Box Turtle Bulletin

World Net Daily and Molotov Mitchell Want To Kill You

World Net Daily posted this video a month ago, but it didn’t get much notice. Now it’s on YouTube, and everyone with an ounce of decency are horrified at Mitchell’s enthusiastic call to execute gay people. He calls their Anti-Homosexuality Bill “more American than Americans.”

Believe it. There really are people who want to kill you. Some are even willing to brag about it.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

How Uganda’s Proposed Anti-Gay Bill Might Kill Just About Anyone, Gay or Straight

I’ve been rather flabbergasted at how open-ended the wording in Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Law is, and how easily it can be abused should it become law. You can find the text of the bill here. Rob Tisinai demonstrates just how open to rampant abuse this abysmally-constructed bill really is.

It is fair to ask if this is what the bill’s authors and supporters really intend.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Ugandan Police Block Kampala Anti-Gay Demo

The anonymous blogger GayUganda discovered an e-paper only version of the Daily Monitor, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, which said, “Police yesterday blocked antihomosexuality activists who had planned a demonstration in Kampala in support of the antigays Bill.” The rest of the article reported on Monday’s Jinja demonstration.

It appears in the Monitor’s report that when police yesterday “blocked” the Kampala demonstration, they are probably referring to an announced meeting that was to have taken place Tuesday with Pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa, an ardent supporter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. That proposed bill would impose the death penalty on LGBT people under certain circumstances, and mandate life imprisonment for the rest.

Gay Uganda reconstructs a timeline and suspects that this means that Ssempa is “going rogue.” The real question is whether Ssempa will run afoul with Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, who controls more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament and is accustomed to breaking up opposition rallies, barring political figures from the airwaves, and shutting down radio stations he doesn’t like. Is Ssempa really going rogue, or is he simply acting out his part in a larger play of political gamesmanship? That’s the riddle we’re all trying to figure out.

Update: AFP reports that the Jinja rally took place after Ssempa obtained police authorization. And another tea leaf sinks to the bottom of the cup.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Southern African Anglicans Denounce Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

Southern African bishops of the Anglican Communion met in Swaziland February 8-10 to discuss, among other things, Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The resulting statement forcefully denounces the bill, calling it “a gross violation of human rights,” and deplores “the violent language used against the gay community across Sub-Saharan Africa.” This marks a significant statement of opposition by religious leaders within Africa.

Click here to read the full statement.

Despite Protest Ban, Hundreds of Ugandans Call For Killing Gays

Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa defied a police ban against his planned “million man march” in support of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill scheduled for Wednesday by holding a quickly organized march in the city of Jinja yesterday.

Update: A reader in Uganda had provided us with a video clip of a news broadcast covering that march. But now, NTV’s Kenyan branch has posted the same report on their YouTube channel.

That Ssempa chose to defy the ban is interesting. Clearly, the ban on his planned demonstration for Kampala was ordered by the highest levels of government — one can rarely lose a bet on assuming such orders come directly from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. He has acknowledged coming under intense international pressure to shelve the bill and may be looking for ways to turn down the pressure.

But Ssempa has been the bill’s strongest supporter, even going so far as to defend its proposed death penalty for gays and lesbians under certain circumstances. So Ssempa responded to the demonstration ban by moving his planned march from Kampala to Jinja, Uganda’s second largest city about 50 miles to the east. Was this an act of defiance to try to make it politically impossible for Museveni to block or moderate the draconian legislation? Or was this the result of an unspoken compromise which allows the government to appear democratic (even though it routinely outlaws opposition rallies at will throughout the country) while keeping its fingerprints off its bill?

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of the past year\’s anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Ugandan Police Block Demonstration to Support Anti-Gay Bill, Pro-Gay Conference Held In Secret

This could be seen as a positive development:

Anglican Church of Uganda endorses a milder evil – do local Anglican Churches?

Anglican Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi

The Episcopal Cafe has posted a copy of the press release issued by The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi , the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda (Anglican) which clarifies the church’s stance on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (the Kill Gays bill) currently under consideration in that nation.

The Church of Uganda does not endorse the bill and believes that this particular piece of legislation is not needed. However, they do call for a piecemeal approach which would serve much the same purpose: increase official harassment and incarceration of gay Ugandans and deny basic civil rights. They are not clear as to whether they support life sentences.

Here are the four goals which the Anglicans in Uganda wish achieved:

We particularly appreciate the objectives of the Bill which seek to:

a) provide for marriage in Uganda as contracted only between a man and woman;

b) prohibit and penalize homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family;

c) prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of the Act;

d) prohibit the licensing of organizations which promote homosexuality.

The order of this list is interesting. One could imagine it as a scale by which intolerance and disrespect for human dignity could be measured in a society.

The first point could simply be a reflection of tradition, misunderstanding, and unnecessary fears. Prohibition and punishment of private sexual expression is an indication of animus, heterosexism, and religious hegemony. The rejection of international treaties and protocols is a sign of arrogance and a hostility to gay persons that verges on hatred.

But the Church of Uganda goes all the way to their fourth point – the rejection of freedoms of speech, assembly, or political diversity. They endorse totalitarianism and reject basic human rights and democratic ideals. This is an attitude that has been shared by every society that is held up as an example of excess, inhumanity, and abuse.

And it is “loopholes” which allow the sort of freedoms that a modern state values that Orambi finds in need of correcting.

We affirm the need for a Bill in light of the existing loopholes in the current legislation, specifically sections 145-148 of the Penal Code Act (Cap 120), which do not explicitly address the other issues associated with homosexual practice such as procurement, recruitment and dissemination of literature.
…
As Parliament considers streamlining the existing legislation, we recommend that the following issues be taken into consideration:
…
2. Language that strengthens the existing Penal Code to protect the boy child, especially from homosexual exploitation; to prohibit lesbianism, bestiality, and other sexual perversions; and to prohibit procurement of material and promotion of homosexuality as normal or as an alternative lifestyle, be adopted.

Let us be clear. Anyone who believes in human rights, anyone who believes in freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of thought, anyone who believes in freedom of religion, all will find the position of the Church of Uganda to be abhorrent.

Yet many Americans have attached their very religious identity to Archbishop Orambi and his anti-gay campaign. The congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church over the place of gay people within the body of the church have formed the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and the only two bodies with which they have full communion are the Church of Nigeria and the Church of Uganda. Several of these congregations have declared that they are under the direct authority of Archbishop Orombi.

I doubt that these American churches endorse the abolition of the freedom of speech in America and I suspect that if cornered many would refuse to publicly endorse recriminalization of homosexuality. Yet, to date, neither the ACNA nor a single member church has spoken against the efforts of the Church of Uganda. None has expressed even the slightest discomfort about being publicly aligned with those who endorse human rights abuses.

While it is likely that this is because they are hesitant to appear in any way that can be construed to be tolerant of the “sinful act of homosexual behavior”, it is also possible that they simply have not been asked. It is likely that the local newspaper reporters in the cities in which these Anglican churches reside are unaware of the Orombi’s stance. And even if so, they are not likely to know that the Church of Uganda is only one of two churches which are in full communion with the Anglican Church in North America.

Perhaps it is time that they become informed. And perhaps it is time that these individual churches come face to face with what they have endorsed.

I invite our readers to go to the ACNA web site and find churches in their area. Then they can contact the reporter on the Religion beat for their local paper and inform them of the issue.

Please, please, do not editorialize in your contact. You don’t need to call the church names or point out hypocrisy or quote the Bible or denounce all religion or anything else which would cause the reporter to dismiss you as a crank. Nor should you start by writing a letter to the editor as this is far less effective than having a reporter cover the story.

Feel free to email them some variation of the following letter:

Dear Religion Reporter,

I wish to bring to your attention an international issue which has a strong local link. This matter is of great importance to many in the community and I hope that you would find this story to be worthy of your efforts.

As you may be aware, there is a bill in the legislature in Uganda which would call for the death penalty for some gay Ugandans and demand life imprisonment for the rest. The Church of Uganda, an Anglican church, does not support this bill (usually referred to as the “Kill the Gays Bill”), but has instead called for separate legislation that would do the following:

• prohibit and penalize homosexual behavior (along with “lesbianism, bestiality, and other sexual perversions”)
• ban any organizations that “promote homosexuality” as normal or as an alternative lifestyle
• make it illegal to advocate for gay people
• make it illegal to disseminate any material or literature that advocates for gay people
• declare that homosexual behavior is not a human right
• declare that advocating for gay people is not a human right

A copy of the press release can be found here.

You may also be aware that XXX Anglican Church on Main Street is a member of the Anglican Church in North America. This congregation was part of the Episcopal Church until they broke away from that denomination in part because of disagreement over the Episcopal Church’s level of acceptance of gay people in the body of the church.

The Church of Uganda is one of only two Anglican Churches in the world which are in full communion with the Anglican Church in North America (the other is the Church of Nigeria which has made similar statements.) The efforts of break-away Episcopal churches was supported by and influenced by the Ugandan and Nigerian archbishops.

I have not yet heard XXX Anglican Church’s position on these actions in Uganda. Neither they nor the Anglican Church in North American have issued a statement suggesting that their ecclesiastical partner is in any way in error. And as they broke from the Episcopal Church (Anglican Church in Canada) over the issue of homosexuality, I wonder whether their position may be the same as that of the Church of Uganda.

As a member of the Local City community, I have an interest in the religious beliefs of the local churches, one that I’m sure I share with many other residents.

I would very much like to know whether XXX Anglican Church supports the criminalization of homosexuality and the incarceration of gay men and women either in the United States (Canada) or Uganda. Do they share the Church of Uganda’s desire to ban the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, or freedom of religion on issues of homosexuality? And finally, is XXX Anglican Church in any way troubled that their only ecclesiastical partners oppose human rights and other freedoms? Will they make a statement of disagreement or use their affiliation to work against any religious advocacy in foreign nations which they think is excessive or unChristian; or, alternately, are they content with the goals of the Church of Uganda?

I certainly don’t wish to tell you how to write a story, but for perspective and contrast I would find it interesting to hear the position of other local church leaders, including those who did not leave the Episcopal Church.

I do hope that you share my interest in this issue and consider this story to be worth inquiry and reporting.

Sincerely,

Box Turtle Reader

Please let us know who you contacted and whether they expressed interest in the story.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of the past year\’s anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Did the Anglican Church of Uganda Endorse Criminalization With Death Penalty?

Anglican Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi

See important updates below.

This is a very surprising turn of events, considering that just last fall the head of the Ugandan Anglican Church questioned the “need” for the death penalty in the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Now, Christianity Today reports that the Church of Uganda has endorsed the bill, but suggests the following amendments:

1. Ensure that the law protects the confidentiality of medical, pastoral and counseling relationships, including those that disclose homosexual practice in accordance with the relevant professional codes of ethics.
2. Language that strengthens the existing Penal Code to protect the boy child, especially from homosexual exploitation; to prohibit lesbianism, bestiality, and other sexual perversions; and to prohibit procurement of material and promotion of homosexuality as normal or as an alternative lifestyle, be adopted.
3. Ensure that homosexual practice or the promotion of homosexual relations is not adopted as a human right.
4. Existing and future Educational materials and programmes on gender identity and sex education are in compliance with the values and the laws of Uganda.
5. The involvement of additional stakeholders in the evaluation of the gaps in the existing legislation, including, but not limited to, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, its Department of Immigration and other relevant departments.
6. The undertaking of a comprehensive legislative and literature review of all the laws and literature related to the subject at hand in order to identify the actual gaps in the existing legislations.

In fact, this recommendation amounts to a tacit opinion that the draconian bill, even in its breathtaking scope and breadth, doesn’t go far enough as far as the Anglican Church in Uganda is concerned. It also represents a rift between the Ugandan Church and the Anglican Communion’s head, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who quietly and meekly condemned the proposed legislation in December.

A number of Conservative Anglican churches in the U.S. have sought to align themselves with the Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, in an ongoing schism taking place here in America. Those American parishes are now fully aligned with an overseer who is on record as being perfectly fine with unleashing a genocidal wave against LGBT people in Uganda.

Update: Uganda’s largest independent newspaper Daily Monitor has a different take from The Christian Post. The Monitor calls the Anglican statement a “rejection” of the bill. According to the Monitor, the statement calls for the bill’s withdrawal and existing laws modified to specifically address child exploitation and bestiality. Without access to the statement itself, it’s hard to know how to reconcile the two accounts. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of the past year\’s anti-gay developments in Uganda.

“Family” Leader Reportedly Confirms Opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Gay BIll

That’s according to Warren Throckmorton, who spoke with Doug Coe at the National Prayer Breakfast. Coe is the leader of the secretive Evangelical organization known as the Fellowship, or the Family.

Mr. Coe told me in the interview that he believes Jesus loves all people regardless of sexual orientation. He and other Fellowship leaders told me that imposing the death penalty and criminalization of homosexuality is contrary to the principles of love and compassion that Jesus taught and lived and upon whose life and teachings the Fellowship is based. Furthermore, the National Prayer Breakfast movement\’s mission is to build bridges of understanding between all people, religions and beliefs.

Doug Coe

While I think Warren is a trustworthy source on this, I reserve a great deal of caution about the depth of Coe’s opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. How committed is he in his opposition? Instead of relying on intermediaries, why hasn’t he made a public appearance or released a statement under his own name to that affect? Is he willing to put at risk his ties to the powerful Ugandan political establishment, including Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni himself, to press his opposition? Or will he moderate his message to something considerably milder — perhaps even with a wink — in order to preserve his ties to Uganda’s powerful elite?

When one asks, “What would Jesus do?” in this Jesus-plus-nothing paradigm that is the heart of Coe’s teaching, the answer should be obvious. Jesus put his entire life at risk when he overturned the moneychangers’ tables in the Temple, and they weren’t even thinking about killing anyone. They were just exercising the free market. But right now, it’s Ugandan citizens who have everything at risk, while Coe and the Fellowship have ventured little. I would however be very thrilled to post whatever direct response Doug Coe would like to give.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Don’t Be Fooled By Changes To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law

BBC is reporting again what so many other media outlets have said over the past several months, that Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill will likely be changed before Parliament takes it up again for its second reading. There really isn’t much new here, so don’t get too excited. We’ve been hearing these suggestions since October but the only hints of change have been to drop the death penalty. Given the broad scope of the bill, that’s barely tinkering around the edges. Pardon me while I repeat myself, but we must never loose sight of the breathtaking scope of the bill. In its current form, it would:

• Expand the definitions for homosexual acts, making conviction easier. Current law requires evidence of penetration. The new law would expand the definition of homosexual activity to”touch(ing) another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.” Touching itself is defined as “touching—(a) with any part of the body; (b) with anything else; (c) through anything; and in particular includes touching amounting to penetration of any sexual organ. anus or mouth.”
• Affirm Uganda\’s lifetime imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality.
• Define a new crime of “aggravated homosexuality” for those who engage in sex with someone under the age of 18, who are HIV-positive, who is a “repeat offender” (so broadly defined as to include anyone who has had a relationship with more than one person, or who had sex with the same person more than once), or who had sex with a disabled person (consensual or not). The penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” is death by hanging.
• Require anyone arrested on suspicion of homosexuality to undergo HIV testing to determine the individual\’s qualification for prosecution of “aggravated homosexuality.”
• Criminalize “attempted homosexuality” with imprisonment for seven years.
• Criminalize “promoting” homosexuality with fines and imprisonment for between five and seven years. This overly-broad provision would criminalize all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda . It would also criminalize any attempt to repeal or modify the law in the future, as those moves could also be seen as “promoting” homosexuality.
• Criminalize “aiding and abetting homosexuality” with seven years imprisonment. This provision could be used against anyone extending counseling, medical care, or otherwise providing aide gay people.
• Criminalize the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.
• Add a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual\’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment for up to three years.
• Penalize people who run “brothels” with five to seven years imprisonment for renting to LGBT people. However, it defines a brothel as “a house, room, set of rooms or place of any kind for the purposes of homosexuality” instead of the more normal definition of a place where commercial sex work takes place. Anyone\’s bedroom would be a “brothel” under this definition, placing landlords and hotel owners in jeopardy for renting to LGBT people.
• Add an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.
• Void all international treaties, agreements and human rights obligations which conflict with this bill.

So let’s not pretend that their talk of changing the bill is at all meaningful. But that is what the Ugandan government appears intent on doing: drop the death penalty, maybe tinker with a few other provisions and pass the bulk of the legislation into law. And right now, that appears inevitable.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni

The only real question remaining is whether President Yoweri Museveni will sign the bill into law. It is widely believed that the bill’s introduction as a Private Member’s bill rather than an official government bill is mere theater, requiring the same suspension of disbelief it takes to think of Ugandaas a functioning democracy. The government can claim that it had nothing to do with the bill (which it does) while continuing to defend it as an exercize in Uganda’s national sovereignty (which it does) — all of which plays very well with its intended audiences in Uganda. MB DAvid Bahati, who interoduced the bill, has been pillaried for doing so. But he’s just an actor, and to blame him for the bill is like blaming Anthony Hopkins for mass murder. But the final outcome, as is true with all dramas, depends on where the director wants to take this sad play, and that director is Mr. Museveni himself.

There’s a very good reason Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned Museveni by name at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast. She spoke to truth that everyone knows but many haven’t acknowledged yet. It’s a difficult thing for them to do. After all, Museveni has been widely praised in the west as a political reformer. But Uganda is, practically speaking, a one-party state where Museveni routinely denies media access to opposition politicians, arrests peaceful opposition demonstrators, charges news reporters with libel when they write critical stories about him, and packs the supposedly independent Electoral Commission with his cronies.

So to say that he’s a reformer who upholds the principles of democracy and freedom, you’d have to ignore the fact that he has held onto power for twenty-four years and he’s not leaving anytime soon. Clinton, by mentioning him by name, broke the cognitive dissonance that Museveni’s supporters and apologists in the west have clung to for so long, and she revealed the simple truth to it all: It all depends on Museveni.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

More Than Thirty Congressmen Sponsor Resolution Against Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution condemning the Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill yesterday, calling it an attack on human rights and an obstacle to battling HIV/AIDS. The resolution also calls on the President and the Secretary of State to express the US’s opposition to the proposed legislation and ensure that any US funds dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention be allocated “a manner that is efficient, effective, and appropriate to the local epidemiology of the disease, including in Uganda.”

Click here to read the full text of the Congressional resolution.

Four Senators Introduce Resolution Condeming Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

Four U.S. Senators — Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) — have introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the Ugandan Parliament to reject the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Sen. Coburn’s involvement is particularly notable and especially laudable given his membership in the Family and his otherwise unfriendly positions on LGBT issues. He also gave a convoluted condemnation of the proposed legislation last December. But still, a condemnation is a condemnation, and he’s following that with a co-sponsorship of this Senate resolution. It just goes to show that those who solidly oppose LGBT Americans can still recognize the grossest forms of injustice when they see it.

Of course, that observation doesn’t apply to everyone…

Click here to read the bipartisan Senate resolution.

Ugandan Ethics Minister to Obama: “Ouch!!! Stop That!”

With unprecidented speed, Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo quickly lashed out at President Barack Obama’s denunciation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Uganda’s Parliament. President Obama called the bill “odious” earlier today during an address at the National Prayer Breakfast. Buturo very quickly shot back that Obama’s statement was “unacceptable” interference:

“Somebody should tell President Obama that the parliament is doing its legislative duty in the interest of the people of Uganda,” James Nsaba Buturo, Ugandan minister of ethics and integrity, told AFP.

…”Members of parliament have a constitutional duty to choose between what the people of Uganda want and what others want, and I am sure they will choose what the people of Uganda want,” he said.”

President Obama finished his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at 9:25 am, Washington, D.C. locak time. Kampala is eight hours ahead, which would be about 5:25 pm local time there. The AFP’s report came out “seven hours ago” as I write this, which would put this report at about ten-ish am Washington time, or six-ish pm Kampala time, perhaps 7:00 pm at the very latest. That’s not much time for Buturo to hear Obama’s remarks, react to it to a reporter, and have the reporter file his story with AFP. That kind of quick reaction is extremely rare, which can only mean one thing: Obama’s statement landed a solid blow. It may not be a fatal hit, but Uganda’s political leadership definitely felt it.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Obama Calls Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill “Odious”

Update: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also denounced the bill. See below.

President Barack Obama, speaking today at the National Prayer Breakfast, denounced the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is currently before Uganda’s Parliament as “odious.” In prepared remarks, in which Obama talked about the essential role of civility in a functioning democracy, Obama said:

We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.

Uganda’s proposed anti-gay law is sponsored by MP David Bahati, who has ties with the secretive Evangelical group known as the Family, the same group that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast. Since those connections to Bahati became known, the Family has been scrambling  to distance itself from the legislation.

Update: One feature of the National Prayer Breakfast is that the main speakers are always the President of the United States and an unannounced surprise keynote speaker. This year, that keynote speaker was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She also used that platform to denounce Uganda’s proposed legislation:

Every time I travel, I raise the plight of girls and women, and make it clear that we expect to see changes. And I recently called President Museveni, who I have known through the Prayer Breakfast, and expressed the strongest concerns about a law being considered in the Parliament of Uganda.

Think Progress has posted video excerpts from C-SPAN Obama’s and Clinton’s remarks:

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

American Prayer Hour vs. National Prayer Breakfast

Several groups are sponsoring the American Prayer Hour for tomorrow, February 4, as an alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast which will take place at the same time in Washington, D.C. The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by the secretive Evangelical group known as the Family, some of whose members are linked to Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The American Prayer Hour was conceived as a multi-city event to call on the UGandan government to withdraw the bill that Saddleback pastor Rick Warren characterized as “unjust, extreme and un-Christian toward homosexuals.”

To kick off the event, APH organizers held a news conference yesterday featuring Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith for the Human Rights Campaign; the Rev. Elder Darlene Garner, Metropolitan Community Church pastor;  Bishop Carlton Pearson, interim senior pastor at Chicago\’s Christ Universal Temple; Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man elected bishop in the Episcopal Church; and Frank Schaeffer, son of pre-eminent conservative theologian Francis Schaeffer. More on Mr. Schaeffer later.

But the star of the event was “Moses,” a Ugandan citizen who is seeking asylum in the United States. He appeared in disguise because he fears for his life if he should be forced to go back to Uganda, and his testimony shows us exactly what’s at stake.

Frank Schaeffer

Frank Schaeffer’s presence is particularly notable. His father, Frances Schaeffer, was a very influential and conservative theologian who rejected modernism in all its theological forms. His book, The Christian Manifesto is credited — or blamed — for inspiring the rise of the Christian Right as a political force, as well as the rise of Dominionism as a theological one. His son, Frank, grew up immersed in the work of his father, and in his book Crazy for God, Frank described his own role in pushing religious leaders to tackle abortion in the 1970’s and 1980’s. But over time Frank became disillusioned with the movement his father helped to inspire, and came to the conclusion that the Evangelical right had distorted his father’s teachings beyond recognition. He is now a critic of the very movement he and his father helped to establish.

At yesterday’s news conference, Frank was quoted as saying:

“As a person who was raised in the heart of conservative Christianity, it took me years to realize that anti-gay beliefs are wrong and not inherent to Christianity. Today, fundamentalists are exporting anti-gay beliefs because fewer and fewer people here believe the lies. It\’s time to stop using gay people as political pawns and understand that we are all children of God.”