How American Evangelicals Infected Uganda

[xchrom]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/05/23/god_loves_uganda_shows_how_american_evangelicals_exported_homophobia_to.html


Who's recruiting whom?

For documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams, Uganda is a country afflicted. But HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and other physical ailments are not what concern Williams the most; for him, the true epidemic threatening this land and its people is far more insidious—a plague of the spirit. “I love Uganda,” intones a weary, accented voice at the opening of God Loves Uganda, which was broadcast earlier this week on PBS and is now available on iTunes and Netflix. “It’s a very loving country, a caring country. But, something frightening is happening that has the potential to destroy Uganda … and it is coming from the outside.” As images of white hands being fervently laid on dark-skinned children flash across the screen, the outside threat becomes clear: ultra-conservative American evangelicalism.

If you’ve followed the story of Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” law over the past few years, you’re probably aware that prominent American evangelicals like Scott Lively and Lou Engle have been harshly criticized for their role in introducing a strain of zealous social conservatism—including an especially vicious condemnation of homosexuality—to Africa. But media reports of this phenomenon have been mere hints compared to the dense epidemiological survey that God Loves Uganda represents. Williams’ vision of the relationship between American missionary groups—like the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer that he profiles here—and the Ugandan government and culture is one of contagion, infection. Early in the film, an animated map of the globe shows salvation spreading like a plague across the world. A little later, a young woman on her first mission trip to the country describes her goal as one of virality:

One of my greatest hopes is to deposit what I’ve kind of received at IHOP, that DNA of prayer and worship. DNA replicates itself, and so I think that everybody wants to replicate their values and the core parts of who they are.
And as Williams shows, the evangelical movement’s vector-teams have been successful—images of spirit-struck white people wailing and “rapid-fire” praying for Africa in Missouri transform into scenes of wild-eyed Ugandan ministers screaming at strangers in a traffic jam, of white-walled rooms full of people jumping and flailing and lifting chairs in the air, of sweat-drenched Africans speaking in tongues. Williams has created a zombie movie, only the dreaded mutation is one of hateful Christian ideology rather than cells: Call it “World War C.”

[gordianot]

1. A very apt description of American religious hate groups.

The potential damage of spreading a unique form of political hate designed under the guise of religion is truly disgusting. Add or delete racism to the underlying core values of these groups the result is the same. Infection is an apt analogy.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Lively is a scourge upon the world

He has been charged with crimes against humanity, a suit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing a Ugandan group called Sexual Minorities Uganda:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/03/the-painful-case-of-pastor-scott-lively-homophobe-to-the-world/

The author of the above article concluded (regretfully) that Lively may likely win his appeal, in which case he will be free to continue promoting hatred and genocide on a global scale. I'm no legal expert but it seems to me that at the very least his passport should be revoked so he may not continue to foment violence against GLBTIs from Uganda to Russia. To me, Lively fits the very definition of a terrorist.

I have been trying to keep current on his activities but have read virtually nothing at all since his appeal. I do know that he picked up right where he left off with the hatemongering but has even declared as a candidate for governor of Massachusetts.

[jwirr]

3. I wonder if organizations such as COMPASSION are involved in this? The young man my family

support is in Tanzania and we support him through a church there. In the COMPASSION data it indicates that we cannot discuss sexuality with him. I wish now that we had gone through Save the Children instead of COMPASSION but we cannot change now as our young man needs us.