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Political propaganda ruining Christianity

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By Pr Ben Odongo

Many Christians fall prey of political propaganda when their allegiance to a political party is valued more than their allegiance to the Kingdom of God.

When nationalism and patriotism are idolized more than the Kingdom of God, then propaganda takes over the place of the Holy Spirit and influences our prayers and gifts like prophecy.

You find prophets saying a particular candidate cannot lead a nation because he or she submits to an occult or witchcraft, yet even in the ruling government there could be similar characteristics and we are subject to their authorities and also praying for them.

Does God establish evil leaders to lead nations? Yes. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God (Romans 13:1).

In Romans 9:17, we are reminded that God put Pharaoh of Egypt in his position of authority. We learn from Exodus 7-11 that Pharaoh was an evil ruler. Romans 9:17 relates to Exodus 9:16-17, and it illustrates the principle of Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

When Christianity becomes poisoned by political propaganda, partisan opinions supersede the words and actions of Jesus.

Scripture becomes a weapon to rationalize and even support political agendas, and the churches that fail to quickly and boldly speak out against such deceits eventually succumb to becoming sectarian machines themselves.

Instead of loving our neighbors, “Christian” propaganda will tell us to ridicule them, ban them, discriminate against them, outlaw them, and even destroy them.

It will attempt to silence the oppressed and amplify the oppressor. This is how propaganda works. Disguising itself as spirituality, faith, and even morality, it can be deceptively subtle.

 Christians have always failed to redeem political systems, but contrarily, political systems have always succeeded in corrupting Christians.

Even the very best examples of Christians who used their activism to do good work, individuals like Martin Luther King Jr were pursuing goodness and justice against political systems and societies that were largely considered “Christian”. They were examples of Christ-like followers who helped restore the damage done by political Christendom.

Prophetic electioneering or manipulation is wrong. When prophets bold facedly prophesy that a political candidate would be the president and it doesn’t happen, they damage the faith of people in Christianity as a whole, and they destroy confidence in the prophetic grace.

Prophets must not sacrifice their authenticity on the altar of political partisanship for silver or cheap publicity.

In the Old Testament, prophets identified and anointed persons for national leadership.

In the New Testament prophets were not given the responsibility to prophesy political outcomes, in order to influence or coerce people to vote for a specific person.

Many individuals are now confused, embarrassed and dismayed because of the seemingly sure words of prophecies that came from their spiritual leaders and the reality unfolding before them.

Fellow saints, God is not Republican, Democrat, Forum for Democratic Change, National Resistence Movement, National Unity Platform or Uganda People’s Congress. He puts up who He wants and takes down who He wants, through choices of the people.

Our job is to teach people righteousness, civic responsibilities, prayer and how to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Nobody has to tell people who they must vote for.

God can handle our request for responsible representation. Let’s stop using God’s people as voting blocs for the manipulation of politicians and the puppets of prophets.

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