Category: sexual orientation

Opposition Surfaces as Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Moves Toward Vote

In recent days, concern about David Bahati’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill has surfaced within Uganda. For instance, Keith Muhakanizi, the deputy secretary to the Treasury, acknowledged recently that the anti-gay bill has hurt Uganda’s economy.  According to a news report, Muhakanizi told MPs at Parliament: “I have never seen a country like this where politicians hurt the economy instead of building it.”
One MP, Fox Odoi, a member of Parliament’s committee on Legal Affairs has come out against the bill. According to the report,

Odoi, who has written a minority report bashing the bill, added that if lawmakers ignore his report and pass the bill, they will have set a wrong precedent–that government can enter or legislate what happens in your bedroom.

Odoi’s report can be read here and urges that Parliament scrap the entire bill. While one may debate some of Odoi’s conclusions, she points to child protection proposals that are more in line with what proponents of the anti-gay bill say they want while at the same time pointing out that the anti-gay bill infringes on individual rights and does nothing to protect children.
As opposition surfaces, the anti-gay bill moves closer to a vote. This morning the bill is listed on the agenda as the first bill to be considered after today’s business and three additional reports to Parliament.

NOTICE OF BUSINESS TO FOLLOW 

  1. PETITION OF THE PEOPLE OF BULEGENI TOWN COUNCIL IN BULAMBULI DISTRICT

  2. REPORT ON THE STATUS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

  3. REPORT OF THE ADHOC COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING THE ELECTRICITY SUB SECTOR

  4. THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2009

  5. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE BILL, 2009

  6. THE PUBLIC ORDER AND MANAGEMENT BILL, 2011

  7. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTS ON THE REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL FOR THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2009

 
 

Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Back

As Melanie Nathan pointed out yesterday, Uganda’s Parliament is back from recess and has the Anti-Homosexuality Bill on their list of business to come. You can see it at number 8 (open Word document) on the list of planned business for this session.
In case you want to read it, here is the bill. Rumors continue that the bill will be modified coming out of committee but no one should believe it until it happens.
If you have some time and want the backstory, read here.

PATH Member PFOX Files Amicus Brief in the Prop 8 Case

Citing the “change is possible” mantra, PFOX has filed an amicus brief in the Prop 8 case arguing against marriage rights for gays. This is not surprising but I have some observations about their strategy.
In this brief, PFOX continues its odd logic of considering ex-gays to be a protected class while at the same time hoping to remove/prevent protected class status for gays. On page 4, the brief asserts:

Government authorities and other organizations recognize ex-gays as a group which undermines the assertion that sexual orientation is immutable.

The brief continues to cite dubious cases where PFOX claims that ex-gays are recognized as a protected class.
I have never understood why PFOX thinks this strategy helps them. Even if PFOX is correct about their interpretation of those cases, all of the organizations involved also recognize gays as a class. Furthermore, if ex-gays can be recognized as a protected class while they have a changeable sexual orientation, then the issue of mutability of sexual orientation is irrelevant. Taken to logical conclusion, this argument supports equal protection under the law for gays. Since ex-gays already have the right to marry, why shouldn’t gays?
Then, on page 6, PFOX unveils the list of sexual reorientation groups and includes Richard Cohen’s testimony. This makes it clear that the reparative therapists who say they just want to be able to work with unwanted SSA have taken their stand that they are about more than just a therapeutic approach.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Double Mind

In his 1995 book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll wrote, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”

Recently, at Patheos, Eastern University professor Peter Enns updated Noll and added that “The real scandal of the Evangelical mind is that we are not allowed to use it.”

Today, I want to extend Enns and Noll and assert that the evangelical mind, such that it is, is double minded.

First, let me say that Enns makes an observation which sounds quite familiar to me:

Calling for Evangelical involvement in public academic discourse is useless if trained Evangelicals are legitimately afraid of what will happen to them if they do.

As a participant in the great sexual reorientation wars of the past decade and the current controversy over David Barton and American history, I can tell you that the culture war complex does not seek or accept well scholarship that does not support current culture war talking points.  For instance, after Thomas Nelson dropped Barton’s The Jefferson Lies, Wallbuilder’s number two man, Rick Green, compared Barton’s Christian critics to Hitler and Saul Alinsky. Green wrote:

Question: What do elitist professors have in common with Adolf Hitler & Saul Alinsky?

Answer: They masterfully use the powerful art of innuendo to falsely defame those with which they disagree.

That kind of thing is shocking, but I am mostly numb to it after years of this give and take. However, I think most academics are a little skittish about such vitriol over doing what academics do.

Enns adds:

The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that degrees, books, papers, and other marks of prestige are valued–provided you come to predetermined conclusions.

Persistence pays off and real headway has been made in the sexuality arena, but I still see a blackout of sexual orientation research among Christian media. As I have documented, important studies of sexuality and gender have been reported in the popular press but haven’t risen to the level of newsworthiness in the Christian press. Even though evangelical scholars take these studies seriously, the consumers of culture war and Christian media probably won’t hear about them if the research implicates a biological origin for homosexuality.

On the American history front, many of the popular media sources have ignored the David Barton controversy (e.g,, I don’t think Christianity Today has touched the subject). Many popular radio hosts simply won’t allow another point of view on their programs.  I am glad that World Magazine has been the clear exception.

In 2011, Thomas Kidd pointed out that evangelicals are bosses at creating subcultures (e.g., Christian music, Christian television, Christian publishers). We also have our in-house “experts.” Others (e.g., Stephens & Giberson in The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age) have pointed out that these evangelical experts rarely have deep academic training in their chosen subject.

Now we come to the double-minded part. The experts (e.g., David Barton) create their niche by demeaning academic work, even by Christian scholars. Witness Barton’s defense of his work. As noted previously, his radio show co-host blasted us with comparisons to Hitler and Alinsky. With condescension, Barton blasted Coulter and me for being “academic elitists” and added

It is striking that the negative critiques of The Jefferson Lies revolve around the academic arrogance that says “Unless we tell you so, it just can’t be; we are the sole gatekeepers of historical truth.” But Governor Mike Huckabee, in speaking of my approach to history, stated: “In typical Barton style, every syllable is given scholarly research and backed up with source documents. Those who hate America and God’s Word won’t like it, but they won’t be able to discredit it.” Clearly, academics such as Throckmorton, Coulter, Jenkinson, Crawford, et. al., simply don’t like what the self-evident documentation actually proves.

Here is the scandal of the evangelical double-mind. On one hand, evangelicals spend lots of money to send their children to evangelical colleges, and they want those children to learn their lessons well. On the other hand, with donations to culture war  organizations, they prop up self-anointed experts who tell them that academic rigor, training, and skill are barriers to the real truth, hidden away by stuffy, arrogant professors. Want to know something about history (science, sexuality, etc.)? Don’t call your child’s Christian college professor; call David Barton.

All of this should be deeply troubling to evangelicals. Actually, the kids are not alright; we are losing them in buckets. I have to say that I believe one of the factors is the anti-intellectual stance of the organizations which say they represent us. By and large, these groups need to do an audit of the claims they make (scientific, historical, etc.) and allow Christian scholars of various views to weigh in. In addition, I think it would be helpful if the Christian media complex would report about research on hot scientific topics. And when they do, they need to go find academics who are doing the research and get comment from those Christian researchers and professors who understand the nuances of the topic.

I start with the premise that science is no threat to faith. If scientific work seems to conflict with tenets of my religion, I accept the tension until I understand things better. Extending that belief to history, I do not need the founders to be evangelicals in order to enjoy and defend American freedom for people of my faith, another faith, and no faith.

Loving God with all my mind doesn’t mean splitting it in two. If a study of science or history tells me something uncomfortable, I do not retool the science or history to make me comfortable. I walk by faith, live with the tension, and accept what is in front of my face.