They KNOW they’re right so of course, for them, bad consequences cannot possibly occur. They’re the GOOD guys, incapable of error, hubris, ignorance and wickedness.

Why is it, that people who want to do that sort of thing never seem to remember that it never works out for them in the long run? The mideval inquisitions led to the Reformation, and the Catholic Church lost a lot of power as a result. Witch-hunts in England led to at least one “Witchfinder General” falling victim to his own methods, the “Final Solution” while not a direct cause of the fall of Germany in WWII didn’t help matters in the end, and led to a whole new list of problems in the middle east later and the world is still dealing with that.

Why can’t people see that actions always have consequences? Are they that ignorant, or do they just not care?

In a sense though now that you’ve brought up red-baiting, the two issues are connected. In the 70′s and 80′s the Full Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship International was a very active force in “fighting communism” in Central America, and supported dictators like Rios Montt in Guatemala.

Rios Montt was exactly the same sort of Christian as these whackos in Uganda, except there was a civil war on at the time. He was deposed by a coup, too. Also, he targeted Catholics and Mayans, not gays although I’m sure they were targets too, his war wasn’t against them but against the Maya minority and its guerilla groups. (Which were formed as much for self defense as anything else.)

No, Uganda’s not unique, except for the amount of effort being put into trying to stop the nutcases this time.

I should have said McCarthyism AND red-baiting. Red-baiting was McCarthy’s focus and tool. Red-baiting as a tool existed before McCarthy, and after, but he (and Richard Nixon) perfected it.

That expansion of terms should add depth to my statement. Sorry to have left it out.

In no sense did red-baiting stop at the US border. Indeed, US foreign policy from that time until well into the 80s was essentially red-baiting. You can argue its influence, but you can’t deny its presence.

As for “evidence” of communism: Uncounted thousands of American citizens heartily wish that were true.

In fact, a simple accusation, ala the Salem witch hunts, was all that was needed to destroy a citizen’s life. It happened thousands of times; “evidence” beyond the charge was rarely required. Simply printing a campaign flyer on pink paper, as Nixon did in his first congressional campaign, was sufficient to make the charge and to stampede public opinion.

I suspect that you want to argue that the Ugandan situation is somehow special in the pantheon of world evils, in part due to the duplicity and hidden agendas of its participants.

It surely has its niche, and right near the forefront, but I can’t go beyond that.

I’ll stick with what I said: There’s nothing new under the sun.

The difference between McCarthyism and what the American Dominionists (Who are using Uganda as a laboratory to test policies they’d like to see implemented) are trying to do in Uganda is that McCarthyism, evil as it was, stopped at the US border.

I’ve even read it on here, that Ugandan leaders want to see their country be a “Christian moral leader” and would like to see other countries try to implement similar things.

There’s another problem too. McCarthyism was a fairly secular problem, and you could at least find evidence if somebody was a Communist or not. Can anyone find evidence of “Demons” or if a person is “Of the Devil?” No. There is no such evidence, there’s no membership cards, no student organization, no “Weathermen” as it were. There’s not really a “Satanese liberation army” for these idiots to oppose.

Any Pastor, hell, any Pentecostal Christian (especially men) in good standing could point to a man and say he’s gay so he must be satanic, or point to a woman and say she’s a witch, and then the lynch mob starts forming up. This is a big problem Africa has right now, especially Nigeria.

But at least in Nigeria one can run to the Police.

The problem is, these pastors want to turn the state into the lynch mob.