The Lutheran Church is still deeply involved in criminality and the death of innocent patients and poor community members!

Anonymous said... "Is there really evidence for a change ? Have the culprits of the embezzlements in ELCT/SCD to face legal action ? Have the Mission societies from abroad changed their behavior and do they follow up the active involvement of German "missionaries" in stealing, hiding and blaming ? 6:41 PM"


Dear Anonymous! (as always I would prefer to talk to people who have a name)

The former bishop of SCD (Shadrack Manyiewa), who was cast out by his own people is crying now?



It is a new lie of the Lutheran Church spread in the ELCT press release saying that this bishop retired!


He obviously cries now in public because he lost his power. Anyway, still it is not clear where all the money went and this has to be found out: Did he personally benefit here or not ? Many said he does.


Many of those clergy and church employees, who cry and blame others for being harassed have probably well equipped bank accounts or benefit in another way, like having well paid jobs while "working for the poor". Where has all the money gone...? How were all the resources spent?


The alleged bishop was sent away by his own people (in his diocese in 2003 and 2004 several 100 Million TSH were not used correctly or had dissapeared). The democratic move followed the activities of PIUMA, supported by many community members and some members of the local church counsel.
This was a brave step! A powerful bishop and the criminal diocese were supported by missions and ELCT since. Still the bishop is well protected by those in the Lutheran Church, who don't care about the poor, but protect their own brothers in the cloth for whatever cost and again by using donor and church money and it is unlikely that this is the intended use for the funds..
ELCT and missions from Germany (KPS, Mission Center ONE world and NMZ) are inventing stories and are spreading rumors since many months and years now. They go on saying that I (or any other foreigner (?)) had demanded the resignation of an African bishop. They used and are using these self-serving lies to prepare an unhealthy soil in order to protect the bishops and to prevent their own involvement and that of the entire Tanzanian Lutheran Church (ELCT) from legal action. They try to hinder moves towards justice for the betrayed poor.


Any demand towards responsibility and consequences is called "foreign intervention" which could "damage the church" and can therefore not be accepted. This is a very awkward strategy on the back of the fomerly voiceless and poor who got up and spoke out.


At the same time and up to these days, it is these overseas missions who are going on to intervene in foreign countries "from outside" by pouring monies into corrupt churches, which frequently frustrate and kill citizens (e.g. in Tanzania) and keep the poor dependent. Is this a strategy of some colonial remnants? To keep control and influence for the Lutheran Church at every cost!


My opinion since ever: Independent commissions and legal systems (they are slowly built up in Tanzania now) have to clear the situation at SCD and the media have to report balanced stories and control the impartiality of investigations. These can in no case be carried out by "internal" church commissions (sometimes even led by foreigen missionaries like e.g. Pastor Hofgren from Sweden, who have a lot to hide).


Following the outcome of these investigations, the ones who are connected to the theft have to be taken to court and the money has to be recovered! It can in no case be a matter of discussion, if the involved are bishops or other church or government officials, foreign missionaries or expats - it does not matter! All are human beings and have a right of a fair trial, even these "VIPs!"
It has to be cleared, if and who is found guilty for having contributed to the frauds and the subsequent death of innocent poor whose funds were stolen. The exploitation of these innocent, whose burdensome lives are frequently only used to advertise in Europe or the US in order to raise more funds, has to stop for now and ever!


In these weeks and days, the involved missions and European churches are again giving out false statements on their WebPages and try again and again to mislead the European public. They say that the whole case of the SCD/ELCT has been solved, the church needs reconsiliation and the responsible were taken to court. Missions have announced to "help" Bulongwa Hospital again, stating that everything has been sorted out!


This is not true at all! These public statements are not true!


There is still no accountability and there are no closed books since many years in many dioceses of ELCT throughout Tanzania. Nobody can follow up what happened with the monies. There are several cases of severe criminal allegations in different dioceses. They were always solved "internally" and the guilty were pardoned. The Tanzanian press reported.



1) The whereabouts of the stolen funds are still unknown! The thefts are clearly documented in the only (!) external audit (2003/2004) and in many statements of Mr. Rayben Sanga (FCPA, Dar es Salaam) sent to missions and to ELCT audit department. The errant money is still in the hands of the thieves and could be used for everything else (like e.g. bribing others) but surely not for the benefit of the poor.


2) Responsible church officers (stolen car, stolen funds) have been reportedly transferred to other posts at ELCT institutions, somewhere else in Tanzania and were certainly not taken out (as said in the public mission statements) - sometimes they were given even better posts. The "new" BLH manager is said to be a former SCD/ELCT project manager. He was working at the diocese headquarters when funds disappeared - he is now awarded by being given the post of the hospital manager.
(All of the ELCT institutions are at least partly financed by overseas missions, who are voting members in the LMC -Lutheran Missions Cooperation of Tansania http://www.lmc.or.tz/ . They are sitting on the so called round table together with ELCT bishops and church leaders. This happens at least in a yearly schedule but sometimes when there is a "crises" - donor and church money is spent to fly up and down to "manage" it.)


3) It stays a miracle what LMC (Lutheran Missions Cooperation in Tanzania) vice chairman and Africa director of the Mission ONE World in Bavaria - Pastor Manfred Scheckenbach - means, by publicly saying, that the SCD (South Central Diocese) made plans to pay the debts back and can therefore be supported again by NMZ/KPS and Mission ONE World.
(It seems there are somewhere funds (given by whom again?) designated to pay back the "debts"? Does he mean the stolen funds here? Are the stolen funds called debts now? Will the missions again and again cover these debts...? This is a funny support! Is this what the church calls developing aid?)


4) The services for the HIV/AIDS patients in Bulongwa are still very poor compared to former times, when EAWM and MSF were supporting the CTC at Bulongwa Hospital! After the lock out many PLWHA died. A recent Swedish study confirms this.



The bishop always cried to make the others feeling bad! He tries to play victim again! I know that. He cried in front of me several times.


The man who is responsible for the death of many patients cries now! Some may feel pity with him. But nobody in the church (including the Austrian presiding bishop Dr. Michael Bünker) feels that it would be important to protect the people who suffered under the criminal church. Since many years, resources - given by well meaning Christians - desiganted for the uplift of the poor, were stolen under this Lutheran African bishop and "brother" of the pastors and bishops in the international brotherhood of the church. ELCT and the supporting "Northern Partner" (missions) know this very well and are responsible.
Nevertheless, they still show an attitude of putting "the benefit of the church" (obviously they mean its leadership and therefore themselves?) above the fate and live of the simple African pesant, the community, the African village ethics and the live of patients and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).


For the sake of transparency and in order to enable donors in Europe to make contributions under informed consent (and not based on lies spread in press releases of the Lutheran church world), thus, carefully supporting the right use of money, which otherwise could become a dangerous tool of supression and frustration: The public has to be informed about the theft of many 100.000 of Euros in the ELCT (Tanzanian Lutheran Church) and also about the right or wrong use of all the project monies. Only this would support development by effective use of ressources.

Churches, like every religious group (or any other group or association in the world) are interacting with the whole society and can therfore not act like black boxes without showing accountability or transparency in case they are involved in criminal vices!


Comprehensive independent (!) audits in Tanzania and Germany, Scandinavia and the US (i.e. of the missions, or any "Northern partner") have to be carried out in order to confirm, that it is true that "every single cent" has been used in the right way. Overseas northern missions and other NGOs have to publish their projects and the amount of funds transferred to other countries and they have to proof that these funds have helped and NOT destroyed societies and that it is sure, that these funds did in NO case contribute to the frustration of the honest African folks.


If it turns out that money went wrong in that sense, the mission directors have to resign and have to be held responsible.
The missions, NGOs and donors have to appologize and compensate (not necessarily by money) the people who had suffered under the local corrupt and criminal elites. These criminal elites were made possible by supporting them through uncontrolled, unaccounted money.