From: Concerned Citizens for Religious Morality (CCRM).

RE: Our Petition Against Pastor Aloysius Bugingo 

Date: 27th December 2021

We are a group made up of former members of House of Prayer Ministries which is led by Pastor Aloysius Bugingo and other Ugandans who have recognised a need for intervention in this matter.

As Concerned Citizens for Religious Morality, we are appalled by the digression in the conduct of Pastor Aloysius Bugingo of House of Prayer Ministries which calls for your urgent attention, action and regulation. As a Pastor who is expected to be a role model for young and old people in society, his current conduct has made him sink so low to the extent that he is a bad influence. Your intervention in a timely manner is required to save society.

Grounds for removal

Ground 1: Recently, Pastor Aloysius Bugingo was dragged to court by two lawyers for engaging in an illegal marriage. The case has raised eyebrows all over Uganda because for a religious leader who presides over marriages and counseling of soon to be married people or already married people, he has set a bad example to the entire public.

Having been dragged to court on those grounds, automatically disqualifies him from running a church where marriage should be celebrated because he has fallen short of the moral standards required to do so. 

Upon being caught on the wrong side of the law, Pastor Bugingo blatantly denied ever having participated in a customary or traditional marriage, an event which he had publicly announced and confirmed. That he could lie in broad daylight violates the ninth commandment of the Holy Bible yet this is a book of scriptures that he is supposed to be a custodian of.

By parading a woman as his wife, yet he is married in church, Pastor Bugingo also commits adultery which is also forbidden in the Holy Bible for it violates the sixth commandment. The Holy Bible is the guiding book that should direct the affairs of the church.

Ground 2: On the heels of this saga, Pastor Bugingo sought for divorce against the dictates of Holy Marriage which is based on the principle and pledge of 'till death do us part.' Given that he has no grounds at all, we can only confirm that he had a girlfriend whose relationship with him he wanted to legalize, not because his wife had a problem.

Ground 3: In addition to these matters, unlike the image of pastors who are supposed to be kind, courteous and compassionate, Pastor Bugingo has displayed extreme cruelty to his wife and children. So he no longer fits in the image of a pastor. He is instead a bad influence who is misleading the public. Pastor Bugingo abused his wife for having a medical problem. This was interpreted by all of us and the public as not only denigrating his wife, but also rebuking women who have a similar problem. Ideally, one would expect that a pastor would be in position to pray for people with medical problems, not mock or vilify them privately or publicly.

On top of this wayward behavior, Pastor Bugingo has categorically refused to look after his children who are still at school. Thinking that he is punishing their mother by doing so or that he is meting out anger on them because they have decided not to support his follies, Bugingo goes on to spend money that would be used to raise his children on a concubine. This takes away all his credentials as a pastor who should shepherd his flock, many of whom have children. The boy child and male adults who see such unbecoming behavior of a pastor will hold it natural to deprive their offspring of their needs. This is a behavior he has also been dragged to court for.

Ground 4: The position of leadership in the church is a communal one. Pastors are expected by the public to work with each other not to fight each other. It is expected that they should guide each other in the complex matters of shepherding their flock. But Pastor Bugingo is permanently at loggerheads with most of the prominent pastors in the country. Not only has he frequently rebuked them on the pulpit, he has ignored their wise counsel and summons on matters they are most senior to advise him. Thus he has cultivated an image of church leaders in incessant conflict with others, suggesting that he is not fit to sit on the table of pastors.

Ground 5: At the onset of these issues, Pastor Bugingo disregarded the purpose of wedding rings, as if to undermine the institution of marriage. This was a cunning way of setting the stage for his attempts to legalize his relationship with his concubine.  He then commandeered the burning of bibles, to the utter dismay of a religious public. These two incidents signaled quite early that Pastor Bugingo was not suitable to continue as a pastor.

Ground 6: Finally, to summarize the litany of flaws that make Pastor Bugingo no longer suitable to be a pastor, he has been obtaining money by false pretense for the construction of a church. For many years he has claimed to be building a church called the Pentagon. Initially funds in UGX billions (Uganda Shillings Billions) was raised from the public. Most of us were contributors to this fundraiser. Until this day, not even a foundation stone has been laid. Members of the public still sit in tents being tortured by rain, wind and dust as the monies they handed in are used to furnish the lifestyle of concubines who boast of having been given underwear valued at UShs. 2,000,000. Some of the contributors to this fundraising are the poorest one can find in Uganda. But they gave their offering hoping that they would build a decent church in which they can praise their God. We all thought so.

The above matters we pray cannot go unchallenged by you in authority to prevail over this malaise. We strongly request that Pastor Bugingo is halted from any pastoral work because the image that pastors must uphold he does not have.