From the Daily Monitor in Kampala: Bishops want shelved anti-gay Bill dusted
Top religious leaders from across the country have asked Parliament to speed-up the process of enacting the Anti-Homosexuality law to prevent what they called “an attack on the Bible and the institution of marriage”.
Speaking after their recent annual conference organised by the Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), an ecumenical body which brings together the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox churches, the bishops resolved that the parliamentary committee on Gender should be tasked to engage the House on the Bill which is now at committee level.
“We also ask the Education committee to engage the Ministry of Education on the issue of incorporating a topic on human sexuality in the curricula of our schools and institutions of learning,” the resolutions signed by archbishops Henry Luke Orombi, Cyprian Kizito Lwanga and Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga, indicated.
The clerics also appealed to all the churches in the country “to remain steadfast in opposing the phenomena of homosexuality, lesbianism and same-sex union”.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was proposed by Ndorwa West PM David Bahati and has become a subject of international discussion with most Western powers describing the Bill as barbaric…
Care2.com has Ugandan Catholics Want “Kill the Gays” Bill Revived
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB) was effectively shelved last year by the government, following sustained pressure from international donor countries. Despite repeated claims to the contrary, including some unfortunate mainstream reporting, the last version of the bill contained the death penalty in some circumstances.
The Catholic Church had previously been the sole major religion in Uganda in opposition to the bill. But according to the Daily Monitor, at the annual conference of the Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), an ecumenical body which brings together the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox churches, the Bishops resolved that it should be retrieved from the long grass.
The UJCC said that the bill was needed to prevent what they called “an attack on the Bible and the institution of marriage.”
The Vatican came out strongly and publicly against the bill and, Wikileaks revealed, even lobbied against it. Uganda watchers say that the change by the Ugandan Catholic church is “very serious” and that the UJCC resolution was pushed by an Anglican Bishop…
Religion Dispatches has Ugandan Bishops Push Notorious Anti-Gay Bill
… The reported support for the bill from the Uganda Joint Christian Council is especially noteworthy since Roman Catholic Bishop of Uganda Cyprian Lwanga previously denounced the bill’s death penalty and imprisonment provisions as contrary to “a Christian caring approach to this issue,” though he also said “We, the Catholic Bishops of Uganda, appreciate and applaud the Government’s effort to protect the traditional family and its values.”
And The Africa Report has Uganda: Religious leaders seek return of anti-gay bill.
Just horrified. The bill is a blueprint for abuse. All for supporting marriage family values etc, but NOT at the expense of LGBT communities and individuals. Just mortifying being out and about in a collar this month… but if I leave does it just hand over the church to those I think least represent Gods love…? Reading Schillebeeckx on the train today; ‘ The church must, so to speak, make God the Father and Jesus, his Son who became man, visibly present for all men, show herself in the power of the Holy Spirit. What is necessary is not a… Read more »
“the UJCC resolution was pushed by an Anglican Bishop…”
Is it too much to hope that the C of E’s HoB, who, as we know are great suporters of the LGBT community and their desire for strong institutions to support their relationships, will be swift and vociferous in condemning this disgusting attack on the human rights of LGBT people in Uganda?
I imagine that if you are gay it feels as if this is the extreme end of the same spectrum that the Church of England’s recent response on same sex marriage is on.
Unbelievably appalling on the part of so called ‘Christian’ Churches
Can’t the C of E just hold a conference and ask the Uganda church to exercise “gracious restraint”?
Oh.
Kyrie eleison.
The proactive stance of Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, urging the Ugandan Government to resurrect the Anti-homosexuality Bill, which would provide for inhumane treatment of Gays in Uganda; demonstrates why many Thinking Anglicans would not want to be part of a special ‘Covenant’ relationship with this prelate and his Province of the Anglican Communion.
At least, the Roman Catholic and other religious bodies seem less prepared to push the legislation through parliament than Archbishop Orombi, who seems hell-bent on the persecution of Gays in his own Church. What is Christian about that?
The greater, number ONE, ¨shredding¨ of the fabric of morals in Ugandan society is done by heterosexuals who are irresponsible partners and often deadbeat fathers who reproduce and run: http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2012/06/attention-archbishop-orombi-and-mp.html Uganda is a vertically corrupt country with First Lady, MP Janet Museveni (she wants to be president after her husband), wife of the long-time President preached: “In God’s word, homosexuality attracts a curse, but now people are engaging in it and saying they are created that way. It is for money The devil is stoking fires to destroy our nation and those taking advantage are doing so because our people… Read more »
Jesus wept.
Vile, murderous behaviour from so-called ‘men of god’.
Maybe the archbishop of York will condemn it in the Daily Mail? Or write to the PM about it?
Thank you, Serena on Thursday, 14 June 2012 at 2:37pm BST. Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops coming together at last on common ground. Maybe they can sing “Kumbaya” and roast frankfurters over the campfire as GLBT people are led to the Ugandan gulags. My local bishop here across the pond held pastoral consultations a year or so ago as TEC prepared for its general convention. He talked movingly of the enormous suffering in poverty and sickness of the African people. Later, I asked him a question about GLBT issues that may arise at the convention, and his attitude was “How… Read more »
CofE bishops fiddle re marriage equality, while LGBT Ugandans burn. Jesus wept, indeed.
It would be problematic for C of E bishops to condemn their Ugandan brethren given that the doctrine underpinning statements made to their respective governments this week is that gay unions present a threat to the institution of marriage.
Oh, Jesus, is there nothing you can do? Please!
So, what’s the story behind the story? You have a country in which HIV infections reaches epidemic proportions in the 80’s. The chief culprit in transmission has been heterosexual promiscuity. There is a mass-media campaign that preaches the US-sponsored (republican) mantra ABC: Abstinence, Be Faithful, use a Condom. Miraculously, HIV declines dramatically in the 90’s. The abstinence program is acclaimed (dubiously) as a Republican success story during the Bush era, but as US funding continues to pour in (see http://www.pepfar.gov/about/2010/africa/150628.htm), there is political pressure to widen the moral agenda. Clearly, US money is on hand to turn Uganda into the… Read more »
“Whatever opposition that I’ve raised here, I will repeat what I said on TA 25th January: ‘Men are won through persuasion of the truth and after-life accountability, not the worldly sanctions that misguided societies have imposed.'”
You shall know the tree by the fruit that it bears, and so far, that ecclesiastical and legal tree is a hanging tree full of corpses from Daniel Zamudio to David Kato.
“In climate of heightened fear, a savvy young Ugandan politician sees his opportunity to theocratise a nation that has seen over a million die of AIDS-related illnesses. He introduces a Private Member’s Bill against homosexuality, declaring that only a complete return to Old Testament justice will placate an angry God and stay the plague for good. To paraphrase Caiaphas: ‘You do not realize that it is better for you that a few gays die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ (John 11:50). Ugandans are not gullible, but fearful of an intolerably hostile disease. The antidote is for… Read more »
Comparing the Ugandan bill to the conspiracy of Caiaphas against Jesus is hardly a rationalisation.
I guess it’s your turn to rouse the majority to demonise a minority.
So, David Shepherd, do we take it you’re with the Archbishop of Uganda on this particular issue?