The weapon of love

At the height of Idi Amin's reign of terror in the 1970s, Bishop Festo Kivengere was asked how he would react if he was handed a loaded pistol and Amin was sitting opposite him. He replied, "I would hand

the gun to the president and say: 'I think this is your weapon. It is not mine. My weapon is love.'" 

What a disarming answer. Amin was a nincompoop and beast who killed citizens like flies, including Archbishop Janani Luwum. Kivengere had run to exile fearing for his life. Yet here he was saying he would forgive the dictator instead of shooting him in head? 

You would think the then Bishop of Kigezi was being hypocritical, but no. He explained in his autobiography that he would instead be a phoney servant of the Lord to remain bitter and angry with Amin. Jesus died for him too just as He died for all sinners. And if Amin repented with a broken and contrite heart, Jesus would forgive and welcome him with open arms. So the Bishop had no business hating the brutal ruler. His business was to love and pray for him. 

This brings me to the current situation in Uganda. So much hatred and bitterness over the just concluded elections. Social media is aflame with anger. There's a call to arms. The establishment knows; that's why the army have filled our streets with peeping guns. Yet all this is needless. No need for fear, no need for guns, no need for bitterness to lodge in the heart and put us in bondage.

The heroism and triumphalism of men like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther Jr., and Nelson Mandela was cemented by their rejection of tit-for-tat. Instead they overcame evil by doing good. Festo Kivengere knew the potency of this. He wouldn't shoot Amin given chance because he knew the only weapon that can take one forward is not the weapon of revenge but the weapon of love.