Ex-Gay Watch

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.

Ugandan MP David Bahati was “ecstatic” that American evangelical leader Lou Engle supported his Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, according to journalist Jeff Sharlet.

The bill, which would effectively make homosexuality – and “aiding” homosexuality – a capital offense, was promoted heavily at Engle’s TheCall Uganda conference in May this year. More recently, Engle apologized and denied having anything directly to do with the promotion, claiming it occurred in his absence. But, as Warren Throckmorton has shown, the bill was promoted in Engle’s presence as well.

Now writer Jeff Sharlet adds more confusion to this web of inconsistencies and half-truths, saying he spoke to Bahati, who believed Engle explicitly supported the bill:

Both [Bishop] Oyet and Bahati told me that Engle had explicitly expressed his support for the bill, telling them that he had to lie to the Western media because gays control it.

The rest of Sharlet’s account throws doubt on other claims by Engle, including the suggestion that Christian leaders in Uganda are trying to soften the penalties in the bill. Bahati supports the harsh punishments, obviously, since he drafted the bill. It appears Bishop Oyet is now his right-hand man.

Throckmorton follows up Sharlet’s guest post with some pressing questions for Engle, whose words have been inconsistent at best, deceptive at worst. Read the full article here.

Uganda’s Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo calls for support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. He made this speech on May 2 at TheCall, a recent religious rally in Kampala by U.S. based evangelist Lou Engle, the latter having issued what now seems was a deceptive press release just before leaving for Uganda.

Half the audio is the interpreter repeating Buturo’s remarks in a local language. Still, one can sense the hatred, something those who took Engle at his word should remember when he comes home. A transcription is available here.

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Hat Tip: Warren Throckmorton

Despite a recent press release obviously designed to cast his ministry in a better light, Lou Engle, leader of a bizarre religious sect in the United States, has opened his latest conference in Uganda with strong support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009.  The following is from the New York Times:

Before arriving here last week, Mr. Engle came out with a statement condemning the harsh penalties proposed in the bill, and said that his ministry could not support it. But when he took the stage late on Sunday afternoon, with Ugandan politicians and pastors looking on, he praised the country’s “courage” and “righteousness” in promoting the bill.

“NGOs, the U.N., Unicef, they are all coming in here and promoting an agenda,” Mr. Engle said, referring to nongovernmental organizations. “Today, America is losing its religious freedom. We are trying to restrain an agenda that is sweeping through the education system. Uganda has become ground zero.”

According to Warren Throckmorton, video of this is forthcoming and we will provide it when we get it.  Until then, we can only express our sadness and disgust over Engle’s reportedly reckless actions, and what appears to be the clear deception of his press release.  We also find it hard to believe the claim that he did not know of the heated controversy when invited.  Reports indicate that this trip was in the works at least by last December.  The issue was hot months in either direction of that date.

We also fear that Engle’s mystical theology, heavy talk of spirits, demons, and prophets, along with his theatrical externals will provide the charismatic Ugandans in attendance with a kind of bona fides that can’t easily be dissuaded by cold, hard facts.  It is not hubris to say that the US probably has a more sophisticated population in such matters, and yet even here Engle manages to fill stadiums with followers easily manipulated by the blowing of a shofar, or the rhythmic swaying of his body.

The carnival is in town, but the people of Uganda stand to lose a lot more than a few bucks.

Hat Tip: Warren Throckmorton