LGBT POV

There’s a lot happening on the Religious Right front: two enlightening interviews – one with a leading “ex-gay” whose book influenced the murderous Anti Homosexuality Bill in Uganda and another with a reporter on the “ex-gay” ministries; a statement from US Christian leaders opposing the Uganda bill; and a suggestion that the antigay Uganda gang is moving into Canada, where same sex marriage is legal.

Tuesday night, the intrepid Rachel Maddow interviewed Richard Cohen, author of Coming Out Straight which she links to the Anti Homosexuality Bill in Uganda 2009, showing proponent Stephen Langa waving the book around. If you look closely, you can see him literally quaking under her questioning. She also presses him on another point in his book, Gay Children, Straight Parents – why does he consider race to be a factor in making someone gay? Cohen had to back away from on live TV.  She also excoriated him for using the widely discredited “research” of the infamous Paul Cameron and she gets Cohen to admit that he is not a licensed counselor.

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As a set up to the Cohen interview, Rachel also talked to investigative reporter Mark Benjamin about his long story for Salon last July about the ex-gay ministries. You can read it here.

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Maddow has also been pressuring Sen. Jim Inhofe, a member of the famous C-Street Family who reportedly is close with the author of the “kill the gays” bill – to use his influence to stop the bill. Maddow and others such as Kelvin Lynch at examiner.com have written about how Inhofe and the Family want to use Uganda as a “theocratic experiment” – as revealed by Jeff Sharlet in his investigative book, The Family:  The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart Of American Power.

Last Friday, Bruce Wilson at Talk to Action published a must-read investigative report on “Rick Warren’s Dissertation Advisor Leads Network Promoting Uganda Anti-Gay Bill.” Bill Berkowitz at Buzzflash.com noted that Warren, who appeared on Fox News to promote his new book, The Purpose of Christmas, said the season was one for “celebration,” “salvation,” and “reconciliation” and invoked Rodney King’s famous line, “Can’t we all just get along?” Warren has refused to comment on the Uganda bill, however, and Berkowitz refreshes our memory about a trip Warren took to that country last year, during which he said, “We shall not tolerate this aspect at all,” referring to gays in the Episcopal Church.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s USA Today featured a story on “Christians oppose Uganda anti-gay bill that includes death penalty.” Christian leaders who disagree over homosexuality, released a statement that reads in part:

“Our Christian faith recognizes violence, harassment and unjust treatment of any human being as a betrayal of Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.

As followers of the teachings of Christ, we must express profound dismay at a bill currently before the Parliament in Uganda.”

USA Today reports that signatories include Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners; the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Bryan N. Massingale, president of the Catholic Theological Society of America; evangelical activist Brian McLaren; Jim Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society; and Thomas P. Melady, former U.S. ambassador to Uganda and the Vatican.

The statement was released by Faith in Public Life and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and comes after a declaration by Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schor, who said that “potential impingement on basic human rights” are threatened by the proposed Ugandan legislation and

“…attempts to export the culture wars of North America to another context represent the very worst of colonial behavior.  We deeply lament this reality, and repent of any way in which we have participated in this sin.”

But let’s take note of one of those signatories: Rev. Samuel Rodriguez. Bruce Wilson of Talk to Action has been warning about Rodriguez as the “Hispanic Karl Rove” for along time and last month linked him specifically to Peter Wagner, Rick Warren’s senior advisor. This is from Wilson’s Dec. 4  report:

“In 2008 Rick Warren declared that, following Rwanda, Uganda was the world’s second official “Purpose Driven” nation. Uganda is currently in the news because of a bill before the Ugandan legislature that would establish the death penalty for homosexual acts and, critics charge, might even require the execution of HIV-positive Ugandan citizens.

Some observers have wondered if Purpose Driven Life author and mega-evangelist Rick Warren has had a role in the globally controversial bill, especially because of Warren’s close association with Ugandan anti-gay activist Martin Ssempa and, more broadly, because Warren has refused to denounce the anti-gay bill. To little notice, a charismatic network overseen by Warren’s doctoral dissertation advisor, C. Peter Wagner, has played a major role in politically organizing and inspiring the Ugandan legislators who have spearheaded the anti-gay bill.

Both Wagner and Warren have designed elaborate infrastructures for blurring the lines between church and state. Wagner describes his movement as the “New Apostolic Reformation” and openly espouses his goals of reorganizing and mobilizing the church to take Christian “dominion” over government and society. Warren’s movement is described as a “second reformation” in the form of his P.E.A.C.E. plan, but his goals of rapid “expansion of the kingdom” in Uganda and elsewhere closely parallel those of Wagner’s.”

Wednesday, Wilson reported that the group behind the Anti Homosexuality bill in Uganda is heading into Canada.

“The Ugandan branch of a US-based evangelical group called “College of Prayer” played, as a new talk To Action report details, a major and little noticed role organizing and inspiring legislators behind the pending Anti Homosexuality Bill due to come before Uganda’s parliament early in 2010. Homosexuality is already legally a crime in Uganda that can lead to lifetime prison sentences, but the new bill would mandate the death penalty for homosexual acts and critics have called it “genocidal” and charged that the bill could require the execution of HIV positive Ugandan citizens. As the College of Prayer website describes, the group is now organizing in Canada’s parliament.

College of Prayer members in Uganda’s parliament have spearheaded the push for the new anti-gay bill and, as a story posted on the main College of Prayer website quotes College of Prayer Canada head Rev. David Chotka,

“I have three-twelve members of the Canadian Parliament who have heard about what God is doing in Uganda and would like to attend the Parliamentary COP in Uganda next year. They are interested in bringing the College of Prayer to the Canadian Parliament.”

The article concludes, “It seems that God continues to expand our spheres of influence. The extraordinary favor of God is resting upon us. All glory to His name!”

With people like Rick Warren and Samuel Rodriguez considered kinder, gentler “mainstream” evangelists, how much more antigay damage will they be allowed to do in the name of Jesus?