Rick Warren and Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill

[tygerarmy]

Uganda gay rights bill
Rick Warren and other US Pastors are pushing their Gay Agenda overseas

from the first article

One of Rick Warren's prized achievements over the past few years has been his outreach to Africa. The influential pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, author of best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, has become an influential voice in several countries on the continent, including Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. But that prominence has recently drawn him into controversy. When the Ugandan legislature began considering a draconian anti-homosexuality bill — which in one version would have punished "aggravated homosexuality" with death or life imprisonment — Warren was castigated for not denouncing the proposed law, especially when one of its most public supporters was revealed to have been a speaker at a Saddleback-sponsored seminar. The American preacher severed ties with Pastor Martin Ssempa in October but demurred from saying more, saying it would be interfering in Ugandan politics. But after criticism grew in the U.S., Warren on Thursday released a video statement to Ugandan church leaders condemning the proposed law.
(See a story about Uganda's anti-gay bill.)


Read more: www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946921,00.html#ixzz0hrnMaekK

second article

Rick Warren, the pastor who delivered the invocation at President Obama's inauguration, is once again on the defensive -- this time for his work with a Ugandan pastor who would like homosexuality to be punishable by death.

Newsweek tried to get Warren's reaction to the anti-gay work of Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan pastor who has come to his Saddleback Church multiple times. (Warren has distanced himself from Ssempa in general terms, saying the Ugandan minister does not represent him or his church.) Warren wouldn't reject the idea:

But Warren won't go so far as to condemn the legislation itself. A request for a broader reaction to the proposed Ugandan anti-homosexual laws generated this response: "The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations." On Meet the Press this morning, he reiterated this neutral stance in a different context: "As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides." Warren did say he believed that abortion was "a holocaust." He knows as well as anyone that in a case of great wrong, taking sides is an important thing to do.
Ssempa has also burned condoms "in the name of Jesus," helping roll back a highly successful anti-AIDS campaign in Uganda.

[dasfuchs]

Well, i'm sure they either think we're "importin' them nasteh gays", or just that they're not gonna win here now that DC is for it

[wisechild]

Did anyone see last night's Nightline?

They featured a Ugandan pastor that had absolutely no quams showing gay porn in his church to a full audience. Working the "ick" factor with hardcore porn.

The reporter brought up the point about how repressed homosexuals might express hatred and the pastor turned that around with "No. - Are you a terrorist?" (backhandedly and in mild jest) and then said that he thinks homosexuality is "sexual terrorism". Did you see that? He played down a question about projection with another kind of dark projection. He wants to do the fascist jackboot thing, and claims that the mere existence of gay people in his country is as scary, to him, as hooded militants with AK47s, or a bomb going off in a crowded place.

Also, the pastor played the race card with a pretty weak hand.

Street demonstrations were scary with the level of rhetoric that of Fred Phelps, but louder, overt demands for death, greater numbers, and less senile.

[Kitten]

Sexual terrorism? What does that entail? It sounds pretty kinky.

[Thejebusfire]

Mar 11, 2010 21:31:45 GMT -5 wisechild said:

They featured a Ugandan pastor that had absolutely no quams showing gay porn in his church to a full audience. Working the "ick" factor with hardcore porn.

I wonder if he secretly enjoys it?

[wisechild]

I thought that, well, a pastor would never do that in an American church, and I presumed that this was a cultural thing, that Ugandans must not be as Puritanical as Americans, but really it did seem strange for any church, anywhere in the World. As though he had to oblige his congregation, in order to whip them up in a frenzy because he's a dutiful and busy demagogue.

The reporter bringing up the repressed sexuality question doesn't look like so much of a cliched and weak pseudo-intellectual argument in retrospect. The problem with Nightline is that since Koppel has left, The Mickey Mouse Network (ABC) thought that they should split up the reporting into three parts, rather than spend a good half-hour on one topic. This story should have been given more time.

[brandonl337]

Mar 11, 2010 21:54:27 GMT -5 Kitten said:

Sexual terrorism? What does that entail? It sounds pretty kinky.

It entails having sex with THIS...

www.brandfurysf.com/store/images/products/images_big/billy_2.jpg

[Thejebusfire]

I'd tap it.