Uganda is set to pass a bill that would recommend the death penalty for gay people who are “repeat” offenders — that is, gay people who have sex more than once (your punishment for one-time sex is life in prison, unless you’re HIV-positive, in which case you also get the death penalty). It also mandates prison terms for anyone who fails to report homosexual activity.
Brave members of the Ugandan Anglican church are speaking out, likening the bill to genocide against gay Ugandans. While Byamugisha took a big risk in countering the tides of hate in his country, American pastors who have long meddled in Ugandan politics and policy — and who face no similar risks in speaking out — are staying silent. American Evangelicals like Rick Warren have exported homophobia, and encouraged African pastors to marginalize gay people. Anti-gay organizations in Africa were well funded under the Bush administration, which threw money at religious groups as part of its HIV/AIDS strategy (the result? An uptick in HIV/AIDS in Uganda, a country where rates had previously steadily fallen).
American conservatives have convinced their African peers that collaborating with them somehow represents a kind of anti-colonial resistance. One is almost tempted to applaud the American right’s audacity. After all, it generally opposed Africa’s national liberation movements, and often smeared the progressive churches that supported them. Now, by presenting homosexuality as the corrupt imposition of a decadent, dying West, American Christian conservatives have positioned themselves as champions of the developing world’s cultural authenticity. Meanwhile, African leaders purport to fight Americanization by aligning with some of the most powerful and chauvinistic of American religious leaders, and even taking US government money.
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Like anti-Semitism, homophobia can’t necessarily be controlled by those who unleash it. Scott Lively, for example, might balk at instituting the death penalty for homosexuality, but Uganda is only taking his work to its logical conclusion. Lively, after all, has claimed, in his book The Poisoned Stream, that “a dark and powerful homosexual presence” can be traced through “the Spanish Inquisition, the French ‘Reign of Terror,’ the era of South African apartheid, and the two centuries of American slavery.” Surely, strong measures are necessary to combat something so sinister!
Rick Warren, who has close ties and heavy influence in Uganda, is passing the buck, claiming that just focuses on his relief work and doesn’t take sides in politics:
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.”
But Warren won’t go so far as to condemn the legislation itself. A request for a broader reaction to the proposed Ugandan antihomosexual laws generated this response: “The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.” On Meet the Press this morning, he reiterated this neutral stance in a different context: “As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides.”
So he vigorously opposes anything that hinders his PEACE plan… but executing gay people doesn’t qualify? And “I never take sides” my ass. Warren takes sides all the time. He runs around calling abortion a “genocide,” but he can’t bring himself to even condemn a law that forces people to rat out their gay neighbors and mandates the execution of gay people. He should at least be honest: This law is the logical outcome of the hate-filled rhetoric that he and his compatriots have spewed in Africa, so he is simply indifferent.
It’s shameful. And yes, it enables murder and genocide.