KAMPALA – The Presiding Apostle Born Again Church in Uganda, Joseph Serwadda has called on Parliament to expedite the scrutiny and passing into law the Marriage Bill, saying it will work towards silencing the people seeking to destabilise the marriage institution in the country.
Serwadda made the call Tuesday morning while addressing guests at the Inter-faith prayer breakfast organized by Parliament.
Serwadda’s remarks were in response to statements made by Pastor Aloysius Bugingo, Head of House of Prayer Ministries International at Canan Land in Makerere Kikoni, who said that marriage vows as arguing that ’till death do us part’ is not biblical and is the cause of murders between couples and went on to challenge his congregation to show him a couple in the bible that made such vows.
“I have read the Bible countless times but I have never come across any verse that tells marrieds that it will be death to do them apart, those vows which are made by Anglicans, Catholics and Born-again, are satanic, that is why when couples find that they are no longer compatible, they find ways taking away each other’s lives because the vows involve death,” Bugingo said.
He added: “People do not just kill others. It is those vows when Abraham was marrying Sarah, did he make those vows? The vows are from hell.”
Serwadda used the Parliament podium to respond to Bugingio accusing Bugingo, whose marriage is on rocks used his media house and made derogatory statements against the institution of marriage.
“While we can brandish bible scriptures at the accusations he levels at churches, we see the parliament as the only solution that cause order in this matter. We need legal stance that will silence him and many others for now and in the future if you Parliament quickly pass the Marriage Bill into an act you would have silenced the naysayers about marriage and serious relationships,” said Serwadda.
He also argued that the Parliament while drafting the existing legislation on Marriage and Divorce didn’t subject celebration of those marriages to the rights, ceremonies, customs and practices of the different Christian denominations, which he said is a stark contrast to the provisions of the Marriage and Divorce Act of Mohamedian religion.
He said that years later, the constitution of Uganda provided for the Kurdi courts to deal with matters of marriage, divorce in relation to Muslims, making Islam the only religion in Uganda with exclusive rights to marriage designed around their faith.
Serwadda argued that there is need to cater for the Christian denominations in this country too because the Christian faith has different denominations that are diverse and peculiar to each other, and some have internal mechanisms and arrangements such as church courts to deal with marriage issues, but these aren’t catered for in the current laws and not provided in the draft bill.
He also called for revision on the nature of licensing which caters for licensing buildings and not ministers of the gospel, yet marriage isn’t about things but rather about people saying that these licensing rules have contributed to a lot of inconveniences while conducting marriages.
