Controversial U.S. Pastor Arrested in Rwanda
The Sainte-Famille Church stands in Kigali, Rwanda, the site of killings during the 1994 Genocide. (Flickr)
American pastor Reverend Gregg Schoof was arrested by Rwandan police for attempting to hold a press conference with journalists without government authorization on October 7. He intended to denounce the Rwandan government for its shutdown of his church and controversial radio show, “The Amazing Grace Christian Radio.”
Schoof moved from Indiana to Rwanda 16 years ago, nearly a decade after the Rwandan Genocide, which resulted in nearly a million deaths in the country. Upon arrival, he established a Baptist Church and radio show, intending to spread his evangelical beliefs. He routinely criticized the government for allowing abortion and birth control and for teaching evolution. In 2018, however, Rwanda’s telecommunications regulator revoked his show’s license for hosting a pastor who attacked women on the show.
The pastor, a former Seventh Day Adventist priest, claimed that women were the source of all evil, saying “women are out of God’s favor. There is nothing good you can find in women. If you have read the Bible, who brought sin into the world? It was not a man.”
According to a statement put out by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) on Twitter, “The revocation follows failure by Amazing Grace Christian Radio to comply with RURA’s sanctions taken after a sermon aired by the Radio on 29 January 2018 in which a radio presenter Nicholas Niyibikora, repeatedly insulted women referring to them as evil.” The Rwandan government has intensely regulated its media ever since the genocide, which was caused in part by inflammatory radio broadcasts. In May 2019, Schoof lost an appeal against RURA in which he tried to reopen his station.
Schoof’s church was also shut down by the Rwandan government in February 2019, which cited building code regulations and noise pollution as reasons for the closure. The Rwandan government has been closing thousands of churches and mosques in the country since 2018 to exercise more control over its diverse religious community. President Paul Kagame expressed surprise at the 700 churches in Kigali, the country’s capital, saying, “are these boreholes that give people water? I don’t think we have as many boreholes. Do we even have as many factories? This has been a mess!” He argues that Rwanda does not need that many places of worship and that only further developed economies have the means to sustain them.
As a result of his church and radio station’s closure, Schoof planned a press conference with journalists to release a statement denouncing the Rwandan government. However, he failed to get permission for the conference and was arrested outside the venue. According to police spokesman John Bosco Kabera, "He was arrested for holding an illegal meeting with journalists in a public space. It is illegal to hold meetings in public spaces without authorization."
Schoof, in a public statement distributed to journalists before his arrest, wrote that he “faulted the government for closing churches and his radio station, arresting pastors, teaching evolution, allowing abortion, and distributing condoms to young people” and asked, “Is this government trying to send people to Hell?”
These sentiments follow the passage of Rwanda’s abortion law in 2018, which legalized abortion in cases of rape, forced marriage, incest, or when the pregnancy posed a health risk to the mother. Kagame also ordered the release of nearly 400 women who had previously been jailed for either receiving or aiding in abortions.
As of the night of October 14, Schoof was still in custody according to the spokesman for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau. Schoof and his family were planning to move to Uganda later this month.