Perhaps Exodus should stop and think about the affects it has on people…and now, foreign legislation, before it acts.

Money and self-righteousness often make for rather bad bed-fellows even if you think you are following a good book.

Lynn David’s comment reminded me of this quote on the evils sometimes done in the name of religion:

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” — Blaise Pascal

On the contrary, we need to learn as much as we can if we hope to have an impact. I have been doing a lot of research on Uganda’s history, politics, religion, economy, culture and its many social and human rights problems since this whole issue came up. Many Facebook members regularly post such information and the internet is a very rich source.

The more I have learned, the more I am convinced that this law would have a terrible effect on that culture — especially when one considers that the sentences would surely include some mob justice to carry them out. Understanding a culture does not preclude taking a stand. In fact, I think it provides a firmer foundation for taking one.

However, I think they’ve gotten in over their head and it is not just Schmierer/Exodus, Lively, and Brundidge/Cohen who are to blame. But it is Exodus who has taken the brunt of the blame, perhaps even not rightly so. They are the cushion for the likes of Ahmanson whose dabbling in African and ECUSA/AfricanAnglican religious issues have helped to lead up to this ‘fiasco’ by the Brundidge/Lively/Schmierer triumvirate. Money and self-righteousness often make for rather bad bed-fellows even if you think you are following a good book.

“Due to my association with Rushdoony, reporters have often assumed that I agree with him in all applications of the penalties of the Old Testament Law, particularly the stoning of homosexuals,” Ahmanson wrote. “My vision for homosexuals is life, not death, not death by stoning or any other form of execution, not a long, lingering, painful death from AIDS, not a violent death by assault, and not a tragic death by suicide. My understanding of Christianity is that we are all broken, in need of healing and restoration. So far as I can tell, the only hope for our healing is through faith in Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection from the dead.” From Salon profile of January 6, 2004

I don’t take Wiki entries as any kind of gospel, but the one on Ahmansan is fairly detailed.

Ahmansan (his identity apparently checked out as it was at first assumed the postings were phony) reportedly left this comment on an Orange County Weekly blog called Navel Gazing:

Howard Ahmanson says:

Yes, I have given money to Exodus International. They pursue a compassionate, non-hateful, and non-political approach to the issue. Who should I support, Fred Phelps and his God Hates Fags signs? I’ll say it; his crowd is simply evil. Lou Sheldon I don’t know whether I’d say is evil in the same way; he’s just obnoxious and annoying.

Homosexual activity is always a choice. I don’t think, though, that the homosexual temptation, any more than other temptations, is fully a choice, thought (sic) it, like anything, can be reinforced by behavior.

Ahmansan has also made this comment on the blog prior to that one:

I don’t like to denounce the Bible – for us historic Christians, what the Bible says, Jesus says – but in this day and age stoning is simply wrong. And it gets in the way of people’s recovery. We now know a lot about how to help in the recovery of people with homosexual problems, just as we do with alcoholics and drug addicts. They have no hope of recovery if they are stoned to death! And there is nothing hateful toward homosexuals, alcoholics, or drug addicts about recovery. And besides, you tell me what punishment you think should be inflicted on rich guys who put away the mothers of their children in favor of trophy wives. A lot of them, by the way, Republicans. It’s hypocritical to punish homosexual activity more severely than however we punish that!

There is an intricate web, I’m sure, woven throughout Christo-politics, whether of the conservative or liberal variety. I think most of us probably don’t even want to know everything as it might cause us to retch and tempt us to withdraw into a cave. Are there some who could probably own the title of Dominionist? I’m sure there are. Are there others mistaken for them? I’m sure of that, as well.

Man surely knows how to muck up the Gospel and play into the Enemy’s hands.

’mob justice’ is not a Christian thing.

You know, it wasn’t all that long ago, historically speaking, that vigilantism was a common thing in the good old USA. And not just in a racist sense. My dad was reminding me only recently how much like the Wild West our mountain region of Central Virginia was when he was growing up. It was not uncommon for people to confess to old murders on their deathbeds or even commit suicide because of their guilt burdens. I’ve heard him tell unbelievable stories, some of them legendary around here. And those crimes also included incest and sexual abuse, I am sad to say.

Human nature can be most ugly. When crimes are fueled by a gross misuse of Christianity, as Eddy points out, they are even more heinous.

Well, it wasn’t my term. I guess I should have put that paragraph in a block quote, but it wasn’t my description of the report.

FWIW, I just want to point out that the term used in that report was “exporting sexuality issues,” not sexuality.

And you don’t find it in our Christian cultural history. You do find groups (like the KKK) who try to justify their insanity by appealing to Christian tenets but calling them truly Christian (followers of Christ or born again) is a considerable stretch.

Yes, Uganda is very unlike America. It’s been my chief caution all along. Rules of behavior that we take for granted are more or less foreign to them. I’ve no doubt that ‘mob rule’ and ‘mob action’ are distinct possibilities there. This, too, needs to be addressed. Murder, here in America, was overlooked, was called something else when the KKK was behind it. Laws existed that should have protected those whose lives were taken or threatened…but corruption within the legal system prevented just penalty from being imposed on the mob. To have the impact we all want to have, we have to step outside of our American/democratic mindset and really attempt to understand this culture. Putting our faith in fine-sounding, articulate and reasonable rhetoric will not be enough…it wasn’t enough to thwart the KKK.