When Does Satan Become the Choice of the Majority?

Life has a way it forces us to stop and think. Wednesday, July 11, was the day I paused and thought again. On that day two years ago, terrorists bombed hundreds of soccer lovers in Kampala. That World Cup final found me home broke and bored. I dozed off on the sofa and dreamt about a man with a machine gun frenziedly shooting into crowds while from his small mouth issued the most vindictive expletives I ever heard. I woke up with a splitting headache, and it took some time before my head cleared and I realised the horrible noise emanating from my tv was connected to a terrorist act that had just happened at Kyadondo Rugby Groung that night. All that blood, the screams…such goriness.  

When does satan become the choice of the majority?

This week as we remembered the victims of that horrific experience (my friend Moses Serugo lost a brother, rest in peace Daniel Wasswa Ddunga) I wondered when the innocence we are born with transmogrifies into beastly viciousness leading to murder. When does Satan become the choice of the majority?  Is it when we are born in broken homes where those meant to protect and love us instead give us a taste of hell beforehand by torturing and abusing us? Is it when employers throw meritocracy out of the window in favour of nepotism while our first-class degrees gather dust?  

 African-American rapper The Ambassador, in one of his songs blames the "three-man comradely" - the world, flesh and the devil. But it's his observation that any culture without Christ is easily robbed of its worth, that speaks mostly to me. You cannot have Christ and behave like three Ugandan policemen I saw on TV during a demonstration bashing a helpless woman like they had been sent by the king of demons. They followed her into a roadside gutter unleashing their batons on her and ignoring her pleas of mercy. It was the angriest I've been at those scoundrels masquerading as policemen and desecrating the noble uniform of our police force. Think what that unlucky woman is capable of if ever she gets a chance to exert revenge on her tormentors?   

Optimism for a better world can only come from amending our ways and being reconciled with Christ. That's what will save us from the fear and despair precipitated by terrorists and monstrous police men clobbering a harmless woman. To all the people that stood by the sufferers of July 11, 2010, God bless you.