Category: Religion

Uganda Watch: Uganda’s Prime Minister Says Government Opposes the Anti-gay Bill; No Agenda Today

Normally Parliament meets Tuesday through Thursday and so with no order paper on the website, I assume they are not meeting today.

Probably the biggest news on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is the stated opposition of the executive branch of the Ugandan government to the bill by Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi. This news was reported in the Milano Times (Italy) where Mbabazi was attending a meeting.  According to the Google translation of that page, Mbabazi was confronted with a protest at the meeting and disclosed the government position in response.

Another interesting development is the changing of the order for consideration of the anti-gay measure. As noted on the Thursday order paper, the bill has slipped to second item to be considered after the current business is completed.

The Reparative Therapy Makeover Continues: No Naked Therapy?

Last week, NARTH’s Chris Doyle and Julie Hamilton went on the Dr Oz show to defend reparative therapy by portraying it as something other than reparative therapy. This week, NARTH’s representatives carried the makeover a little further in a NBC News article.

There is much I could comment on and may in the future, but in this post I pause to consider an astounding claim is made by David Pickup. Pickup, a one-time supervisee of Nicolosi’s and member of the Mankind Project, claims

“I can say this: I don’t do oranges therapy, and I don’t do naked therapy…”

Pickup is referring to the therapy allegedly practiced by counselors and life coaches at Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (the H used to stand for “homosexuality”). In the complaint brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, former JONAH clients claim that they were asked to remove their clothes for various “interventions” designed to help them bolster their masculinity. There were also some creative uses for oranges in the JONAH program. In his defense against the charge that reparative therapy is all about strange techniques such as described in the JONAH lawsuit, Pickup made his statement about oranges and naked therapy.

Well, I don’t know what Pickup does in his office, but he does recommend a weekend masculinity initiation that involves nudity. For years, Pickup as been a senior staff member for the Mankind Project in Los Angeles as his NARTH 2008 bio makes clear:

David Pickup, M.A., IMF

David H. Pickup holds a Masters Degree in Psychology. He is currently registered with the California Board of Psychology as a Psych Assistant and with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern. David is interning under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi at Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, California. His work is centered on young boys who are struggling with Gender Identification Disorder and with adolescents and adult men who are dealing with same-sex attraction. David is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and is also a Life Coach for men working out of same-sex attraction. He operates The WorkOUT program and website, www.workoutman.org which includes individual and group coaching for men in Los Angeles and in several different countries. David speaks on Reparative Therapy and its practical applications for churches and men’s groups in the southern California area. He is also a senior staff member of The Mankind Project’s intensive weekend trainings for men in the Los Angeles area. (emphasis added)

The Mankind Project’s signature program is The New Warriors Training Adventure which invites men to get naked during part of the weekend festivities. This is well documented on their own website. They say it is optional but they strongly defend the practice (in addition to the “cock talk” portion of the program where men hold a wooden phallus and talk about their sexual history) as being an important aspect of the program.

Currently, Pickup offers discounts to the New Warriors Training Program to those who sign up for his online reorientation therapy program (only 5.99 a month!). Reparative therapists have for years viewed the New Warriors Training Adventure as being useful for same-sex attracted men because they believe SSA derives from wounded masculinity. Thus, when Pickup recommends the weekend on his reorientation therapy website, he does not simply hope his clients will have a fun weekend in the woods. The purpose is therapeutic.  While he may not be doing the naked therapy, he is recommending it.

For more on the Mankind Project, see this page.

Dean of Liberty Law School Says Islam Not Protected by the First Amendment

Prospective Christian law students pay attention.

Mat Staver, Dean of the Liberty University Law School told OneNewsNow, the “news service” of the American Family Association that Islam is more political ideology than religion and as such does not merit the same religious liberty protections.  Staver said

“One of the issues, however, that needs to be considered is whether or not there will be much emphasis placed on advancing the Muslim cause,” he notes. “Certainly that could be a concern to many people around the country.”

He explains why that should be a concern in a law school.

“Islam is a political ideology. Certainly it takes characteristics of religion, but by and large, at its core, both in the United States and around the world, it is a political ideology,” Staver asserts. “Consequently, to use the same kind of laws for an advancement of a political ideology that you would for religious liberty could eventually cause some concerning issues that we want to address.”

Thomas Jefferson certainly disagreed with this analysis. When Jefferson commented on his Virginia law on religious freedom, he said the law was meant to cover all religions. Specifically, Jefferson wrote:

The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally past; and a singular proposition proved that it’s protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word “Jesus Christ,” so that it should read “departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion” the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of it’s protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Islam], the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.

The Virginia statute is not the First Amendment but it is clear that James Madison, acting in sympathy with Jeffersonian views, intended the same scope for the First Amendment.

Another frightening aspect of Staver’s reasoning is that it could easily be applied to other religions, including Christianity.  Churches that pass out political guides and organize members to vote GOP could easily be considered to be purveyors of a political ideology.

Uganda Watch: No Business Today; Bahati Talks about the Bill

Due to the death of a former MP, Uganda’s Parliament will not consider any business today. Instead, they will take the day for a memorial to former MP Atenyi Deo Zabasaija.

Yesterday, Melanie Nathan spoke to David Bahati about his anti-gay bill. You can read that interview here. Bahati again claims that there is new draft of the bill sans death penalty which he will read in Parliament soon. However, when a Ugandan asks Parliament for a copy of the bill, the 2009 version is handed out. The report may suggest the removal of hanging but this suggestion does not guarantee that the Parliament will agree to it. Also, it is possible that the language has been changed but the penalty remains — as occurred in May, 2011.

The bill might make it on the agenda tomorrow but I doubt it will be acted on because the contentious oil issues have not yet been resolved.

Uganda Watch: Parliament in Session Today; Anti-Homosexuality Bill Still On Deck

On today’s order paper, business consisted of a review of the Rules committee’s efforts to find out who instigated the chaos last week as well as the oil bills and finance related matters.

According to spokeswoman Helen Kawesa, the Parliament was able to consider the Accountants Bill today which was near the end of today’s agenda. However, the oil bills are going to be on the agenda for tomorrow along with a memorial for a former member of Parliament who died recently. Because of these matters, she was not sure that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill would come up tomorrow.

It appears that some of the delays anticipated may not materialize. Although one cannot be sure, it seems possible that the anti-gay bill could come up this week.