Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill and the Deafening Silence of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa; or I've missed their statement - - have you seen one?

by Rev. Steve Parelli, Other Sheep Executive Director, Bronx, NY, February 6, 2010 

Tell the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) to Denounce the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.  
(Other Sheep's Action Alert since October 19, 2009.)

Where is the voice of the Assocication of Evangelicals in Africa?  Since Other Sheep's posting of its Action Alert calling for people to write AEA, we are aware of some letters that have gone out to the AEA from individuals (and some Internet postings of the Other Sheep Alert by other bloggers and sites).  The AEA, to my knowledge, has not made a public statement denouncing the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. 

Today I searched the Internet, briefly, as well as the AEA site news announcements, to see if I could find a statement from the Association of Evangelicals in Africa.  I didn't.  But neither do I claim I did an exhaustive search.

Email me (Rev. Steve Parelli, Other Sheep Executive Director) at sparelli2002@yahoo.com if you have a statement from, or link to, the AEA denouncing the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

You can visit our eNews, published October 19, 2009, calling for open letters to the AEA.  You can visit the webpage Other Sheep published October 20, 2009, calling for AEA to denounce the bill.

In our October 19 (eNews) and October 20 (webpage) publishings, we placed the following names which are officially associated with the AEA.  Other Sheep is still asking the following AEA individuals listed below (with their contact information) where they stand as individuals or where stands the AEA on the Anti-Homoseuxality Bill. 

Becasue Uganda is very much evangelical (whatever the denomination), it is paramount that the Association of Evangelicals in Africa speak out against this "kill-the-gays" bill in Uganda.

Association of Evangelicals in Africa
Contact Information

Ethics, Peace & Justice Commission (click here for AEA site listing of Ethics, Peace & Justice Commission)
P.O. Box 4035
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe
T: +263 9 883 414 / 883 415 / 882 915
Email: netha@mweb.co.zw
Executive Secretary: Rev Patson Netha
Ethics, Peace, and Justice Commission of the AEA holds the portfolio of
educating the Church on matters of ethics, peace, and social justice.

Executive Board (click here for AEA site listing):
Rev Ndaba Mazabane
President
P.O. Box 1045
Hillcrest
3650 Kwazulu, Natal
South Africa
T: +27 31 716 3300 F: +27 31 716 3333
E-mail: nmazabane@yahoo.co.uk

Pasteur Freeman Kompaore
Vice President
01 B.P. 108
Ouagadougou 01
Burkina Faso
T: +226 50 36 14 26 (O) +226 50 38 62 67 (Res.)
Fax: +226 50 36 34 66
Cell Phone: +226 70 21 45 35
Email: feme@fasonet.bf

Rev Mario Li-Hing
Chairman & Islands Regional President
39B Royal Road
Eau Coulée
Mauritius
TF: +230 674 0155 Cell Phone: +230 251 2540
Email: sumtius@intnet.mu

Bishop Arthur Kitonga
Vice Chairman & Eastern Regional President
P.O. Box 51226
Nairobi
Kenya
T: +254 2 6761138/6765986/6764 993
Email: rgc@redeemedgospel.com

Justice (Mrs.) Esme Chombo
High Court of Malawi
P.O. Box 15
Lilongwe
Malawi
T: +265 1 711066/707017/857501
Email: chombojustice@yahoo.com

Mr. Mugo wa Karanja
Treasurer
P.O. Box 76533
Nairobi, Kenya
Cell Phone: +254 20- 2723312 or cell. 0722 753 167
Email: rmugo@cyberkenya.com

Mr. David Mwaure
Legal Adviser
P.O. Box 75642
Nairobi, Kenya
T: +254 2 271 4509 / 10 / 24
F: +254 2 271 3922
Email: mmw@todays.co.ke

Rev Moses B Khanu
West Africa Regional President
P.O. Box 948
Freetown, Sierra Leone
T: +232 22 226 854 TF: +232 22 228 670
Email: moseskhanu@yahoo.co.uk

Rev. Zecharias Abraham
North East Regional President
P.O. Box 2809
Asmara, Eritrea
Phone: +291 1 126859
Phone/Fax: +291 1 126237
Email: myepc@gemel.com.er

Bishop Harrison Sakala
Southern Regional President
P.O. Box 31002
Lusaka 10101
Zambia
T: +260 1 256 073
Fax: +260 1 292 489
Cell Phone: +260 977 88234
Email: evafeza@zamnet.zm

Pasteur Wally Sarr
North West Regional President
B.P. 2961
Dakar
Sénégal
T: +221 21 825 3961 / 827 3379
Email: fes@sentoo.sn

Ato Mulatu Belachew
Compassion International
P.O. Box 76263
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone
Email: mulatu_m_belachew@yahoo.com

Rev. Dr. Mrs. Judy Mbugua
AEA Team Leader
P.O. Box 49332
Nairobi, Kenya
T: + 254 2 / 2714 432 / 272 2769
Fax: + 254 2 / 2713 004
Email: pacwa@aeafrica.org

Mr. Solomon Gacece
AEA Deputy Team Leader
P. O. Box 49332
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel. +254 2 /2722769/2714432
Fax. +254 2 /2713004
Email: solgacece@aeafrica.org

Society of Biblical Literature member charges religious publisher with anti-gay hate speech

Blatant hate speech against homosexuals in Zondervan's Africa Bible Commentary cited at Society of Biblical Literature 2009 Annual Meeting

Panel respondant reports churches in South Africa "are hungry" to know what the Bible realy says about homosexuality
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISANNA - November 23, 2009

by Rev. Steve Parelli, Other Sheep Executive Director

The African Biblical Hermeneutics Section of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) featured a paper today at the SBL annual meeting centered around the "Lot and Abraham Story" from the Africa Bible Commentary (Zondervan, 2006). The respondent to the paper, Gerald O. West of Kwa-Zulu Natal University, in his remarks, made a brief reference to the Africa Bible Commentary's featured article entitled "Homosexuality," found in the Romans section of the single volume commentary, to illustrate how the "Lot and Abraham Story" of the Africa Bible Commentary is predisposed to the evangelical anti-homosexual position.

During the open discussion that followed the papers, Rev. Steve Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, said the publisher, Zondervan, was guilty of "hate speech" against homosexuals. Parelli said the Zondervan Africa Bible Commentary article quotes uncritically a so-called common-enough view held in Africa that "homosexuals are worse than beasts." The Africa Bible Commentary article further states, said Parelli, that "the Anglican Church in Africa has rejected Bishop Tutu's call for tolerance and acceptance of homosexuals." Parelli said, because the Africa Bible Commentary article links, uncritically, the two statements that "homosexuals are worse than beasts" and that "the Anglican Church rejected Tutu's call for tolerance" that the article is hate speech against homosexuals, that the evangelical Nigerian author of the article, because he is uncritical of the quotes he uses, owns the quotes as his own viewpoint.

Parelli said Rick Warren of the United States, John Stott of England, and Douglas Carew of Nairobi, Kenya, have all endorsed the Africa Bible Commentary.

Parelli, citing Uganda as an evangelical country, tied the evangelical view of homosexuality to the current criminal Anti-Homosexuality Bill of Uganda that calls for the death sentence and life imprisonment of homosexuals who meet certain conditions.

Another attendant of the SBL session, sitting at the rear of the room, who did not identify himself when he spoke and who left early, thanked the audience for their comments on the Africa Bible Commentary and said that the "insensitivities" of the Africa Bible Commentary as noted in this meeting would be taken into consideration. Apparently, from his remarks, the gentleman is somehow associated with Zondervan, but that notion was not confirmed.

West, in his final reply to the audience as the respondent, thanked Parelli for his comments on the Africa Bible Commentary and related his own disappointments with the volumn. In addition, West gave an account of how religious groups within South Africa are forming meetings around the study of the issue of homosexuality and the church in Africa in order to discuss seriously the Biblical texts traditionally associated with homosexuality. West said South Africans "are hungry" to really know, and not assume, what the Bible does and does not say about homosexuality especially in light of the very really present situation that their

South African constitution provides for the right of same-sex marriage.

Robert Wafula, Drew University, and Robert Wafawanaka, Virginia Union University, each gave a paper and West responded to each paper separately. Elelwani Farisani, University of South Africa, presided. In 2008, Parelli and his same-sex spouse, Jose Ortiz, conducted Other Sheep seminars on the Bible and homosexuality in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Other Sheep Press Announcement: PRA joins Other Sheep in calling on Rick Warren to denounce Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill

BRONX, NEW YORK
October 29, 2009
by Rev. Stephen R. Parelli, Other Sheep Executive Director

Political Research Associates (PRA), in an eNews they released yesterday calling on "Rick Warren to Denounce Proposed Antigay Law in Uganda," effectively joins Other Sheep in calling on evangelicals to stop the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. PRA reports: "In March 2008, U.S. evangelical leader Rick Warren told Ugandans that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right."

Other Sheep, in its eNews of October 19, called upon evangelicals Rick Warren (USA), John Stott (England), Douglas Carew (Kenya) and the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) to accountability for their part in inducing inhumane and hateful attitudes of Africans towards homosexual Africans.

On January 6 and on October 19 of this year, Other Sheep reported that an article on homosexuality in Africa Bible Commentary, published by AEA and endorsed by Warren, Stott and Carew, says homosexuals "are worse than beasts" and should not be tolerated; homosexuals are "abnormal, unnatural and a perversion." The article also asserts: no view on the morality of homosexuality other than the evangelical view is to be given consideration; the common denominator of same-sex sex is coercive sex; and to be homosexual is sinful. Africa Bible Commentary, published in 2006, is a commentary on the Bible by 70 African evangelical Bible scholars. The featured article on "Homosexuality" is authored by evangelical Nigerian Tusufu Turaki.

Other Sheep is an ecumenical Christian ministry that works worldwide to empower LGBT people of faith. Other Sheep Uganda, a committee made up of Ugandan lay leaders, was organized in 2008 for the purpose of distributing literature on the topic "What does the Bible really say about homosexuality?"