuild the fallen
sanctuary using newer and stronger materials perhaps, we plan to “kulumya those Abayaye”!
In his story of triumph under fire in the midst of suffering and persecution, Bp. Festo Kivengere
talks about “Loving Idi Amin Dada”! Was something wrong with him? What would make
anyone, let alone a Bishop, who has lots of other people to love, to love a murderous dictator? I
have been told by an Atheist in objection to Christianity; “How do you claim to love me, and yet
you also love my enemy! What sort of love is that?! Who is fooling who?” You can imagine the
Hypocrisy Detector flashing RED with a very loud noise!

Shall I say that my atheist friend knows nothing about love? How dare I! I love my children; he
loves his wife; I love my car, he loves his job; I love the Lord; he Loves science …. We both
“love”! But are there perhaps different things we know about this world’s most used and most
abused four-letter word?

One of the most popular biblical texts in church circles is about Love: 1 Corinthians 13. Yet one
of the unpopular ones too, is about Love: Matthew 5:38-48. Squarely, the Biblical story is about
the God who loves. In the case of the above mentioned texts, one is popular because it can be used, though sometimes misappropriately, at weddings. It is naturally preferred for the invitation to a shorter journey of bearing with those we already love.

However, the other remains unpopular because it concerns the very core of issues that confront
every believer and every human that contemplates following Jesus. It is an invitation to a longer
journey through our hearts, to find genuine love for the one who hates us. Indeed denying of self
and following Jesus to the cross, while carrying your own – except that you don’t get nailed on it.

In Jesus’ own words;
Retaliation
“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But
I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take
your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one
mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not
refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Love Your Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the
tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are
you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore
must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:38-48

I love Mzee Dodoviko, and his friends, so much, that I want them to know the truth! My prayer
and hope is that they will not start hiding at the sight of any clergyman or church leader – perhaps that’s why he easily handed himself to court, and is now on remand. Rather, I do hope and pray that they will feel overwhelmingly welcome to enter any church door- even the one we plan to rebuild.

But even before that, imagine them showing up, first to a breakfast we are hosting, where they
voluntarily acknowledge their wrongdoing and apologise to the church. Ask God and Christians
for forgiveness, and pledge, by God’s grace, to work with the church to build a memorial, a
monument that would change a nasty story into a great Revival in our nation! Why not? It was in
this nation that Bp. Kivengere loved Idi Amin, and it is in this nation that simple guys like Dodo
and his buddies (judges, police officers, KCCA officials, descendants of Evairini Nachwa, and
accomplices) can be loved. They don’t have to love us back, or promise to do so, or even promise
any coin. They say water does not forget its paths, how then would the Spirit of the East African
Revival forget to move in this land!

As mentioned earlier, one of the most popular texts on love is 1 Corinthians 13, written by the
Apostle Paul who undoubtedly attempted to destroy Christ’s Church more than Dodoviko and his
friends combined. Yet he seems to have been deeply inspired by, and grasped the unpopular text
from Matthew 5:38-48; and also wrote Romans 12:9-21.You see, Paul is not remembered for his
notorious ravaging of the church or his supervision of Stephen’s martyrdom. That Paul was more
dangerous to the church than Dodoviko and his friends – even the most anointed of believers fled
for his life on hearing that he was in town – because he destroyed not just buildings, but the Church and those who built sanctuaries. Rather, Paul is remembered for his selfless involvement in missions to the Gentile world, church planting, and mentoring new leaders.

It is from such, to which Paul himself testifies, as do all the other Apostles in their Epistles, that
Christ has continued to build his Church – the kind that the gates of hell shall not prevail against.
Buildings may fall, by any means natural or human agency, but the true church of which Christ is
the head, will remain eternally. And the love that invited us all in, still welcomes more, even those
that may have hurt us directly like Dodoviko and his friends. But wait, if Dodoviko were to have
his “Damascus road” encounter with Christ, like Paul did, would their conversation be about
persecuting “the church”?

The Church is not short of miraculous power. In fact, that power is emulated in a commitment to the transformative Love demonstrated by Christ. But to love the outsider, first, our love for the
insider has to be genuine. In the past couple of years I have witnessed us fall short. While I’ve been lavished with this inside love, I have seen those to whom it has been denied! Some would
rush to suggest that I still fall in the “deserving” category, and my being a clergy also offers me
enormous protection.

I have seen two young men desperately need the church to love them after falling into sexual sin
(of which if there was no pregnancy, the church would have no problem “loving” them). I returned
to Kampala in January 2018 in time enough to leave space for one mentee in Karamoja to fall, as
I arrived in time enough to catch one whom a church in Kampala had thrown out for falling. I
picked up both, and journeyed with them. In Love. And today are both married to their girls, and
finally the church “loves” them – apparently!

In the midst of these many storms, of which the church has its own share of struggles – the main
one being the cry for its buildings to be opened – what if, rather than showcasing our power to
pronounce curses upon a man and his friends and family, and their families, we actually have the
grand opportunity to be the church we perhaps haven’t been? We dare not be unloving like the elder brother in the parable of the lost son(s) in Luke 15. Or act like the crowds of Jericho, who blocked Zacchaeus from meeting Jesus in Luke 19. If Dodoviko finds himself at the top of some tall building in Kampala, hopefully he still hears Christ’s voice calling him to come down, for he too desperately needs to be found by the Seekers Finder. And if we unlovingly fail to welcome Dodoviko to a Breakfast, don’t be shocked when Jesus Himself spends a night at his place. For He’s fond of doing such.

But only Love will reveal this truth to Dodo and his friends, and bring them home. This is the kind
of response that would never be forgotten by the world. It will be told all over the world as a great
apologetic, that the Church in Uganda responded in love and forgiveness towards those who had
attempted to tear it down through greed. And who knows what Dodoviko will in turn be
remembered for?

We have been given the power to Love and the grace to forgive. So to Mzee Dodo and his buddies, I may not have the institutional authority to pronounce absolution for your wrongdoing. Neither have I personally received your sincere penance. But I want to assure you though, that I represent a group of us, unpopular folk, who love and forgive you sincerely! Of course you don’t deserve it, but you get to share in the same grace that we too have freely benefitted from all along. Once you are ready to receive hugs, come let’s hug and weep, for the Christian story is scribbled with a lot of that along with great joy!

I’m definitely going to be asked the question of justice for the church, and whether this kind of
love does not promote impunity towards harmful behavior. The question already suggests that the justice won’t be towards the building, but rather the real church, which affected. But when it comes to justice, you could easily walk into giant questions that require more than lay legal knowledge. For example; 1). To what extent are we sure this is a real case of injustice against the church? 2). Are we sure the said church did all due diligence to possess and protect that land and building/ properties on it? 3). Is it possible that everyone involved, especially the judiciary, got it all wrong? These and more, become a subject for another paper. However, the church remains obliged to love.

As for impunity, the question is revisited once the church remembers where Christ found it.

For Love is the greatest Apologetic, as Ravi Zacharias often proclaimed. Hopefully in today’s
Church, Dodoviko encounters the Love that transformed Paul’s story to writing most of the New
Testament, including one of the most popular Bible texts on true Love. Isn’t that the Gospel story?