Uganda is bleeding. Uganda is beautiful. And it is painful to watch the beautiful bleed. It is sad to see a blessed nation damaged. The events in Bugiri, Arua, and Kampala point to the obvious but often forgotten pronouncement on humanity: the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

The gunning down of government officials, the deadly torture of members of the opposition, the unlawful detention and curtailing of the freedom of journalists, and the beatings of the bystanders by the various security organs points to this; the heart of man is wicked.

In all this, it is true what Arthur Ponsonby wrote, ‘When war is declared, truth is the first casualty.’ And the events in Arua the past week remind us of this reality as the government ‘security’ agencies destroyed evidence of their brutality against the common man. Of course, it is sad and scary when ‘security’ agencies threaten the peace and freedom of citizens.

But these events also raise the question concerning the Christian’s proper response. How are Christians to react to the brutality of the government, and the propaganda of the media at times, either pro or con government?

On the one hand, believers are to be subject to all governing authorities (1 Peter 2:13-18). On the other, we are commanded to ‘learn to do good,’ to ‘seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless,’ and ‘plead for the widow’ (Isaiah 1:17).

But how do you obey the government when it is the oppressor? How do you rebuke the oppressor to whom you ought to submit? Are we to follow the authority when it contradicts God’s law?

To answer these questions, we need to understand that believers are primarily answerable to God. The early believers of the first four centuries were considered treasonous by the governments that were. The reason was that they chose obedience to God and disobedience to the state in matters where the state contradicted God.

And they did so at the expense of their lives at times. Of course, they examined their motives, lest they defy for the sake of rebellion. And we must examine ours too. But Christians stood up for truth, and they were known as those who did not lie to save their skin.

Believers are called to be subject to government authorities. This was because when acting rightly, the government upholds the law of God and thus punishes those who break it (1 Peter 2:13-14, Romans 13:1-6). The government’s rightful role is to restrain evil, not to do it.

In Isaiah 1:17, we see that Christians are called to speak out against every form of injustice in the land, especially that perpetrated by those in power against the powerless.

But the current tendency is for us as Christians in Uganda to be silent concerning things that matter to our neighbors, as we see evil take root in the land in the name of obeying the evil precepts of the governments in place.

There is a difference between being subject to the authorities and being complicit in their evil deeds. We are called to the former not the latter. Our obedience to the government is as far as it does not contravene God’s law. When human authorities disobey God, we must not obey them. The government is not God.

I need to repeat that as Christians we cannot disobey for the sake of disobedience. Our call is higher than fighting earthly political powers. We must seek to obey the government. That must be our primary inclination. Defiance must not be our default mode.

But we cannot also sit and watch as wickedness is perpetrated by those who ought to keep it in check.

And we must not be caught in the web of deceptive political propaganda. As we noted with Arthur Ponsonby, ‘When war is declared, truth is the first casualty.’ Also, Samuel Johnson stated that ‘Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.’

We must know how to extricate truth from deception, knowing that for us, deception is that which does not accord with godliness in Christ.

Christians must be as wise as serpents. We should be as harmless as doves. We must be as strong as towers, reflecting light and truth as beacons in a darkened sea, guiding the weary sailing souls on the shores of a foreign land.

We must love. Not just those who agree with us, but and especially those who do not. There are people on either side of the argument, and as we seek to fight injustice and promote love and godliness, may we not be found to employ wickedness.

Let us examine our hearts over and again, remembering that the heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked is not only your neighbor’s but your own and mine.

And then, in the frustrations of daily life, we must be reminded that the only hope that lasts is in Christ. We must understand the Gospel and its implications in society and all of life. We must not forget that we are all equally sinful. This way, our anger at sin shall not cause us to sin by hating those for whom God died in love.

As believers, we must seek to obey the government, in as much as it acts righteously. And in our disagreement with it, let us try to heal than destroy.

As we do this, we may be casualties of a stray bullet. We may be caught amidst the conflict in which our love for God and neighbor is manifest. And we might suffer for the sake of the salvation of someone’s soul, since the state may not surmise our rightful motives from our deeds which contradict its edicts.

But as we stand against evil even at the expense of our comfort, the light of Christ shines. And as it shines, God is glorified in us.

Our desire should be to have the glory of God fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. And this also means that we learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17).