Your Thoughts on Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

There were lots of comments on my post asking whether U.S. Christian conservative groups that condemn homosexuality should be expected to denounce a new bill in Uganda that would punish gay sex with prison or death. Most readers said that such groups should speak out, though a handful of posters who identified themselves as Ugandans lambasted such action as American political/cultural imperialism.

Warren Throckmorton, a prominent evangelical blogger on issues of religion and sexuality, writes:

Yes, I believe Christians should speak out in opposition to the bill. Andrew Marin (Author of Love is an Orientation) and I formed a Facebook group to encourage others to speak out. My friend Chad Thompson has written below one of many reasons why nearly everybody in Uganda is at risk by this bill.

Visit the group, engage in the discussion and join with us.

Kevin of Michigan makes a Christian case against Uganda's bill:

While I believe the act of homosexuality is a sin, I also believe everybody sins. This bill is no different than the religious leaders in the bible brought a adulteress to Jesus' feet. Why are the Ugandans looking at a group of people's sin and not their own sin. If the Ugandan church truly were followers of Christ, they would do what He did. Jesus ate with sinners, loved sinners, and helped sinners. You can condemn the sin, but not the person. We are not called to judge others, that is God's right.

If this bill passes, it will be the worst human rights issue come up in years.

A reader who claimed to be a Ugandan living in the United States says the bill is not the business of American Christians:

The law is meant to restore the cultural values, virtues and norms of Ugandans which homosexuality is targeting, especially among children.

Stop blaming Christians. . . . Muslims, Hindus, African traditionalists . . . all support this law . . . In Africa life and fertility are sacred; anything that stunts or blocks them, such as unnatural acts, like homosexuality, are treated with contempt.

We, Ugandans know and believe that homosexuality involves practices that are dangerous and high risk to the human body which is designed for heterosexual functions. Uganda is willing to fight the spread of this abomination. Now if only the WEST would follow suit, we could rid ourselves of this vile filth.

It should be understood in the west that in black African cultures homosexuality, whether male or female, is very much taboo. Anti-gay sentiment is widespread and appears to have always been so. It is nothing to do with Western religion, neocolonialism or interference, it is simply a common theme in most African cultures.

There is no need to seek out western Christian fundamentalists to explain thousands of years of African culture.

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