Ex-Gay Watch

According to a Parliament of Uganda order paper published today, a second reading of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 is imminent.

The legislation, dubbed the “Kill the Gays” bill, would effectively make homosexuality a capital offence. Related offenses of “promoting” homosexuality could carry the same punishment.

While the order paper doesn’t make it certain the reading will be soon, Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin has done the math and considers it likely the bill will be addressed by the Parliament of Uganda on Wednesday, May 10.

There are several petitions circulating. I’m generally skeptical of internet petitions — do they really achieve anything? — but at this stage, anything’s worth a shot. Click here to sign the All Out petition.

For a concise run-down of the facts on the bill, see my previous post: Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009: Just the Facts.

Update: Here’s the email I sent to my local MP, Rick Dykstra, asking him to raise the issue with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In an opinion piece for Christianity Today, Timothy Shah absolves American evangelicals from any responsibility for homophobia in Uganda and says the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is “a single legislative stunt by a single low-level politician.”

Shah responds to the claim that a 2009 conference stirred up anti-gay sentiments . The agenda of its American organizers, Shah says, was “therapeutic, whereas Mr Bahati’s bill is remorselessly punitive.” The reference is to David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who attended the conference and was later to draft the bill that would effectively put to death homosexuals and their supporters in Uganda.

Therapeutic? Perhaps Shah has not seen this video from the conference, in which historical revisionist Scott Lively explains his theory that homosexuals were behind the atrocities of the Holocaust and Rwanda:

Following the conference, chief organizer Stephen Langa, of the Family Life Network, continued to promote Lively’s so-called history of the “gay movement,” a fabrication that connects homosexuality to Nazism, communism and pedophilia. Lively later described his visit as “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.”

Along with other commentators, we predicted an increase in anti-gay violence in Uganda — and it happened.

More video at BTB.

An abstinence group based in Jacksonville, Florida, has ties to the anti-gay Ugandan activist Martin Ssempa, according to a report in the Florida Independent.

Project SOS founder Pam Mullarkey is quoted on Ssempa’s website as saying that Ssempa is “the most powerful voice for abstinence in the world and his passion, charisma and character make his vital message irresistible.”

Mullarkey refused to decry Ssempa when contacted for comment; instead she praised him. Other US evangelicals have disassociated themselves from Ssempa when pressed.

The Ugandan pastor is notorious for promoting misconceptions about gays in Uganda, including the myth that eating one another’s “poo-poo” is a defining homosexual practice. He has been the most vocal Christian supporter of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would result in the death penalty for gays.

Many XGW readers will be familiar with the painful, anti-gay efforts in Uganda, highlighted over the past couple of years by this and other blogs.  The reporting has been at times very detailed, and devastating to take in.  This was all punctuated by the recent murder of Ugandan gay rights advocate David Kato, and signs that the dastardly Anti-Homosexuality Bill may move forward after President Museveni’s recent re-election.

In spite of all the excellent writing on this issue, only the posts of GayUganda have come close to giving this writer the same human connection as this excellent BBC effort.  The degree and scope to which harsh, unyielding anti-gay sentiment has been whipped into the Ugandan population leaves one dumbstruck.  And one begins to realize what a fertile ground the various Western “evangelists” have found when traveling there to plant their own anti-gay doctrines.

Whether one be a pastor, preacher, evangelist, social worker or politician, the only responsible and ethical message you could put forth in Uganda — regardless of personal beliefs — is one of tolerance at the very least.  Ant it is obvious now that the messages of all three from the original meeting — Scott Lively, Caleb Brudidge and Don Schmierer — even if they said what they claim to, acted as match to gasoline.

Please watch the video — Scott Mills does a great job.  There are four parts due to Youtube’s upload limitations, but the playlist will advance automatically to the next segment.

American evangelical leader Lou Engle has confirmed his support for the leaders who drafted Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009.

Engle, whose TheCall conference in Uganda promoted the bill that would spell execution for gays and their supporters, told Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches that he was in favor of “the principle of a nation … restraining [homosexuality] from coming into their nation.”

He said he supported “a legal restraint and punishment” to keep out the “homosexual agenda,” but was evasive about what type of punishment he favored. He denied supporting the death penalty for gays, but said there were biblical grounds for execution in the case of a person transmitting HIV to a minor.

Engle downplayed his association with David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who drafted the bill, and said he did not even remember meeting Bahati and his right-hand man, Bishop Julius Oyet. He did, however, say that he “appreciated the two guys whose hearts were to bring forth a principled bill.”

In May this year, Engle praised Ugandans for “showing courage to take a stand for righteousness in the earth.”

More analysis from Dr Warren Throckmorton can be found here.

Fifteen months to the day since I wrote this post summarizing the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Conference, Exodus President Alan Chambers has written his own acknowledgment of how badly he and his organization screwed up.

First things first, I was personally lax in investigating thoroughly the pre-conference intelligence that was coming in from Timothy Kincaid, David Roberts and Warren Throckmorton, to name a few. My initial belief was that their major concern was over Caleb Lee Brundidges association with Richard Cohen. Again, no excuses, I was negligent in digging deeper and heeding their warnings.

As I have stated in less trafficked public settings, I am disappointed that some of my reasons for not heeding warnings was due to who was issuing them.  I believe that probably works both ways, but in this case my error was grave.

Alan will get no disagreement from me here, particularly concerning the truly disgusting background of Scott Lively.  There was more than enough information on his activities to turn most people’s stomachs and yet Alan was silent.   It did occur to us that the messenger could be part of the problem, though inexcusably so.  Certain Exodus executives have been particularly dismissive and hostile to what they call “militant gay activists,” and especially to XGW.

I cannot undo my initial lack of, then delayed, response or the harm that it caused, but I have learned from that terrible mistake and tried to make amends by condemning the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009 and by standing with a cross-spectrum group of people to see that the measure is, itself, killed. Exodus and I will continue to do that with regard to the Uganda measure or any other similar law or proposed law in other nations. We will also seek to condemn that which is condemnable more swiftly; not to do so finds us breech in our responsibility as an organization people look to for biblical wisdom.

During the past fifteen months, Exodus has released some rather weak statements concerning Uganda and their connection to the whole mess.  Then, last March, they issued a much more definitive statement.  We acknowledged the good and called out the bad (mainly the unconscionable delay).  We also gave them this bit of advice: Read more…

Warren Throckmorton gets to the heart of Sodom and Gomorrah in his latest blog post:

The real sodomite is the arrogant person, the overfed and apathetic person who ignores the poor and others in need. The sexual sins of Sodom are second rate compared to the sins of pride and greed. Ban Sodomy, anyone?

Sodomy, viewed from God’s perspective, is practically the American way. I guess we have been exporting sodomy to Uganda.

You might think Throckmorton is getting liberal. In fact, he is merely being consistent with Scripture (Ezekiel 16:49-50):

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.

Throckmorton suggests conservative Christians should direct their (considerable) anger towards greed, selfishness and indifference, instead of the gays:

The sins of Sodom mark the American church in ways that are very uncomfortable to confront. Defined biblically, I hope we can unite against sodomy. Defined biblically, we have all been sodomites, have we not?

We agree.

Following a hearing yesterday, several members of Congress have written to the Presidents of the US and Uganda to protest the latter’s impending legislation to make homosexuality an executable offense.

The US Government’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission heard evidence and testimony against the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill yesterday afternoon. Congress has responded by petitioning Presidents Barack Obama and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on this “international human rights issue,” calling the bill “reprehensible,” and “the most extreme and hateful attempt by an African country to criminalize the LGBT community.”

Addressing President Museveni, they wrote:

This egregious bill, which represents one of the most extreme anti-equality measures ever proposed in any country, would create a legal pretext for depriving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans of their liberty, and even their lives. We respectfully urge you to take swift action to prevent this law, which we are concerned could have a chilling effect both on human rights and on bilateral relations between our countries.

The full text of the letters, along with a press release, can be found at the website of Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin.