Because Nothing Brings People Together Like Religion – Unless Of Course, You’re Gay In Uganda
7 March 2010 by KA(Hat tip to Andrew Brown at the Guardian)
A gay witch hunt in Uganda
Why are the English archbishops silent over Uganda’s grotesque anti-homosexuality bill?
A bill currently before the Ugandan parliament (pdf) proposes seven year prison sentences for discussing homosexuality; life imprisonment for homosexual acts; and death for a second offence. Sober observers believe it will be passed. The Anglican church in Uganda appears to support it, and the Church of England in this country is absolutely silent. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester solemnly denounce violence in the Congo, where they have no influence at all, but on Uganda they maintain a resolute post-colonial silence.
The position of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is more complicated, and his silence more eloquent. He is himself Ugandan by birth. One of his younger half-brothers, pastor Robert Kayanja, is a highly successful pentecostal preacher in Kampala, running a church called the Rubaga Miracle Centre. Such people are highly rewarded, and the business is extremely competitive. A rival preacher, the gloriously named Solomon Male of the The Arising Church was accused this spring of kidnapping Kayanga’s assistant and torturing him for five days to get him to confess that his boss was gay and partial to young men.
So…churches are big business in Uganda? Somehow this is no surprise. That these backwards assholes are discriminating based on sexual preference? It takes religion to do that. So, just who started this nonsense in the first place? Why, surprise! It was a Christian Fundamentalist group:
A United States fundamentalist group is at the heart of Uganda’s anti-gay law. Originally known as The Fellowship, an international organization founded in 1935, today it is known as ‘The Family’, described by Jeff Sharlet in his book The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, who investigates the political power of ‘The Family’, a secretive fundamentalist Christian association. ‘The Family’, under the reclusive leadership of Douglas Coe, is described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most, politically well-connected fundamentalist organizations in the United States.
Ugandan lawmaker and alleged member of the ‘The Family’, David Bahati sponsored Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, also known as the "Bahati Bill".
That these maniacs have in-roads to our government is scary enough. But that they can prevail on foreign governments to discriminate against their own citizenry? That’s just bugfuck crazy.
And America’s favorite ferret minister, the inestimable Rick Warren, while not at the heart of this, is still a voice in the chaos (but not one of reason):
The Ugandan parliament is currently considering an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” under which any person “convicted of gay sex is liable to life imprisonment.” If that person is HIV positive or has sex with a minor or a person with a disability, he or she would be guilty of “aggravated homosexuality” and face the death penalty. The bill also proposes up to three years of imprisonment for anyone who “fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.” The bill would even “apply to Ugandans who commit homosexual offences, but who live overseas.” There are approximately 500,000 gay men and women living in Uganda.
Half a million? Get ready for the next big genocide, folks.
Pastor Rick Warren — whom President Obama controversially chose to deliver the invocation at his inauguration — is now refusing to condemn Bahati’s bill, which has been endorsed by Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. Ssempa has been welcomed by Warren’s family and made appearances at his church. Newsweek reports that although Warren has distanced himself from Ssempa’s views, he won’t come out against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:
The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts
endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere inthe political process of other nationsin anybody else’s business.
There, fixed that one for you, you weasel.
Really, the politicians of this country need to realize that civil rights are more important than the votes of some crazy ass fairy-begging fuck who can’t get a normal job and hears non-verbal instructions from the ether.
Till the next post, then.
7 March 2010, on 7:03 am
>However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations
Wow, just expressing an opinion on the subject amounts to interfering in the political process of Uganda? I guess they DO have enormous influence over there. What a moral coward.
7 March 2010, on 2:45 pm
Why should these cowards be any different than the popes. The popes throughout history have stood on their rights of silence in the face of murder and genocide for centuries. The Spanish Inquisition anyone?
How about the taming of the American west? Where the churches were ready to accept all the natives so long as they accepted Jesus and lived on a res. and sent their children to the Indian school.
More proof that religion is a sickness.
7 March 2010, on 3:10 pm
Rick Warren is indeed an unscupulous, cowardly bastard. I almost have more respect for those who are sponsoring this bill–at least they have the courage to be honest in their hatred, making it easier to face them head-on. Warren, on the other hand, is too much of a weasle to even admit to his deadly bigotry. As Howard Zinn says, you can’t be neutral on a moving train. His comments are not neutral–they are a tacit approval. This is a man who has enough influence to potentially put an end to this attrocity–and he has to realize this fact. Instead, he makes some milquetoast appeal to moderates while not pissing-off his C-street buddies–after all, he has more Purpose-Driven drivel to peddle. Fucking monster.
7 March 2010, on 4:22 pm
This is beyond evil. My question is this: Why are a bunch of westerners bothering with gays in Uganda? Is it b/c they know they are gullible and backward and would believe it? Do they want to see gays killed so badly that they don’t care where it happens? Do they know they’d never pass that kind of law here, so they’re going overseas to undeveloped countries? This is so infuriating. I can’t imagine such dark age mentality in 2010. It’s so evil.
8 March 2010, on 1:09 am
^^Marcy, regrettably, the evidence would appear to indicate that you hit the nail right on the proverbial head. But for the grace of enlightenment reasoning, there go we.
8 March 2010, on 5:33 pm
Mankind creates a god in his image and than selects a series of man made rules and regulations to satisfy his ignorance. So, what exists in the 2000 year monotheistic literature only gives us true insight into the irrationality and insanity inherent in the mind of men. Fortunately for us it appears that everyday religion shows itself to be the best advertisement for atheism. Among all things, this alone is certain—that nothing is certain, and that there is nothing more proud or more wretched than man and his Gods.
I used to complain about the Bibles present in every hotel room but now upon further thought I see this book as the greatest advertisement for Atheism.
10 March 2010, on 5:37 pm
The Pope recently was pontificating about British legislation he thought would force the Catholic church to hire homosexuals. He urged Catholic bishops to fight such government policies with “missionary zeal.”
Anyone heard him say anything about this Ugandan legislation?
If I believed in a afterlife, I would want to die one second after Pope does, so I could be standing behind him in line and listen to the judgment of St. Pete.
10 March 2010, on 6:44 pm
Bull-fucking-shit, Warren. You and your ilk constantly stick your nose where it isn’t wanted, but you can’t be seen as soft on the gays when you preach in the state which passed Prop 8, now can you? His hypocrisy makes me want to put my fist though my laptop.
13 March 2010, on 8:41 am
Its obvious that this whole thing is outrageous. But I’m not shocked or even slightly surprised by this. This is exactly why homosexuals or any group of people have to always defend themselves and fight for equal rights. Otherwise it will always end in events like what is happening in Uganda.
If this does pass we all know no one is going to step in and help. At least not the UN or any government in the world. They will speak against it but never actually do anything. Human and gay rights groups will unlikely try to actually do anything if those laws apply to foreigners Uganda as well. Not that these groups would have any effect anyways.
13 March 2010, on 3:14 pm
The Ugandan parliament needs to proposes a law which would give seven year prison sentences for discussing anti-homosexuality, life imprisonment for anti-homosexual acts; and death for a second offenders. If this would become a reality, I wonder how it would be perceived by those who love dirty rotten strategies?