http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/11/18/globalizing-the-culture-wars
Globalizing The Culture Wars
By Amie Newman, Managing Editor
November 18, 2009 - 7:00am
Published under: Contraception | STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention | Sexuality Education | Women’s Rights |Uganda | Jeff Sharlet | LGBT rights | homosexuality |Rick Warren | Martin Ssempa | The Family
Uganda’s new anti-homosexuality law currently on the table, before Parliament, is an especially vicious piece of legislation that seeks to impose life imprisonment and the death penalty upon those who are involved in “homosexual crimes.”. In this era of growing rights, in the United States, for LGBT individuals, one may be excused for thinking that laws like the one in Uganda are completely unrelated to the Christian, religious right in the U.S., responsible in large part for the onslaught of attacks against LGBT equal rights in this country. However, according to “Globalizing the Culture Wars”, a new report produced by Political Research Associates and released today, laws like the one in Uganda can be seen as the direct result of a campaign by United States neoconservative religious groups to use Africa as another player in the culture wars they have fomented on American soil for many years.
After a rigorous 16-month research and on-the-ground investigative period, Zambian Anglican priest Kapya Kaoma, author of the PRA report, found that U.S. conservatives are working in collusion with African clerics (specifically, the report focuses on Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.), in three denominations (The Episcopal Church, The United Methodist Church and The Presbyterian Church), to counter any progress mainline U.S. churches are working towards, around LGBT issues, as well as to stir increased homophobia in Africa.
What “LGBT issues” are we talking about?
According to the report, American conservatives, by involving African clerics in these three countries, have managed to almost completely halt recognition by these churches of the full equality of LGBT individuals in the U.S. including the ordination of LGBT clergy. But, of course, this crusade by U.S. conservatives is having even more dire consequences on African soil, leading to a growing and increasingly violent homophobia throughout Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya; violence that is typified in the Ugandan bill before Parliament.
The campaign uses many tactics to engage African clerics to help carry out their anti-gay agenda including presenting churches’ commitments to human rights as “imperialistic” and reminiscent of colonialism, ie, homosexuality is purely a Western-imposed phenomenon. One of the leaders in this fight is the arch-conservative Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD). The IRD, maybe unsurprisingly, opposed African liberation struggles, says the report, and works ceaselessly against civil rights for LGBT individuals in the United States. They, along with other U.S. based religious institutions, have provided financial incentives to African clergy in return for strong support of their anti-gay agenda.
Of course, the IRD is by far the only player in these global culture wars. From the report:
Conservative U.S. evangelicals play a strong role in promoting homophobia in Africa by spreading their views and underwriting the widespread conservative educational, social service, and financial infrastructure. Right-wing groups have enticed African religious leaders to reject funding from mainline denominations – which require documentation of how the money is spent – and instead to accept funds form conservatives. This money usually goes to individual bishops without accountability or oversight for how it is used.
The truth is that Conservative leaders in this country, like Pastor Rick Warren, have put tremendous effort into cultivating relationships
with African clerics who can help further their strong anti-gay agenda, while simultaneously contributing to the vicious homophobia in African nations.
with African clerics who can help further their strong anti-gay agenda, while simultaneously contributing to the vicious homophobia in African nations.Pastor Warren has strong ties to Pastor Martin Ssempa, a conservative, religious leader in Uganda who has been the recipient of PEPFAR funds (the U.S. AIDS plan which distributes funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment) and is extremely vocal and active about his homophobic beliefs. There are many churches in Uganda, and other African nations, that are the direct recipients of U.S. federal funding via PEPFAR, used to implement clear religious agendas (vocally supported by Pastor Warren) such as requirements for spending a share of funding on abstinence-until-marriage.
According to the blog Box Car Bulletin, Pastor Ssempa played a “prominent role” in the (false) accusations that a Ugandan megachurch pastor named Robert Kayanja was gay. These accusations led to the kidnap and torture of one of Kayanja’s personal aides.
In Jeff Sharlet’s book, “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” (named for a clandestine organization of hard-core U.S. fundamentalist leaders Sharlet uncovers and infiltrates), this highly secretive organization calls Ugandan President Museveni, the man under whose watch the insidious, horrific anti-gay Ugandan legislation has been offered, “their man in Uganda” and “a good friend” of The Family.
The blog Truth Wins Out reports that, “In March [of 2009], American anti-gay activists traveled to Uganda for a conference that pledged to “wipe out” homosexuality. Seven months later, a draconian bill has been introduced that pledges to make good on this threat.”
Kaoma implores readers to take action knowing now the clear connection between American religious leaders and the hateful on-the-ground results in Africa:
We need to stand up against the U.S. Christian Right peddling homophobia in Africa," said Kaoma, who in recent weeks asked U.S. evangelist Rick Warren to denounce the bill and distance himself from its supporters. "I heard church people in Uganda say they would go door to door to root out LGBT people and now our brothers and sisters are being further targeted by proposed legislation criminalizing them and threatening them with death. The scapegoating must stop.
There is a web of entanglement between U.S. evangelicals, fundamentalists, conservatives and African clergy that exists to maintain a power structure and a severe homophobic agenda that serves these hard-core religious groups. The report ends with a list of recommendations that includes exposing and confronting U.S. religious conservatives (like Pastor Rick Warren) who foment homophobia in Africa, exposing the financial ties between African conservatives and various American institutions (like our very own federal government), and maybe most importantly supporting African activists and scholars to lead the struggle for LGBT rights and the study of sexuality in Africa.
The U.S. neo-conservative movement is working tirelessly to push a religious agenda in Africa that serves their own purposes. As we continue the fight for LGBT rights in our own country, the report reminds us that it is critical we use our peripheral vision to see the bigger picture if we are to truly win the war against religious evangelicalism’s homophobia, and not just individual battles.
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