This week, I and many U.S. Christian leaders signed on to a letter, concerning a re-introduced version of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, a bill which perpetuates some alarming and hateful language about the LGBT community in Uganda, and indeed, around the world. When it was originally introduced in 2009, it made homosexuality an act punishable by death. While the most draconian measures have been removed, the bill still calls for life imprisonment for people who are homosexual, and makes even discussions about sexual orientation illegal, stifling any opportunity to build a civil and constructive dialogue. How can we expect to come together to bridge the divides if we cannot even bring ourselves to sit down together and talk? What is even more heartbreaking, so surprising, is that Christian leaders in Uganda continue to support it.
What are we calling for in this letter? It is a simple message, and one that all who profess a Christian faith should be able to agree with:
All human beings have been created in the image and likeness of God, and Christ teaches that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. All acts of bigotry and hatred betray these foundational truths.
As people of faith in America, we are fortunate to have the right to worship, the right to assemble in our churches and the right to declare Jesus as Lord. Human rights are important to us. And the human rights violations being experienced by people in Uganda are horrifying, and beyond anything we can imagine here in the freedom of the United States. We should be actively seeking to affirm the same rights we enjoy to people around the world, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
As the letter states:
As Christians we wish to bear witness to the fact that Jesus spoke up for the marginalized in his society. But even in its revised form, the bill in Uganda would forcefully push lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people further into the margins, and it would criminalize anyone, including clergy, who speak up and provide support for their LGBT brothers and sisters rather than reporting them to law enforcement. Persecution of this kind has no place in any community guided by the commandment to love one's neighbor.
The fact that those being persecuted on the margins of society, in this case gay and lesbian people in Uganda, should mean that Christians should give extra attention to protecting and standing up for them. When people are regularly the target of harassment and hate, Christians should be on the front line of their defense. We are especially concerned about how some Christian leaders in Uganda are supporting this legislation against gay people.
We believe in equal protection under the law for everybody. And we believe that all God's children should be defended from attacks on them.
We wrote in the letter:
Regardless of the diverse theological views of our religious traditions regarding the morality of homosexuality, the criminalization of homosexuality, along with the violence and discrimination against LGBT people that inevitably follows, is incompatible with the teachings of our faith....We urge our Christian brothers and sisters in Uganda to resist the false arguments, debunked long ago, that LGBT people pose an inherent threat to our children and our societies. LGBT people exist in every country and culture, and we must learn to live in peace together to ensure the freedom of all, especially when we may disagree. We condemn misguided actions that have led to increased bigotry and hatred of LGBT people in Uganda that debases the inherent dignity of all humans created in the image of our Maker. Such treatment degrades the human family, threatens the common good, and defies the teachings of our Lord -- wherever it occurs.
We are praying for those suffering under the cloud of hatred and bigotry in Uganda. And we are also praying for those who are seeking to pass this legislation, that they might see this as a mistake and withdraw this anti-homosexual bill. Our faith compels us to act with love towards our neighbors, we cannot stand by and allow fear and hate to be institutionalized.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis
So many lives have been saved and futures salvaged by someone speaking a well-timed encouragement: “a word spoken in due season, how good is it! (Proverbs 15:23). What if no one had never invited you to come and receive the Holy Ghost? Destiny is determined in obscure moments. Sometimes there is no lifeguard to save the drowning person.–an amateur becomes a hero in an obscure moment. How many things would have never happened had someone had just spoken up? Jack Phillips’s life teaches us the importance of doing what is needed at a particular time. Jack was the radioman on the ill-fated Titanic when a warning came that an iceberg was in the ship’s path. But he was too busy doing other things and it costs him and others their lives.
We must be careful not to wait for strobe lights, TV cameras, and a stage to act, or for a chance to sound profound, or for an earthquake. Far more is ever done in backstreets and under shade trees than amphitheaters and on TV networks or Televangelists programs.
You've got blood on your hands too Mills.
No different than das fuhrer's law against Gays banning even homosexual fantasies.
Mills, working on a documentary called The World's Worst Place To Be Gay? for BBC television, outed himself to David Bahati—the author of Uganda's infamous "kill the gays" bill.
Mills said Bahati then "went mental."
Mills told AOL's U.K. celeb site:
"He was scary. He ordered us to cut the cameras then brought a security guard. We ran off, and he rang one of our guys saying, 'Where are they staying? What are the registration plates? I want them arrested. They won't get far.' "
Fortunately, Mills's contacts lied about their whereabouts, sending the police to the wrong hotel.
Uganda is notorious for its persecution of gays and lesbians, and Bahati is a poster boy for anti-gay politicians in the country—who have been influenced by American evangelical Christians.
Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda. Bahati and his allies at one point tried to make being gay punishable by death.
A Ugandan tabloid has published numerous front page articles naming local gays and lesbians and admonishing readers to "hang them."
http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/02/11/gay-bbc-reporter-scared-straight-out-uganda
See “The Worst Place To Be Gay at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLkCIJNMgE
Saudi Arabia beheads you if Gay however but no difference, murder is murder.
Believe me, Jim, if they haven't figured it out for themselves you're wasting your breath. It will take more than gentle pleas for tolerance to make hate groups alter their ways.
http://www.truthwinsout.org/tag/david-bahati/
Having said that, I think Cynthia Nixon is probably bisexual, with different orientations becoming prominent at different times in her life.
You have no knowledge, first-hand or otherwise, of life in the family of a gay couple. It's no different from that in a straight family.
Your last sentence destroys your argument, since your "beside the point" is simply dismissive with no basis. Loving parents are what family is all about, regardless of sexual orientation. Learn it.
Common sense tells us all it's true.
but... I am curious to see what you think about the chick-fil-a bullying being done by the gay community for an organization that is trying to run a business.
Officials at all levels are to represent and protect the rights of all citizens. Their position is not to mandate what you think or believe.