ON PAGE 30 (Africa News) of December 8th Daily Nation a small article from Kampala was included in which a minor Presidential candidate for next years Election was reported as saying - I WILL RETURN AMIN'S REMAINS.
Well let me say right away ALL mankind are made in the likeness of their Creator, God. This does not mean we LOOK like God or that we are like him in shape or texture. No but we are like (similar to) HIM spiritually, and in our ability to imagine in our mind, and then bring into existence what we have imagined. We can create. We can perceive what is godly, pure and holy - and we are able also to discern EVIL, understanding, that it is not like God, and not to be pursued. But I can appreciate the worth of the sinner, the evil man or woman; I can love him or her. as a person made to BE like God - but I do not have to agree with the EVIL that he or she might do. I will not support that evil. It is against all that God IS, and to support it I must become the Enemy of God. Well I think we should all, regardless of who we are, or where we originated, think twice before making ourselves enemies of the God Who made us to be like HIM, loving, compassionate, merciful and just. a Forgiving God. This is my God. There are other gods in our world who are NOT like this in practice, and we should remember that it matters that our words are fully backed up by our actions when talking about God, or OUR likeness to Him.
The man who made the promise to Return Idi Amin's remains to the land of his fathers suggests that this would please those people - maybe even MORE of the people than those of Amin's own clan or tribe. After all it often said of a man ' he is not all bad '. TRUE, but it is only the evil that men do that lives after them -(THE GOOD is oft interred with their bones. how much good can we remember of this monumental figure of a president? Is it MORE than the evil? What will this man in Uganda, want to put in his Amin Museum? And who will want to travel there to SEE what is there? Shall we make yet another shrine to the errors of men and women. A place to come without sorrow or regret?
One of the Anglican Bishops in Uganda during Amin's Presidency wrote a book entitled "I love Idi Amin". His name was Festo Kivengere, and he wrote in order to declare to all the Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness of God Almighty. He loves us all, the good AND the bad! BUT he does not love the EVIL that we do - and we all commit evil to some extent. God LOVES what He has made, but he cannot and will not CONDONE the evil that we do. Kivengere once told a story of a little girl who asked her mummy, saying "Mummy what does God do all day long?" Her mother, a little surprised by the question, none the less immediately responded, and said "Darling, He spends His whole time mending broken things." Yes he spends His whole compassionate time on ALL of us, both great and small, to see who will be mended. BUT God will not leave us gummed up and dirtied by the grime of SIN in our lives - that must be removed and washed away before we can sit down with Him in Heaven. God loves you, and longs to have you with Him where He is, but He will not welcome the EVIL that is with you in our life and living. That must be left behind, and washed away in the atoning blood of Christ.
The people, if only some of them, might welcome the idea of their son coming home to be buried in his ancestral land - but will they also welcome the memory of the EVIL that he did as the Ugandan Butcher, the murderer of almost an entire Tribe, as well as many others come to roost there with them? He made Uganda to be NOTORIOUS for its brutality. He also made himself and his Country to be humiliated. YET there were many that stood with him; he was even elected Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1975 whilst at the height of his power in Uganda. Yet all his power stood on an evil base and practice. To REMEMBER such a life might surely relight a fire once more; and rather than any good he may have done, a revival of that EVIL instead flare up again. The Nazi Party is now reviving in Europe as Hitler is being remembered and even re-instated as a 'good' Leader in certain areas! Some people like to remember him, and even hang his picture in their home. BUT it is hard to bring the man to mind without the EVIL that surrounded his life. To put up portraits, and notable memorials of an EVIL person or celebrity might lead to idol worship of a most ungodly kind. Worship that might turn us into a copy of the very evil we should avoid.
To let Amin's body lay in the earth from which he was taken is one thing. To make a mound over it, and draw undue attention to it may be more than unwise. It is interesting to note that even when he was buried in Jeddah his family made no fanfare, nor built any ornate memorial. There Idi lies almost forgotten, invisible and alone. Yes, we might all do best, as Bishop Kivengere encourages us, to love the man without letting the evil he did cling to us or to our memory. When the Day comes and all the DEAD arise, it matters little where we might have been buried, or how we was interred. This Earth is not my home or yours - we are just passing through - on the way to our true home or other designated end. Nothing that I might have, clinging to me here, of earth or stone will accompany my spirit, or be allowed to be part of that NEW body we all hope for. For me I would leave Idi Amin where he is in the hallowed ground of Ruwais Cemetary, in Jeddah. Pray for his soul! Ask the Living God to be merciful to him - and to you - when the Great Day Comes - as it will, and that very soon.
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