Holydays tend to mask our emptiness and longing to be filled. The red wine you drank away at dusk wanes with dawn as morning sobers you up. Pork steaks satisfy no heart, and night-long banter wearies your head to bed. The long-awaited celebration time vanishes as vapor in cold winter—as though it never was. You sure are merry, but do you belong? You are lost, and who can find you?
… Be Merry, But Belong
In 2016, the former Ugandan Parliament House Speaker Rebecca Kadaga raised eyebrows and caused controversy for her re-election thanksgiving to the ancestors in a shrine. Before her, the then Vice President, Professor Gilbert Bukenya, had done the same. Indeed, in Africa, many politically powerful people believe in the power of witchcraft. But what is witchcraft, why does it persist in Africa, and how do we biblically respond to it?
… Witchcraft: Choose Faith Over Fear
Comedy is what most of us appreciate—especially when it is clean. But finding clean comedy can sometimes seem like the proverbial needle in a haystack. We wonder, why do many comedians like it dirty? And how do others manage to keep humor above the belt? I posed these questions to Kenneth Kimuli, a.k.a Pablo, a famed Ugandan stand-up comedian. In this article, Pablo narrates how he manages to keep his comedy clean in a dirty comedy world.
… Pablo on Keeping Clean in a Dirty Comedy World
The stench of death is pervasive on Ugandan social media platforms these days. If we ever lived under the illusion of distanced death, COVID-19 slapped and sobered us from slumber, reminding us of our mortality. Death dwells nearer than we deign to discuss or admit. It knows your address—and mine.
… The Stench of Death and the Scent of Life
Motherhood is a journey many ladies may want to walk. Motherhood is itself birthed in pains, though the sight of the baby is pleasurable. It may be that, perhaps, you are pondering the motherhood path yourself with its pleasures and pains. Or you are a mother seeking encouragement and insights from another’s experience.
… God’s Glory in the Pleasurable Pains of Motherhood
Politics pull like gravity. Strong political persuasions can also divide. Like a saw, politics can sunder families, turn friends into foes. Even for Christians, political affiliations can, sadly, make the blood of Christ pale in worth. We can use our party card as a blade to cut the throats of our brothers and sisters. But how should Christians engage in politics? My answer: we engage in politics as pilgrims.
… Engaging in Politics as Pilgrims
Of the most discomforting and difficult Christian doctrines is that of hell. Atheists reject it as a deplorable doctrine of the devils they disbelieve. Some Christians contend that the reality of hell does not square with the character of God as loving. As such, they choose other alternatives such as annihilation or eventual universal salvation of all souls, regardless.
… Hell as the Future for the Selfish
Christians cannot be cursed. I argued so in my previous article. If to be a Christian is to be God’s son and daughter, then who can bring a curse against God’s elect (Rom 8:33)? Nay. We are free in Christ, no longer Satan’s prisoners (Jn 8:36, Gal 5:1). God himself ‘delivered us from the domain of darkness’ (Col 1:13), and who can turn it back (Is 43:13)?
Birungi is distressed. At 40, she remains unmarried. With a high-paying job, she is a well-educated Christian who believes that Jesus died for her sins. At her age, she has attended many weddings, including those of her close friends. Recently, driving home from one reception and alone, Birungi ponders her plight. ‘Maybe it’s true; perhaps I am cursed’ she mutters to herself, silently sobbing.
The reader of the Gospel of Mark must mark the stark contrast between Jesus’ view of His kingdom and that of His immediate disciples. While Jesus descends from the throne to the cross, His disciples only imagine their comfortable ascension to their thrones.
