Box Turtle Bulletin

Scott Lively Denies Responsibility for Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

NPR’s East Africa Correspondent Gwen Tompkins reports on NPR today:

Scott Lively’s philosophies have been deeply internalized here among those who are proponents of the law, and for people who are listening to these public dialogues on homosexuality, they’re hearing Scott Lively’s words reiterated by Ugandan Evangelicals and others who are proponents of the bill. And they believe it to be Gospel. They believe it to be scientific fact, what they’re listening to.

NPR’s Michel Martin then spoke to Scott Lively about the March conference, in which he defends his role in the events in Uganda. Lively acknowledges being “a consultant” on the law before it was drafted. Here is the audio:

As you can hear, this is a typical soft-ball NPR interview. There’s no mentioning of the fact that Scott Lively has played a leading role in three of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ten anti-gay hate groups. There’s no examination of Lively’s Holocaust revisionism aside from an oblique reference to his “controversial” book at the beginning. In fact, none of his controversial beliefs surrounding Nazi Germany and the Holocaust came up. Instead, Lively pretends that he was simply asked for his opinion and he gave it. Whatever happens after that is none of his concern.

But here’s the kicker (at the 4:47 mark), when Lively said:

“It’s racist to suggest that Africans have no will of their own to produce public policy to suit their own values, and that three little-known, not very influential figures from American could come in and basically dominate this process. That’s pretty racist. We don’t have that kind of influence. We gave our opinion. And if it was true that our opinion was so weighty, then they would have backed off immediately, hearing all of us saying that we don’t agree with what they did.

L-R: Unidentified woman, American holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, International Healing Foundation's Caleb Brundidge, Exodus International boardmember Don Schmierer, Family Life Network (Uganda)'s Stephen Langa, at the time of the March 2009 anti-gay conference in Uganda.

The problem with that is that he’s constructed a very easily defeated strawman, as he is wont to do. First, we have long reported that Uganda’s violent hatred of its LGBT citizens had already provided fertile ground for the March anti-homosexuality conference to take root. It was that awareness of Uganda’s recent violent history that made the conference by Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Brundidge so alarming. Lively’s rhetoric — which Gwen Tompkins reported had been repeated and accepted “as Gospel” among influential religious leaders in Uganda — included blaming gays for a “pedophilia” problem in the country, blaming gays for Fascism and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, and blaming gays for the Rwandan genocide of 1994. And we know through video evidence that Lively’s historical revisionism has played a role in this year’s anti-gay hysteria.

But not only does he discount his own inflammatory rhetoric he also ignores the repeated assertions by Ugandan politicians that “homosexuality is a learned behavior” (which comes straight out of Schmierer’s and Brundidge’s talks in March). He also he also ignores the very real influence his pronouncements continue to have in Uganda. Uganda’s political and religious leaders are now talking about including Livey’s forced conversion therapy option as a possible amendment to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. That was his idea, which he proudly owns.

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

Bahati Refuses To Answer Questions About Ties To “The Family”

Ugandan MP David Bahati, the prime sponsor of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, appeared in an interview on BBC’s World Service yesterday. It’s worth listening to, if only to hear first-hand how the draconian bill is being sold in Uganda.

Uganda MP David Bahati, prime sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Act

There are two key points here worth mention. First, beginning at about the 5:25 mark, the BBC interviewer tries to get Bahati to say whether or not he is a member of the U.S.-based secretive Christian group known as The Family:

BBC: Is it true that you’re a member of The Family, also known as the Fellowship?

Bahati: [pause] Uh, these are the facts on the ground. Do we have friends that are beyond Uganda? Yes, we have them. Did they have an input to this bill? No, they didn’t.

BBC: Okay. The reason I ask that for the listeners who aren’t familiar, this is a very well-connected, pretty hard-core Christian group based in the United States with friends in many countries. If course, the reason I asked it is if you are a member, are you getting help from America?

Bahati: No, we are not getting any support. This is a home-grown bill. It’s a bill made by Ugandans for Ugandans, and for the good of mankind in the world. And we are saying, who are we to condone what God condemns?

BBC: You didn’t answer whether you are a member of the family or not, Mr. Bahati.

Bahati: Since we moved this bill, there has been a lot of manipulation and deception, especially by the pro-gay groups to try and spin the story.

BBC: A simple no would suffice if it is not the case.

Bahati: I just wanted to put it into context because the world we live in is not as simple as you are suggesting. But what I am saying is, did I get … am I getting any support from abroad? I’m saying no. Do I have friends abroad? Yes, I have them. Are they supporting or praying for me? I hope that some people are really praying for me on this one.

A second important event occurs at the about the 3:33 mark in which the BBC interviewer, after having listened to Bahati’s justification for the bill, observes:

The language you are using, Mr. Bahati, is redolent, frankly, of Nazi Germany. You’re talking about reclaiming people who have been corrupted. You’ve got another clause about forcing people to tell the authorities about anybody they know who is gay.

Interesting that Bahati didn’t take offense at the comparison, nor did he try to draw any contrasts between himself and Nazi Germany.

[Hat tip: Andy Harley at UK Gay News]

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

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Second Reading In February

When I first learned that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill would be brought back to Parliament, I suspect that this might constitute a “second reading.” The BBC now reports that the second reading will take place in February. Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton confirmed that through a Ugandan MP. While it appears that the legislation may be brought up for debate today either before a Parliament Committee or the full Parliament, this is not the required second reading.

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

Newsweek: Is Uganda’s Anti-Gay Ferver Spreading?

[Update: This post has been updated to include a brief statement MP David Bahati made to NPR.]

Katie Paul pulls the microscope off of Uganda and looks at the climate for LGBT citizens throughout Africa. It doesn’t look good. Much of the continent is rife with homophobia. Last year, Burundi criminalized homosexuality for the first time, with penalties of up to two years in prison. In Senegal, we’ve seen people arrested for homosexuality (many of them LGBT advocates). The president of Gambia threatened to cut off the heads of all gay people in his country. And Nigeria has its own draconian bill languishing in its legislature that ostensibly outlaws same sex marriage, but goes much further by banning any gay people from living together and all advocacy on behalf of LGBT people. Meanwhile, Rwanda, which lies on Uganda’s southwest border, is currently debating a bill to criminalize homosexuality with five to ten year’s imprisonment, along with all advocacy and counseling of LGBT people. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission says that a vote may occur in Rwanda’s lower House sometime this week.

But despite all that, some have suggested that if the Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law, Uganda will represent the first domino to fall. One of those suggesting this is none other than Ugandan MP David Bahati, the prime sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He told NPR:

“Once this bill passes, you’re going to see country by country learning from this, continent by continent. It’s a crucial time and a crucial bill, not only in Uganda but in the world.”

But as Paul points out, pointing to Uganda as the first domino as some have done is, as she puts it, “a tough sell”:

While the historical origins of anti-gay legislation are debatable, antipathy to homosexuality is by now a home-grown phenomenon throughout most of Africa. ABC’s Dana Hughes, writing from Nairobi, points out that such opinions on homosexuality are already widespread on the continet. “While American evangelicals are being examined for their role in the origins of the bill in Uganda,” she writes, “East Africa, and for that matter Africa as a whole, is decidedly, virulently against homosexuality.” In total, 37 countries in Africa have laws on the books criminalizing same-sex relations.

We’ve been on this story every since we first noticed that three American anti-gay activists were about to put on an anti-gay conference in Kampala. We did not believe and we have never suggested, as some have charged in probably the flimsiest strawman ever erected, that conditions weren’t already ripe for an anti-gay pogrom even without the meddling of three Americans who presented themselves as “experts” on homosexuality. We knew very well the conditions that already existed in that country, and that was the subject of the very second post we put up in the series.

We took notice and followed this story through the present day, and we’ll continue to follow it because Uganda has a very violent history. That violence in recent years has been directed toward that country’s reviled LGBT community. And now Ugandan leaders aim to take its violent legacy and codify it into law, turning LGBT people into candidates for the noose and a nation into an army of informers.

No, that conference didn’t start this fire, not by a longshot. The fire was already burning, but the conference was the napalm that burst the fire into the conflagration that we see today. And Uganda is hardly ground zero in Africa’s war against LGBT people. It’s just where the spotlight happens to shine at the moment. And with Ugandans’ extremely close geographical, cultural, and religious ties to Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya, these events bear very close scrutiny.

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

Ugandan Pastor Responds To Rick Warren’s Statement; Revives “Forced Therapy” Option

Martin Ssempa

Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, who had met several times with Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, is positively livid over Warren’s statement calling on Ugandan pastors to oppose the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In a letter addressed to Warren (PDF: 88KB/4 pages) and obtained by Christianity Today, Ssempa acknowledges receiving a letter from Warren asking Ugandan pastors to speak out against the bill, and counters with a deliberately misleading and convoluted defense of it.

After nearly three pages of ranting, Ssempa says that two amendments will be proposed for the bill:

At a special sitting of the Uganda Joint Christian Council taskforce sat and reviewed the bill to make comments. We resolved to support the bill with some amendments which included the following:

a. We suggested a less harsher sentence of 20 years instead of the death penalty for pedophilia or aggravated homosexuality.

b. We suggested the inclusion of counseling and rehabilitation being offered to offenders and victims. The churches are willing to provide the necessary help for those who are willing to undergo counseling and rehabilitation.

L-R: Unidentified woman, American holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, International Healing Foundation's Caleb Brundidge, Exodus International boardmember Don Schmierer, Family Life Network (Uganda)'s Stephen Langa, at the time of the March 2009 anti-gay conference in Uganda.

This revives the forced therapy proposal brought up last March during a three-day anti-gay conference in Kampala. That conference, organized by Stephen Langa of Kampala-based Family Life Network featured Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Brundidge.

The Ugandan Parliament will reportedly bring the Anti-Homosexuality Bill up for a second reading debate on Friday. It’s unknown whether these proposals will be brought up during that debate.

Ssempa also recounts Warren’s 2008 trip to Uganda in support of the Anglican Church of Uganda’s boycott of the Lambeth Conference over the U.S. church’s ordination of Rev. Gene Robinson as the denomination’s first openly gay bishop. Ssempa lectured Warren:

When you came to Uganda on Thursday, 27 March 2008, and expressed support to the Church of Uganda’s boycott of the pro-homosexual church of England, you stated; “The Church of England is wrong, and I support the Church of Uganda”. You are further remembered to say, “homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus (its) not a human right. We shall not tolerate this aspect at all.”

Ssempa later returns to this subject at the end of his letter with a reference to Warren’s PEACE plan for Africa:

We note with sadness the increasing levels of accepting of the evil of homosexuality. The ordination of Mary Glasspool a Lesbian as a bishop in Los Angeles without any condemnation from you, has increased the widening gap between the global south church in Africa and the global north church in Europe and America. In these increasingly dark days, we encourage you not to give into the temptation to water down what the bible says so as not to offend people. Jesus’s gospel is a stumbling block, and a rock of offfense. Rick you are our friend, we have bought many of your books and have been blessed by them. Do not let the pressure of bloggers and popular media intimidate you into becoming a negotiator for homosexual pedophilia rights in Africa. As you yourself say about evil, — “the Bible says evil has to be opposed. Evil has to be stopped. The Bible does not say negotiate with evil. It says stop it. Stop evil.” Since the bible says that the giant of homosexuality is an “abomination” or a great evil, you cannot achieve the peace plan without a purpose driven confrontation with evil.

Ssempa has been a leading promoter of harsher treatment for that country’s LGBT citizens. He has also accused rival pastors of homosexuality. These allegations were found to be false, and Ssempa found himself under investigation for filing false reports. That investigation was apparently halted when President Yoweri Museveni intervened.

Rick Warren recently distanced himself from Ssempa:

Martin Ssempa does not represent me, my wife Kay, Saddleback Church, nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy. In 2007, we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own. Our role, and the role of the PEACE Plan, whether in Uganda or any other country, is always pastoral and never political. We vigorously oppose anything that hinders the goals of the PEACE Plan: Promoting reconciliation, Equipping ethical leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick, and Educating the next generation.

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

Ugandan Parliament to Debate “Kill Gays” Bill Dec. 18

The Times of London reports that the Ugandan Parliament will debate the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill tomorrow, Dec 18. If I understand Uganda’s Parliamentary procedures correctly, I believe this would constitute a second reading and debate. A vote comes after the third reading. If it passes (and it is expected to pass with a near-unanimous vote), it then goes to President Yoweri Museveni to be signed into law.

In unrelated news, the government-owned New Vision reports that Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo, who had been an outspoken supporter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, spoke at a fundraiser for the construction of a Catholic Church. This time, he spoke about the need people could live together despite tribal and religious differences. “If we are to have everlasting peace, the need for tolerating each other cannot be over-emphasised,” he said. “People living together in peace is the foundation for developing this country.”

New Vision doesn’t say so specifically, but I assume Buturo said this with a straight face.

Update: This debate will not be part of a second reading. It now appears the second reading won’t take place until February.

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

LGBT Group: Archbishop of Canterbury Quietly Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has issued a press release indicating that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has condemned Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. According to the press release:

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s press secretary has told LGCM that Archbishop Rowan Williams is “very clear that the private Member’s Bill being discussed in Uganda as drafted is entirely unacceptable from a pastoral, moral and legal point of view.” The press office went on to tell LGCM that the proposed Bill was “a cause of deep concern, fear and, to many, outrage.”

LGCM has spoken recently on its concern that the Archbishop had not spoken out against this Bill, the Archbishops office assured LGCM that “the Archbishop has been working intensively behind the scenes (over the past weeks) to ensure that there is clarity on how the proposed bill is contrary to Anglican teaching.”

LGCM now calls on the Archbishop to “instruct all Anglican clergy in Uganda to speak out against this Bill and to take whatever action is needed to safeguard the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.” I would also add that it would be helpful if the Archbishop would issue a condemnation directly to the public from his own hand, and not have his dissaproval passed along through his press secretary to another group with the task of making the third-hand information public.

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

EU Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

At a meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The E.U. resolution calls on Uganda “not to approve the bill and to review their laws to decriminalize homosexuality.” The resolution also calls on the European Commission and Council to reconsider EU aid to Uganda if the anti-gay bill passes. The EU currently provides Uganda $275 million annually in developmental aid, which is more than the $250 million provided by the U.S. The EU’s contribution amounts to just under 17% of Uganda’s total foreign aid receipts.

The full text of the resolution is available online.

The EU has been following these developments since the beginning. Last March, European Parliament\’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights condemned the March 5th meeting between several Ugandan parliamentarians and Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Lee Brundidge and Family Life Network’s Stephen Langa during their anti-gay conference held in Kampala.

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

Uganda’s Slow U-Turn? Leading Minister Supported “Kill Gays” Bill; Now Vows Silence

It’s very difficult to read the tea leaves from halfway around the world, but it seems that if one looks closely, one can detect signs that leading Ugandan officials are looking for a way out of the controversey surrounding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Parliament. Today’s Daily Monitor, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, has an article that reviews worldwide condemnation of Uganda’s attempt to legislate LGBT people out of existence. Significantly, it leads off with these paragraphs:

International opposition against Ndorwa West MP David Bahati\’s proposed anti-gay law continued to grow steadily, drawing support from such unlikely quarters as the White House.

The growing list now includes US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Anglican leader Rowan Williams, some US senators, and several newspapers.

This marks the first time the White House’s condemnation of Uganda’s proposed legislation has been reported in Uganda’s major media. The Monitor is Uganda’s second largest newspaper, behid the government owned New Vision. This particlular article mentioning the White House statement is especially important because President Barack Obama is revered throughout East Africa, which is where his father is from.

The article also summarizes statements from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Senators Russ Feingold and John Kerry, and the prime ministers of Canada and Britain. Sweden has threatened to reduce its aid to Uganda, and the United Nations and World Health Organization announced that they would cancel plans to relocate a major HIV/AIDS research center to Entebbe.  The Monitor now indicates that critical leaders in Uganda’s government are starting to get the message:

Buturo\’s U-turn
The pressure from these and other sources was being felt in Kampala, with Ethics Minister Nsaba Buturo now saying he would remain silent about the proposed law until it has been passed or defeated.

The Monitor also reports, “By yesterday, however, the official stance was that the government had not yet reached a position on the proposed law.”

Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo has been an outspoken supporter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Last month, he held a press conference at the Uganda Media Centre castigating donor nations and others who have denounced the bill and pledged that the bill would go foward. A little more than a week later Buturo bragged, “It is with joy we see that everyone is interested in what Uganda is doing, and it is an opportunity for Uganda to provide leadership where it matters most.” This is the latest evidence that the Ugandan government may be reconsidering its support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Last week, we noticed that the Uganda Media Centre, which acts as a “centralized location where all official government correspondence and information can be easily accessed, published a column questioning Parliament’s decision to take up the bill with so many other more important pressing matters. That was followed a few days later with an op-ed written by a senior advisor to President Museveni that appeared in the government-owned New Vision, which is Uganda’s largest paper. That op-ed said flatly, “Parliament should not pass this bill.”

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

“The Family” Opposes Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Jeff Sharlet, of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, wrote a guest post on Warren Throckmorton’s web site which updates his November appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air where he revealed ties between the secretive Evangelical movement known as “The Family” and Uganda’s politicians behind the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In this latest guest post, Sharlet says that The Family opposes the bill and key members are working behind the scenes to stop it from becoming law.

In Sharlet’s book, he identified Bob Hunter as a key organizer for The Family in Uganda during the 1980’s becoming friends with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and helping him establish the Ugandan Prayer Breakfast. Sharlet was finally able to get in contact with Hunter and spent an afternoon detailing the events in Uganda. Sharlet writes:

We agreed that the first step was a statement making clear Bob\’s opposition to the bill. Moreover, Bob adds “I know of no one involved in Uganda with the Fellowship here in America, including the most conservative among them, that supports such things as killing homosexuals or draconian reporting requirements, much less has gone over to Uganda to push such positions.”

That\’s very, very good news. The Fellowship prefers to avoid the limelight; Bob has forsaken that to make clear his position and that of his American associates: The Fellowship, AKA the Family, opposes the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. [Emphases in the original.]

In his book, Sharlet pointed out that while the Family has a strongly conservative bent, they do not exclude liberals or moderates from their ranks. Hunter had previously served in the Ford and Carter administrations, and had a strong background in consumer advocacy. Sharlet continues:

Over the course of the afternoon he [Hunter] shared with me his experience working with the Fellowship in Burundi, Rwanda, and South Africa. While I may take issue with the Fellowship\’s behind-the-scenes approach, there\’s no denying that in each of these cases Bob and his associates were working toward extremely admirable ends, and that in the case of Burundi Bob\’s efforts helped make the difference that brought a truce to that country\’s warring factions. Bob did what he did with the best of intentions, and, in several instances, achieved the best of outcomes.

While Sharlet exonerates Hunter’s role in the development of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and further says that no American Family member has played a direct role in it’s promotion, he notes the religious revival that has taken place in Uganda since the 1980’s and the prominent role Americans, including Family members, have played in shaping the rhetorical nature of that revival including its anti-gay aspects. And he believes that those Family members have a special responsibility, which many of them are not living up to:

I\’d add that through the Fellowship, a number of anti-gay American politicians have involved themselves with Ugandan affairs, most notably Senator James Inhofe, who has spoken of having “adopted” Uganda and who has been a guest at multiple Ugandan National Prayer Breakfasts. I don\’t believe James Inhofe told David Bahati to push this legislation. I believe Inhofe when he says – under pressure – that he\’s opposed to it. But the fact is, these powerful politicians, representatives of the most powerful nation on the world and its foreign aid generosity, are clear and candid in their opposition to homosexuality. That\’s their right. But I believe they should therefore be even more clear and candid in their opposition to its criminalization. Theirs is a personal, religious position.  They should extra precautions to make clear that these positions are in absolutely no way linked to the relationships between the United States and foreign aid recipients. Not only have they not done that, they resisted even condemning the bill.

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

“Hey Gay Pervert”: A Gay Ugandan’s Conversation With A Legislator

MP Benson Obua-Ogwal

Yesterday we posted exclusive clips from the print edition of Uganda’s largest independent newspaper The Monitor, which provided several examples of how ordinary Ugandans talk about gay people. Today GayUganda posted a series of emails from an exchange he had with MP Benson Obua-Ogwal, who has been identified as a co-sponsor who helped draft the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act. These emails give us a good sense of how some Ugandan politicians talk to gay people:

Hey Gay Pervert,

How about this one coming from all religious leaders across board right here at home?:

www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Church_
leaders_back_govt_on_anti-gay_Bill_95758.shtml

We love gays, but hate homosexuality which has no place here.

Forget about the Bill being withdrawn, for it will be passed in due time.

Benson.

There’s much more at GayUganda’s website.

MP Obua-Ogwal has been identified as a core member of the American-based College of Prayer International, which established a Ugandan campus under the leadership of Julius Oyet. Obua-Ogwa and MP David Bahati, the proposed bill’s sponsor, were two of eight MP\’s appointed to serve on the College of Prayer’s “servant leadership team.”

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

David Bahati Is A Boy Scout — And Other Examples of Ugandans Talking About Gay People

A BTB reader from Uganda sent some fascinating clips from the independent Daily Monitor, saying “people are actually talking and thinking, so… that’s another positive development.” I hope he’s right. The items he sent give us some indication of the kind of talking and thinking that is taking place as a result of the controversy surrounding the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Interview with former Health Minister Mike Mukula in the Dec 14 Daily Monitor (Click to enlarge)

The first item shows the negativity surrounding the discussion, with an article in yesterday’s Daily Monitor being a great example of how gay people in Uganda are blamed for just about everything including the political misfortunes of some top leaders. The Monitor runs a special feature called “Funny You Should Ask…” and yesterday Edwin Nuwagaba interviewed Mike Mukula, a former state Minister for Health. So who’s to blame for Mukula being identified as one of the most corrupt people in Uganda? Not political opponents, and of course not himself because he’s obviously a very innocent and virtuous politician. It’s gay people:

Don’t you feel ashamed after being named in the book of Shame and Fame as one of the most corrupt people in Uganda?
I don’t, because first of all that report is backed by Action Aid and it has support of the gay community. It should have been scientific that the people who have been convicted should have been the ones to be named and shamed. What happens if one is cleared by the Supreme Court? Do they go to Google and clear his image? I am a strong anti corruption crusader and tI think corruption should be fought.

So do you want to say that the gay people are against you?
Uganda is now under attack by the gay community globally, so people need to understand that prominent people in government will be taken on. This is a storm in a tea cup. It has got political origins. Corruption is a national and global matter it should never be used to demonize individuals.

But for balance, The Sunday Monitor also carried a column by Robert Kalumba, asking “Is the Church hypocritical when it comes to homosexuality?” That article recounts the various sex scandals in the Catholic Church, as well as Ted Haggard’s fall from grace along with a long line of American and Ugandan pastors that have been accused of sexual misconduct or have been forced to resign from their churches due to sex scandals. Kalumba has detected a glaring double standard:

So, according to the Bible, like homosexuality, divorce among other “vices” is forbidden. So why has the famous televangelist Pastor Juanita Bynum divorced her husband Bishop Weeks, who actually is planning to get married for the third time? Why isn\’t the church throwing Mark\’s verse to all church divorcees that fill their pews on Sundays? Why don\’t they encourage women whose dead husbands have left no male heirs to engage in sex orgies with their brothers-in-law?

Some will argue that those biblical texts are taken out of context but the same can be said about verses that seem to denounce homosexuality.

Uganda's top scout: MP David Bahati is honored during an East African scouting conference in Kampala. (Click to enlarge)

Our reader says that the print version of this column had a cartoon of two men kissing, a rarity for Ugandan media.

In other news, Ugandan member of Parliament David Bahati, in addition to being the author of a bill imposing the penalty of death by hanging on LGBT people and criminalizing anyone who knows or associates with them, is also the chairman of the Uganda Scouts Board. There’s photo in yesterday’s Daily Monitor of Bahati receiving a scouting kerchief during a East African Scouting conference held in Kampala last Friday. We know that the Boy Scouts of America bans gays from the organization, and will drum out anyone who comes out. Given Bahati’s proposal for LGBT people, I wonder if Uganda’s scouts can earn a merit badge in tying nooses.

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

American Evangelical Connections: The Disciple Nations Alliance and Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton and Gay City Newshave separately named the Disciple Nations Alliance as a possible connection to Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill through Stephen Langa, whose Family Life Network organized the March 5-7 anti-gay conference that kick started the latest anti-gay pogrom in Uganda. Langa followed that meeting with further meetings, including some with members of Parliament, to promote “strengthening” Uganda’s already draconian anti-homosexuality law, which currently provides for lifetime imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality. That has ultimately led to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act before Uganda’s Parliament, which includes the death penalty and other measures seeking to legislate LGBT people out of existence.

Langa, it turns out, is a member of Phoenix-based Disciple Nations Alliance. According to the DNA’s web site, he heads the Uganda affiliate called Transformation Nations Alliance (TNA). The first DNA Vision conference in Uganda was held in 2000 at Stephen Langa’s Watoto Church (then known as Kampala Pentecostal Church). The second conference in 2001 was held at the same church. The DNA’s report continues:

Stephen Langa is a member of the Africa Working Group of Samaritan Strategy Africa, the network whose objective is to spread DNA training across the continent of Africa. In addition to serving as an Elder at Watoto Church, he also provides leadership to the Family Life Network, a pro-family advocacy organization. He also serves as Director of the Uganda Youth Forum, a youth ministry organization founded by the First Lady of Uganda in 2001.

The mission of Transformation Nations Alliance is to engage and disciple all sectors of society, through a biblical worldview centred, holistic approach to ministry, leading to the restoration of God\’s original plan for creation. Towards this end, TNA has trained and mentored a team of certified Ugandan trainers who regularly facilitate Vision Conferences throughout the nation. Hundreds of Ugandan church leaders have been impacted. In addition, these trainers have been called upon to train the local staff of several large mission and development organizations, including World Vision and Compassion International.

The history of Disciple Nations Alliance is provided on their web site:

The Disciple Nations Alliance began in 1997 as a joint initiative of Food for the Hungry International www.FH.org and the Harvest Foundation www.harvestfoundation.org to envision and equip local churches worldwide to fulfill their strategic role in the transformation of communities and nations. The Disciple Nations Alliance began by promoting a “school of thought” centered on the power of Biblical Truth for cultural transformation, the strategic role of the church in society, and the importance of wholistic, incarnational ministry.

This school of thought was initially spread through five-day “Vision Conferences”which featured the teaching of DNA co-founders and master trainers, Darrow Miller and Bob Moffitt. The first Vision Conference was held in Lima, Peru in 1997. Since then, hundreds of Vision Conferences have occurred in more than 50 nations and thousands of church leaders have been impacted.

DNA and Langa have worked together in the past to influence Ugandan law to the detriment of Uganda’s gay community. In 2006 DNA co-founder Darrow Miller worked with Langa to ensure that the Equal Opportunities Bill, which was then being debated in Uganda’s Parliament, would not include equal opportunities for LGBT people. The question now is what role has DNA played in Langa’s efforts to impose the death penalty for that nation’s gay community?

[Hat tip: Warren Throckmorton and Gay City News]

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

Sens. Feingold, Coburn, Grassley Denounce Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

The past week has seen a number of Senators and Congressional Representative issue statements on the Anti-Homosexuality Act that is before Parliament in Uganda. First, let’s go to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), to show us how such a statement ought to be done:

I share the outrage of many political, religious and civic leaders in Uganda and around the world about the “anti-homosexuality bill” before the Ugandan Parliament.  If enacted, this inhumane bill would sanction new levels of violence against people in Uganda based solely on their gender or sexual orientation.  Its passage would hurt the close working relationship between our two countries, especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  Over the last month, I have conveyed these concerns to the State Department and directly to President Museveni, and I urge Uganda\’s leaders to reject this bill.

So notice what he did: 1) He put his statement on his Senate web site for everyone to see, 2), he relayed his concerns to the State Department, 3) he contacted Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directly about his concerns, and 4) his statement is free from any political baggage. It’s simply a straightforward statement of right and wrong. And as far as I can tell, he did it without having to succumb to major media pressure, which makes his statement all the more believable.

Now contrast that with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has been identified as being a member of the secretive Evangelical group known as “The Family.” He released his statement through an email sent out by aGOProud, the LGBT Republican group that formed after former members of the Log Cabin Republicans thought it became too liberal. Coburn’s statement wasn’t put on his Senate web page, he didn’t contact the state department or Ugandan officials, and he  cloaked his statement in some very odd political wrappings:

“Over the past two decades, political, religious, and community leaders in Uganda have united to promote a rare, winning strategy against HIV that addresses the unique and common risks of every segment of society. Sadly, some who oppose Uganda\’s common sense ABC strategy are using an absurd proposal to execute gays to undermine this coalition and winning strategy. Officials in Uganda should come to their senses and take whatever steps are necessary to withdraw this proposal that will do nothing but harm a winning strategy that is saving lives.”

Strange, isn’t it? Who does he suggest is “opposing Uganda’s common sense ABC strategy”? Might it be Tom Coburn himself — the man who wants to undermine ABC so that only AB remains by dropping condoms from the Abstinence/Be Faithful/Use Condoms trilogy? It seems that Cobern’s concern is not toward people who would be directly affected by Uganda’s attempt to legislate LGBT people out of existence, but the embarrassment it brings to those who want to meddle in Uganda’s AIDS strategy by imposing abstinence only education.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who has also been identified as being a member of The Family, had initially refused to comment when asked on , using the excuse that he isn’t in the Ugandan parliament and was unfamiliar with the law. But on Friday (Dec 11), he decided to tell us he’s against it.

Based on what I\’ve been able to learn about the legislation and from the stand point that I\’m a born again Christian, I can tell you that I don\’t agree with this un-Christian and unjust  proposal, and I hope the Ugandan officials dismiss it,” he said.

After hemming and hawing, Grassley ended up doing considerably better than Coburn. At least he didn’t try to entangle his statement with strange partisan attacks. Plus, he issued his statement through the Iowa Independent, and not some special interest group’s email to members where it might not get noticed so easily. Now if only he could get it to Museveni’s eyes and ears…

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

Archbishop of Canterbury Mumbles Something About Uganda

Britain’s Daily Telegraph published a fawning interview Saturday with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in which the topic of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act happened to come up ever so briefly:

“Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can\’t see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades,” says Dr Williams. “Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers.” He adds that the Anglican Church in Uganda opposes the death penalty but, tellingly, he notes that its archbishop, Henry Orombi, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last year, “has not taken a position on this bill”.

Apart from invoking the death penalty, it’s hard to say that the Archbishop of Canterbury took much of a position either. In contrast, Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren is looking positively bold when he said, “I oppose the criminalization of homosexuality. The freedom to make moral choices is endowed by God.” Fortunately, reporter George Pitcher quickly changed the subject before things became too uncomfortable for the good Archbishop.

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