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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 3rd, 2012
L-R: Pasters Solomon Male, Michael Kyazze and Martin Ssempa in court recently. (Photo via Daily Monitor)
Martin Ssempa and Solomon Male were among four Ugandan pastors, along with a business man and a musician, who were convicted by a Kampala court for conspiring to tarnish a rival pastor’s reputation by accusing him of homosexuality. According to Daily Monitor, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper:
Pastors Solomon Male, Martin Ssempa, Michael Kyazze and Robert Kaira, together with Ms Deborah Anita Kyomuhendo, a businesswoman and David Mukalazi, a musician, were convicted by Buganda Road Grade I magistrate, Julius Borore.
Mr Borore sentenced them to a fine of Shs1 million each and community service of 100 hours or serve six months in prison upon failure to pay the fine and performing community service. Community service is where a convict is forced perform manual labour like digging, cleaning public facilities such as schools, collecting garbage among other chores.
The six are still being held in a holding cell at Buganda road court as they make up their minds. Meanhile Kayanja’s supporters are chanting outside court.
The magistrate said the case is sensitive in nature adding that genocides around the world have happened after the propagation of false information.
The fine of Shs1 million is equivalent to US$390.
One of the more immediate fallouts of the infamous March 2009 conference put on by Scott Lively and two other American anti-gay activists in Kampala, besides the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill, was a long and fearsome anti-gay vigilante campaign waged by the tabloids and on television and radio, with the full backing and participation by Ssempa and Male. During the anti-gay hysteria that swept Uganda, Ssempa and Male were among other powerful pastors who took the opportunity to launch wild accusations against rival pastors in a bid to increase their own power base and financial clout.
This particular case revolved around charges that Ssempa, Male and others made against Pastor Robert Kayanja of the Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral of being a homosexual, along with “a group of other pastors.” Before they made their charges public in the summer of 2009, Kayanja’s personal aide, Chris Muwonge, was allegedly kidnapped and tortured by armed men and held for five days. His captors allegedly wanted him to make a video statement accusing Kayenja of molesting young boys. Kayanja accused his rival, Pastor Michael Kyazze of the Omega Healing Center of being behind the plot. The ensuring investigation ultimately connected Ssempa and Male to the conspiracy.
Ssempa at one time had been a darling of American Evangelicals, boasting of ties to Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren; Peter E. Waldron, a Christian Reconstructionist and close advisor to Rep. Michele Bachman; Las Vegas megachurch Canyon Ridge Community Church; Willow Creek Church; among several others. Most (though not all) American Evangelicals have broken their ties with Ssempa since 2009. When Warren denounced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Ssempa issued a sharp video rebuke against his former friend.
As part of Ssempa’s public campaign to push the Anti-Homosexuality Bill through Parliament, he resorted to showing graphic gay porn in his church and at new conferences. When one of those news conferences was filmed for CurrentTV’s documentary “Missionaries of Hate,” the clips of Ssempa alleging that gay people “eat da poo-poo” became an internet sensation.
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F Young
October 3rd, 2012
Awesome!
What with Ssempa being convicted, California’s law banning ex-gay treatments for minors and the British psychotherapists policy also banning such treatments, its turning out to be bad week for the Forces of Darkness.
Too bad about Serbia’s cancellation of its gay pride due to threats of violence, though.
Regan DuCasse
October 3rd, 2012
I bet now he wishes that homosexuality wasn’t a crime, or a weapon of defamation of gay people.
If it wasn’t, and gay people accepted routinely, he wouldn’t be in trouble at all.
This is why you kinda want to look at such virulently anti gay people and go
DUH!
Regan DuCasse
October 3rd, 2012
…or, maybe he doesn’t. The anti gay don’t seem smart enough to think about it in such terms.
F Young
October 3rd, 2012
@Regan DuCasse
“I bet now he wishes that homosexuality wasn’t a crime, or a weapon of defamation of gay people.”
However, in this case, the judgement is premised on the view that he was using defamation as a weapon against a NON-gay person.
This case is a useful reminder that heterosexuals too are victims of anti-gay laws and persecution.
False accusations of homosexuality have been used to persecute and destroy apparently heterosexual political opponents in Malaysia and at least one African country.
A good deal of the people bullied in school are straights perceived to be gay.
Timothy Kincaid
October 3rd, 2012
Excellent point F Young. Once hate is an acceptable weapon, anyone can be its target.
MattNYC
October 3rd, 2012
Feel the LOVE that is Ugandan organized religion.
I can’t recall any incidents in the U.S. where preachers “knee-capped” “rivals” — what does that mean anyway? Most of them are upended by their own behavior. But if Falwell had not been a heart attack waiting to happen, it would have been fun to hear accusations against Uncle Pat for offing him.
These guys (and gal) are no better than mafiosi protecting their “turf.”
So, yeah, I want to hear moralizing from corrupt thugs like these…
Jerry Sloan
October 4th, 2012
Matt, don’t you remember in 1989 it was rivalry between Jimmy Swaggart and a New Orleans pastor that led to the NO pastor revealing Jimmy’s passion for masturbating prostitutes and his famous “I have sinned” televison confession.
A couple of years later Jimmy was caught in Southern CA with a prostitute in his car – he was just giving her a lift.
Ole Jimmy is doing OK these days as he now has his own satellite channel (344 on Directv) and 80+ radio stations. His son Donnie and grandson Gabriel are heirs to the family business.
MattNYC
October 4th, 2012
Jerry, I did not recall that Swaggart was done in by a rival. It’s funny, I was actually going to mention him as a specific example of someone who made his own bed.
Regan DuCasse
October 4th, 2012
Thanks F Young, beautifully articulated.
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