A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
I didn’t see the link so it will be hard for viewers to find it, but the guest post by Jeff Sharlet made the Rachel Maddow Show tonight. Have a look for yourself:
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As I note here, the prospects for the February, 2010 National Prayer Breakfast to be business as usual depends on what happens in Uganda over the next month or so.
[Author Jeff Sharlet’s appearance on National Public Radio elevated the story of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill to an important level of public awareness. One controversial element of Jeff’s reporting was his connection of the Ugandan legislators who introduced the bill to the Fellowship Foundation (aka The Family). I followed up that broadcast corresponding with Fellowship Foundation grantee, Cornerstone Development in Kampala and learned that Cornerstone had no input into the bill. In this guest post, Jeff Sharlet updates the NPR reporting, completes the picture and reveals for the first time that the Fellowship opposes the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Thanks to Jeff for posting this news here and thanks to Bob Hunter for his candor.]
The Fellowship Opposes Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill
by Jeff Sharlet
Add one more very important name to the growing international list of those opposed to Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Bob Hunter, the man who helped build Uganda’s relationship with the Family, aka the Fellowship, the international movement of “followers of Christ” – some reject the term “Christian” that also includes several U.S. politicians with ties to Uganda: among them, Senator James Inhofe, Senator Sam Brownback, and Representative Joe Pitts.
Bob has been active with the Fellowship, as he prefers to call the network of organizations he says can be fairly described as a movement,* since coming to Christ in the late 1970s. But Bob’s faith wasn’t simply a salve; it led him into a relationship with a missionary hospital in Uganda and then with Ugandan political leaders. Bob worked as a private citizen, but he brought to his pursuits the experience and insights of a distinguished career, as a federal insurance administrator for Ford and Carter and a longtime consumer advocate. In Uganda, he established relationships with members of all factions, and, eventually, a friendship with President Yoweri Museveni. Later, he would go on to help Museveni establish the Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast.
Today, his work in Uganda focuses less on high-level politicians and more on those whom he calls “the nail” – that is, not the people in the official portraits, but the people who do the real day to day work of keeping a country running. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s important – maybe never more so than now. Because it’s those relationships that matter most when legislation such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is at stake. And Bob has been quietly working through those relationships to stop the bill. His influence may matter more than all the petitions signed by gay rights activists around the globe. And Bob has been brave about using that influence, speaking to his friends in Uganda, and gently pressuring the Fellowship’s associates on Capitol Hill to take a stand against the bill. Bob even agreed to sit down with me.
That took some courage, since I’m the author of a book about the Fellowship called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, a critical analysis of the Fellowship in which I described Bob’s initial outreach to Uganda as linked to U.S. government interests in the region. Several weeks ago, I was a guest on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in which I made the same point. I based my characterization on a widely circulated account from Fellowship leader Doug Coe of Bob’s work, two documents in the Fellowship’s archive, “A Trip to East Africa—Fall 1986,” and “Re: Organizing the Invisible,” and a review of tens of thousands of documents in the Fellowship archives that present a portrait of the organization up to that point. I attempted to contact Bob, but failed. I wish I had contacted him: Bob was very forthcoming with details that present a more complicated, and, frankly, hopeful picture. Bob wrote a response to the broadcast that he shared with “Fresh Air” and with some associates in Uganda. He raised a number of important concerns and offered more detail on his involvement. But rather than duke it out, Bob invited me to his Arlington, Virginia home and spent the better part of an afternoon discussing my interpretation of events and his experience of them. We agreed that the first step was a statement making clear Bob’s opposition to the bill. Moreover, Bob adds “I know of no one involved in Uganda with the Fellowship here in America, including the most conservative among them, that supports such things as killing homosexuals or draconian reporting requirements, much less has gone over to Uganda to push such positions.”
That’s very, very good news. The Fellowship prefers to avoid the limelight; Bob has forsaken that to make clear his position and that of his American associates: The Fellowship, AKA the Family, opposes the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Bob also asked me to clarify – and correct – some misperceptions. I’m glad to do so. First, Bob was troubled by my identification of him on “Fresh Air” as a former Ford official, which he felt implied right-wing affiliations. I didn’t think so – Ford hasn’t exactly gone down in history as a right-winger, and I mentioned it only to establish that Bob was not just some ordinary businessmen, as Fellowship leader Doug Coe’s account of his work** suggests (inaccurately, as Bob gladly concedes). It would have been better to say a former government official, or a former Ford and Carter official. Even that might have been selling Bob short – his career as a consumer advocate is long and impressive. While the Fellowship has historically been majority conservative, it has – as I note in my book – always included liberals. Bob is in that tradition. Over the course of the afternoon he shared with me his experience working with the Fellowship in Burundi, Rwanda, and South Africa. While I may take issue with the Fellowship’s behind-the-scenes approach, there’s no denying that in each of these cases Bob and his associates were working toward extremely admirable ends, and that in the case of Burundi Bob’s efforts helped make the difference that brought a truce to that country’s warring factions. Bob did what he did with the best of intentions, and, in several instances, achieved the best of outcomes. Continue reading “The Fellowship (aka The Family) Opposes Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Guest post by Jeff Sharlet”
Movement on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Counseling to be added. Now the ex-gay ministries will come into even sharper focus. Evangelicals who promote change as a political exercise will need to really think through whether the data supports them because real lives are in the balance.
UPDATE: On the other hand, some clergy seem resolute to maintain the bill.
One of the major reasons Ugandans give for their support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is to stop recruitment of children and young men to homosexuality. Despite the lack of evidence demonstrating a systematic recruitment effort, the view of child abuse and homosexuality being about the same persists in the rationale given for the bill.
Scott Lively promotes this idea and he has been a colleague of Stephen Langa since at least 2002. Thus, when Langa wanted people to come to Uganda to whip up public calls for a new law, he asked Lively to return. He also asked Richard Cohen’s assistant Caleb Brundidge to speak. Cohen was there in spirit however in the form of Brundidge and his book Coming Out Straight. During the Rachel Maddow Show last night, Cohen’s book was display by Stephen Langa and Cohen was labeled an authority. No wonder, homosexuality is considered a disorder in this book, albeit a curable one. However, the book also contains dark and sinister descriptions of homosexuals, which no doubt played well into Langa’s designs.
Watch the clip again here and note Langa’s references to the book at about 2:50 in:
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In Coming Out Straight, Cohen refers to the efforts of Paul Cameron to claim gays are more responsible for child abuse than straights. Actual data are mixed on the subject but there is no confirming evidence that adults gays are disproportionately responsible for child abuse. The Catholic Church committee researching this point came to the same conclusion recently.
On page 49, Cohen writes:
Homosexuals are at least 12 times more likely to molest children than heterosexuals; homosexual teachers are at least 7 times more likely to molest a pupil; homosexual teachers are estimated to have committed at least 25 percent of pupil molestation; forty (40%) percent of molestation assaults were made by those who engage in homosexuality.
This statistic was taken from the following reference:
Paul Cameron, “Homosexuality and Child Molestation,” Psychological Reports, 58 (1986) 327-337, as quoted in M. Maddoux, Answers to the Gay Deception. 62-63.
Stephen Langa told me in March that Lively, Brundidge and Schmierer were recruited because:
they each have unique expertise which we feel will address the needs we have in Uganda and Africa in general on the subject of homosexuality.
Apparently, one need was to mislead the Ugandan people. Thus, it is no wonder that, in the words of Scott Lively, Mr. Langa was “overjoyed” with the results. Here is Lively’s assessment of his efforts in Uganda.
On the positive side, my host and ministry partner in Kampala, Stephen Langa, was overjoyed with the results of our efforts and predicted confidently that the coming weeks would see significant improvement in the moral climate of the nation, and a massive increase in pro-family activism in every social sphere. He said that a respected observer of society in Kampala had told him that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the “gay” agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true.
Now my attention is turned to equipping the activists in Uganda with helpful materials. I have given them permission to make unlimited use of Defeating “Gay” Arguments With Simple Logic, and Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child (a much-esteemed book among the Africans). I still want to send them my remaining stock of about 100 or so copies of Seven Steps, but I didn’t raise any money toward this in my last appeal.
Like a nuclear bomb? Guess the “respected observer” was right.
(Yesterday I posted the first part of this article examining the “Seven Mountains Strategy”)
On the Reclaiming 7 Mountains website, articles are offered which describe what reclaiming a mountain means. One article called “Girgishites and the Mountain of Government” is a chapter from Johnny Enlow’s 2007 book The Seven Mountain Prophecy and the Coming Elijah Revolution. The book has been endorsed by C. Peter Wagner. According to Wagner, this book is exemplary in describing how to reclaim the seven domains.
No one to date has better revealed to the body of Christ the natural and the spiritual challenges for fulfilling God’s plan in each of the mountains than Johnny Enlow. I believe that every kingdom-minded leader, whether in the church or in the workplace, needs to make this amazing book required reading!
Peter Wagner
Founder, Intl Coalition of Apostles
Uganda’s Julius Oyet has spoken on at least two occasions at Johnny Enlow’s Daystar Church in Atlanta and prophesied that Elijah’s Revolution would begin in Atlanta. In part because of that prophecy, Johnny Enlow believes Atlanta is a pivotal place in the New Apostolic Reformation, saying in 2007:
What does the USA’s 2007 look like?
I will prophesy that an Elijah Revolution will begin this year in the USA and that it is a sure thing. I believe that “The Call” in Nashville on 7-7-07 is a very key piece of the puzzle in all that will explode upon the USA in this year. Prophetic words and decrees coming out of Charlotte are also a key piece of the puzzle. A proper spiritual aligning of Charlotte, Nashville, and Atlanta will expedite and intensify this Elijah revolution. “As Atlanta goes, so will the South go.” I believe that, as she steps into her destiny, she will flourish and, within ten years, become the prime city of America and maybe the nations. Several prophets have come into Atlanta and have prophesied that the “revolution” starts in Atlanta that will touch the whole nation. Julius Oyet from Uganda has prophesied that it will be an “Elijah Revolution.”
While connections are not especially close recently, they are real and the men seem to share the same theological outlook that the church should reclaim the government based on Christian teaching via a movement called Elijah’s Revolution.
So how do we reclaim the mountain of government and what does it mean? Reading through the chapter of Rev. Enlow’s book on the mountain of government, we get a glimpse:
This apostolic positioning will increase more and more among the nations of the world as the mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above all others. One reason we haven’t advanced as far as expected in this area is that “Christians” who have come into power in various national governments haven’t always been apostolic Christians. By apostolic Christians, I mean that they have made it to the top of the mountain without carrying apostolic authority. Apart from apostolic anointing, there is no displacement authority. Therefore many of these Christians have fallen to the same corruption as their predecessors. Lucifer and his corrupting Girgashites have not been spiritually displaced by the angels that would normally accompany a true apostle.
The goal is not just to have Christians in high places, but rather to have Christians who are called to be in high places step into that role. And wearing a “Christian” label on our sleeve isn’t the point. We need to learn to be “as wise as serpents and harmless as doves” and realize that stealth authority and influence are much preferred over overt authority and influence. A low profile diffuses resistance from the opposition. Political righteousness isn’t determined by whether someone calls himself a Christian or not anyway. That’s established by whether the political values they are prepared to defend or establish are actually righteous. A Christian who espouses abortion rights or the validity of gay marriages, for example, is worthless as a “Christian” candidate. If candidates don’t understand righteous politics, they aren’t anointed for this mountain. They may have enough Christianity in them to enter heaven, but they don’t have enough Christianity to bring the rule and reign of God down to earth.
This will change as the Elijah Revolution is released upon the nations. Sons and daughters of the King who understand the call to take the seven mountains will rise to the mountaintops. More important than their confession of faith will be their understanding of Kingdom issues. Do they understand God’s redemptive plan for Israel in these last days? Do they understand that “if you touch Israel, you touch the apple of His eye”? (Zechariah 2:8). Entire nations will be severely judged or highly blessed and favored based on this issue alone. Governing cannot be done by the flesh anymore, as the issues will be increasingly highly charged spiritual matters that God will directly address—often through devastating judgments (Isaiah 26:9).
The world will come to learn, for example, that though God passionately loves every homosexual, remaining in that sin will cause someone to fall under the sword of His judgment. Feelings don’t validate a homosexual lifestyle any more than they validate a murderer’s desire to kill. We are all born with feelings that we must curb and cut off, and the sooner we embrace God’s standards, the sooner we have a chance to be at peace with Him. It is well understood that any child, when left to his or her own standards based on a feeling, will become a spoiled, unruly brat. What comes to us naturally is sin. We will lie, cheat, fornicate, dishonor our parents, and commit every other form of sin when we define righteousness by whatever we think we were born with. The sooner we understand that God expects righteousness—regardless of what our innate tendencies tell us—the sooner we will be able to eliminate His judgments from our personal and corporate lives.
One of the primary roles of future government leaders will be to instruct in righteousness. The more God’s judgments are poured out on earth, the more explicitly will they be able to give that instruction.
Recall that these thoughts are presented in a chapter of his book which deals with the reclamation of government. When Enlow says, “the world will come to learn” that “remaining in that sin [homosexuality] will cause someone to fall under the sword of His judgment,” it sounds to me like he believes that the reclaimed government should prosecute homosexuals. I asked Johnny Enlow via email, and on the record, if that was his teaching. At his request, I am providing his full answer to provide full context.
I do believe that the practice of homosexuality is a sin. It is not part of God’s original design. We don’t even need to quote specific scriptures of the Bible to validate this, as nature itself reveals the self-evident truth that homosexuality is an aberrant manifestation of original intended sexuality. Having said that, I do not believe that most homosexual feelings are chosen – though all homosexual practice is in fact chosen. Homosexual feelings are an aberration of normality brought on by a number of aggravating realities such as rejection, sexual abuse etc. The practice itself is a significant sin that reaps its own judgment or consequences- such as all sins do. Therefore as a rule God doesn’t have to release a “sword of judgment” on it or other sins. Sin begets its own reward. However when there is an aggressive promotional agenda connected to a sin behavior such as homosexuality it can come to the place where it elicits a unique response of God that is beyond the normal reaping of consequences. The Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah is such an example with a city so aggressive in this sin that the ground itself cried out for a judgment.
As to the question of whether governments should criminalize homosexuality as part of taking the mountain of government- this would only be a second best method of bringing awareness that the behavior of homosexuality is wrong. This becomes a necessity only when the moral fiber of society has become so degraded that society itself is in need of knowing right and wrong. For me, the point of criminalizing homosexuality is not to bring punishment to homosexuals but rather to inform society of right and wrong. I would be against harsh punishments against homosexual activity between consenting adults and would not endorse capital punishment for this scenario. Society does need to know that homosexual behavior is wrong but it would not be defensible to execute homosexuals anymore than it would be to execute rebellious children- which is espoused to some measure in Leviticus. There is a greater grace assigned to the new covenant understanding of the New Testament. Rebellious children are still wrong in their rebellion and homosexuals are still wrong in their behavior but we do not need the extreme punishments of the Old Testament. I personally believe that most who suffer from homosexual feelings are worthy of great compassion because as a rule it tells us they have suffered some significant traumas in their lives. It would not express the heart of God towards them for there to be government-sponsored “witch hunts” against them. Our fractured homes and fractured society greatly contribute to the presence of homosexual realities and individuals who manifest the marks of societal decay cannot be made to pay the full price for a greater societal ill. They are responsible for personal choices but there must be margin for compassion when fully understanding the causal effects. The in-your-face activist homosexual agenda is of course generating it’s own strong repercussions and backlashes and to the degree that they insist on forcing upon society their aberrations to that degree they will see increasing measures to limit their activism of a sin behavior.
I wonder if Ugandan legislators believe they are reclaiming the mountain of government via the Anti-Homosexuality Bill? Does Julius Oyet support this bill because it would help reclaim the mountain of government in accord with his Vision 2020 (see points 8 & 9)? I wrote Lifeline Ministries to ask but have not yet received a reply.
I want to state clearly that I do not believe anyone in the 7 Mountains movement prompted the Ugandan legislators to write and offer this bill as an expression of the 7 mountains teaching. However, according to Rev. Enlow, the concept of criminalization is consistent with his Apostle Wagner endorsed view of reclaiming the mountain of government. Could leaders and members of the Ugandan Born Again Federation view this bill as a means to a Kingdom end? Or even the fulfillment of a prophecy? Earlier this year, Julius Oyet placed this prophecy for 2009 on his website:
God will judge evil in 2009 as mob justice will kill and destroy witches, thieves and evil people. There will be lots of manifestation of Satanists and exposition of homosexuality and other evils in the Church, human sacrifice and all sorts of evil will manifest in the nations. God’s people will rise in full authority and dominion! The righteous will march against evil and triumph over them all.
Apostle Oyet links severe punishment of those he believes to be evil with God’s people rising in “authority and dominion.” According to an ex-gay blogger from Uganda, both Oyet and Martin Ssempa seem to see the Anti-Homosexuality Bill as being a kind of national protection for Uganda against the judgment of God. This post was provided by a witness to the introduction of the motion to introduce the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in April of this year. After the motion was unanimously passed, Apostle Oyet, Martin Ssempa and followers prayed outside the Parliament in thanksgiving for the bill.
We congregated in the twilight outside and had a prayer led by Oyet. I remember him thanking God that Uganda would not be destroyed now that its leaders were in obedience to Him on this issue. There we were, Catholic and Pentecostal of various stripes and others, standing hand in hand in prayer! What a moment of unity.
The final blessing was when Pastor Martin Ssempa said that since the death of the Uganda Martyrs and the spilling of their blood on this soil, Uganda has been anointed for leadership in this area. Amen to that.
There are many precursors to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. I have examined several of them and I think that the theological soil for at least some of the proponents is that a nation’s laws about private consensual behavior must reflect Christian teaching in order for the culture to be preserved, reclaimed and reformed. American teachers are exhorting their followers that national salvation is more vital to the mission of the church than individual salvation. Ideas have consequences. If the Ugandan believers viewed individual salvation as more vital, I wonder if the Ugandan proposal would have been advanced.