A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
Recent report from Voice of America TV2Africa on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the context of the African Anglican Bishops’ meeting in Entebbe.
Note the interview with David Bahati, regarding the reason for the bill. He wants to define homosexuality in more specific terms in order to make the penalties clear. Also, you see a brief appearance by Martin Ssempa.
It is time to go back to school and Focus on the Family is warning that anti-bullying programs may lead to gay promotion.
Gay-rights groups’ push for anti-bullying legislation and school programs is an effort to “promote homosexuality to kids,” according to a conservative Christian activist organization.
The accusation has underscored the conflicting attitudes among some politicians and parents who have lent their support to these policies after a string of deadly bullying episodes across the country.
Focus on the Family has accused gay-rights groups of using tolerance and anti-bullying programs to introduce curricula and books into schools that promote political aims such as same-sex marriage. The same groups, it says, lobby for gays and other minority groups to be specifically mentioned in anti-bullying legislation and try to depict Christians opposed to such treatment as bigots.
Being on a local committee to implement anti-bullying initiatives, I have already heard fallout from articles like this one. Please leave the culture war out of this.
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My concern is that Christians are not leading the way against bullying but rather are putting up barriers to the implementation of methods that work. I am on the local committee to roll out the Olweus program and I can tell you that I have heard fallout from similar articles as this one.
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Locally, the school district is implementing the Olweus program. I am on a committee to assist and I am very pleased to see it rolled out. I can tell you however, that I have encountered fallout from articles like the ABC article linked above, where parents fear the program due to concerns over gay promotion.
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This just in from Aid for AIDS Nevada:
After evaluating Canyon Ridge Christian Church’s backing of Pastor Ssempa of Uganda and his support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, we feel that it is in the best interest of our clients, supporters and staff to dissolve our relationship with the church immediately. Unfortunately, we will be unable to continue to work with the church, as long as they are associated with Pastor Ssempa. Since what he and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill represent violates the basic human rights that should be afforded to all Ugandans. Our mission is to provide client service programs that assist in enhancing the physical health and psychosocial wellness of the individuals living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in southern Nevada, while promoting dignity and improving the quality of their lives. We will further this mission without the support of Canyon Ridge Christian Church.”
More at Salon.com…
NPR’s Fresh Air raised the Uganda story to a higher level of interest in late 2009 when Terry Gross interviewed Jeff Sharlet. Today, another segment of Fresh Air revisits the issue by again interviewing Jeff Sharlet, this time about Sharlet’s article in Harper’s about his Uganda trip (a portion of the Harper’s article is at the link). Recently, I noted Bahati’s appeal to Leviticus as a public policy and here again he describes his intent to Sharlet:
Sharlet recently traveled to Uganda to speak with Bahati, the bill’s author, which he writes about in a September 2010 Harper’s Magazine magazine piece entitled “Straight Man’s Burden.” He describes how gay Ugandans are struggling to survive — and recounts his meetings with Bahati — in a conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.
“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.”
“It was a very chilling moment because I’m sitting there with this man who’s talking about his plans for genocide and has demonstrated over the period of my relationship with him that he’s not some back bender — he’s a real rising star in the movement,” Sharlet says. “This was something that I hadn’t understood before I went to Uganda, that this was a guy with real potential and real sway and increasingly a following in Uganda.”
Sharlet also explores Bahati’s involvement in the Fellowship prayer groups in Uganda:
And he has connections to American leaders. Sharlet explains that Bahati is one of the Uganda leaders of an American Evangelical movement called the Fellowship, or the Family. The secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians who wield considerable political influence, both in Washington and abroad.
“I discovered, thinking that there was a more distance change of relationship [between Bahati and the Fellowship,] that there was this very direct relationship,” Sharlet says. “And [the Fellowship members] are emphatic and saying ‘We haven’t killed any gay people in Uganda. This isn’t what we had in mind. We didn’t pull the trigger.’ And that’s true. They didn’t pull the trigger. But there’s a sense in which they built the gun, which was this institutional idea of government being decided by small groups of elite leaders like Bahati, getting together and trying to conform government to their idea of Biblical la(w). And this is what their American benefactors wanted them to do.”
“David Bahati has been over to the United States to study the Christian leadership principles of the Family — or the principles of Jesus, as they call them. And he was upset [when I visited,] because he had gotten into a sort of schism with the group. [Because] when the [anti-homosexuality] bill became publicized, the American Family — which organizes something called the National Prayer Breakfast — really tried to distance themselves from Bahati.”
The audio will be available after 5pm.
Late yesterday, Change.org posted an article in response to my post about Aid for AIDS Nevada (AFAN). The AIDS services organization is now the target of a petitionfrom Change.org asking AFAN to denounce Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Change.org’s Michael Jones makes the case for action from AFAN:
It’s quite the sticky situation. AFAN hosts an AIDS Walk. It allows Canyon Ridge Christian Church to march in it as a legitimate participant. Yet at the same time, Canyon Ridge Christian Church is financially supporting a man who would sooner see gay HIV-positive people murdered than taken care of or treated.
As the largest AIDS service organization in Nevada, AFAN no doubt does some critical work. But they’re failing their constituents, clients, and the Nevada community at large by not addressing Canyon Ridge Christian Church’s partnership with Ugandan ministers who want to write into law one of the most criminalizing laws toward HIV-positive people in the world.
However, AFAN’s Executive Director doesn’t see the problem. In an email, late last evening, AFAN’s leader, Jennifer Morss, said AFAN has no partnership with Canyon Ridge:
We do not partner with Canyon Ridge. In fact, we are simply a recipient of their donations in support of our lifesaving, essential programming for individuals surviving HIV/AIDS…we are not able to cease a partnership that does not exist.
Ms. Morss also said she could not say what AFAN would do next year since they had not starting planning for the 2011 AIDS Walk.
In contrast to Ms. Morss reaction, the AFAN Facebook page has been buzzing with requests for them to sever ties with Canyon Ridge. The Red Ribbon Army, a Facebook group of over 500,000 members twice posted requests for AFAN to clarify their position on Canyon Ridge. The first comment was removed from the page by AFAN. The last two comments read:
The Red Ribbon Army We deserve an answer. Aid for AIDS of Nevada owes us the courtesy of replying and letting us know exactly why it is that they are partnering with a church that is sponsoring murder.
and…
The Red Ribbon Army The organization targeted by this petition has removed our post from their fb page (as described in this article). We ask again Aid for AIDS of Nevada! Do you support the Uganda death penalty bill for gays living with HIV/AIDS?
Truth Wins Out, Mike Tidmus and Michael Bussee and others (some deleted)have also posted comments asking for a clear statement from AFAN.
In June, Canyon Ridge Christian Church pastor, Kevin Odor, used the church relationship with AFAN (CRCC’s team page here) as a point of defense against charges of inconsistency due to support for Martin Ssempa. Describing a conversation with NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Rev. Odor said at about 11:25 into the video:
Well, we care about AIDS in Africa, you know what, we care about AIDS in Clark County. For the last five years, members of our church have organized themselves and marched in the AFAN parade – Aid for AIDS of Southern Nevada. And we show up and we raise money and we help support the that organization that helps take care of people in Southern Nevada with AIDS and their families that are dealing with it.
Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin posted an unanswered letterto AFAN and raised concerns about CRCC’s use of their participation in the AIDS Walk as a means of image management.
Anyone who reads the the Anti-Homosexuality Bill can see how tragic CRCC’s position is. I believe many of their members do care about Uganda; they raised $30,000 one Christmas to buy farm animals for Ugandan families and they support the staff of Makerere Community Church. However, the stance of their Ugandan partner has been a hindrance to AIDS work there, especially among gays and bisexuals.
Elsewhere I have discussed how the AHB could also undo AIDS progress among straights. One of my sources of information on AIDS in Uganda is Dr. Ed Green at Harvard, and a former colleague of Martin Ssempa. In the past, Dr. Green recommended Ssempa’s work. Ssempa still has this recommendation posted on his website. However, Dr. Green would like it removed, telling me in a July email:
I asked Martin Ssempa in a very clear and direct manner to remove my name from his site. I checked and you are right: he has not done so.
Will AFAN lead on the question of what is good in the AIDS arena? So far, they are MIA and allowing an opportunity for dialogue about what caring for AIDS here and in Africa means to slip away.