ARCHBISHOP OROMBI/UGANDA: Get a grip on REALITY ¨millions have died and been excluded in the name of Christianity in Africa...

Archbishop Henry Orombi/Uganda, pushing for exclusion of LGBT Anglicans/others while pandering to ´instruments¨ of deadly bigotry at The African Anglican Bishops Conference, Entebbe, Uganda

also,¨Those who murdered millions of indigenous Americans and Caribbeans all did so in the name of Christianity so personally I am not that taken in by their values and beliefs – they are simply bigots like all those that dehumanize people in order to justify their exclusion. In fact they are following in the very un Christ like traditions of Christianity.¨

African Anglican Bishops Conference, Entebbe, Uganda

¨The meeting of African Bishops in Entebbe, Uganda has not surprisingly, been used to reaffirm the church’s homophobic stance. The bishops spoke about “African Values” and “alien beliefs”. Since the rights of LGBTI people are being denied this implies that the notion of ‘human rights’ is not part of our values and beliefs. The hatred expressed through homophobia and criminalisation also implies that the idea of people’s humanity is not part of our values and beliefs. This is not true – not because we as Africans are special, though the bishops statements completely contradict “Ubuntu”* but because these are universal values and beliefs which are both within religions and outside them.

One Bishop made a slight variation to the usual homophobic rhetoric presumably addressing the statement that Christianity itself is not “African” by claiming that there was a church in North Africa before there was one in Britain.

Before Christianity went to Britain, he added, there was a church in North Africa.“So Christianity did not begin in Britain; we should counteract false ideologies that creep into the church and blur the truth,” he argued.

It’s interesting that North Africa [I assume he means Egypt were the Orthodox church dates back to 471AD] has now become part of the African Bishops consciousness but he either forgot or isn’t aware that one of the oldest Christian churches in the world is the Ethiopian coptic church which predates the colonial period.

¨millions have died and been excluded in the name of Christianity¨

So yes there is a history of pre-colonial christianity on the continent but that is not the case for Uganda and other parts of the continent where the religion was imposed by colonial rule – and maybe he should be reminded of the violence surrounding that imposition. Origins of christianity and churches aside I think it is well worth putting things into perspective and pointing out that millions have died and been excluded in the name of Christianity.


Those engaged in buying and selling of Africans, engaged in Apartheid, Jim Crow, those who murdered millions of indigenous Americans and Caribbeans all did so in the name of Christianity so personally I am not that taken in by their values and beliefs – they are simply bigots like all those aforementioned that dehumanize people in order to justify their exclusion. In fact they are following in the very un Christ like traditions of Christianity.¨ HERE

David Bahati’s Plan for Genocide

MP David Bahati, author of the anti-LGBT ¨Kill the Gays¨ Bill tabled before the Parliament of Uganda

¨Bahati said ‘If you come here, you’ll see homosexuals from Europe and America are luring our children into homosexuality by distributing cell phones and iPods and things like this,’” Sharlet recounts. “And he said, ‘And I can explain to you what I really want to do.’”

Sharlet accompanied Bahati to a restaurant, and later to his home, where Bahati told Sharlet that he wanted “to kill every last gay person.” HERE

A Special Place Just for the Gays in Uganda?


Unbelievable! That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of the anti-gay movement that was incited by American evangelicals in Uganda. Of course, not all think the death penalty or prison is the place for members of the LGBT community in Uganda.

According to a post on Advocate.com, one American couple who is living in Uganda helping spread the paranoia and homophobia which has become a plague had this to say:

“What they need,” Tommy proposed, “is a special place, like, for people doing homosexual things to learn different. A camp, like.”“Keep them all in one place?” I asked.

“Yes. I think that’s what we have to try,” he said. “Because the thing is, the Bible says we can’t kill them. And we can’t put them in prison because that’d be like putting a normal fella in a whorehouse!”
HERE


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· Thanks to Sokari, Africa
· Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
· Thanks to Jim Burroway
· Thanks to Jeff Sharlet
· Thanks to Gay Agenda, sidebar
· Thanks to James Hipps
· Thanks to The Advocate
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to Ubuntu, below
· Thanks to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, below
· Thanks to Wikipedia

*Archbishop Desmond Tutu offered a definition of ¨Ubuntu¨ in a 1999 book:

Anglican HERO, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu further explained Ubuntu in 2008:

One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity.

We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity. HERE