With the Apostle Paul at the center of the clash, Uganda Pastor Martin Ssempa and President Barack Obama are at odds with one another over the morality of same-sex sex

by Rev. Stephen R. Parelli
Executive Director of Other Sheep, sparelli2002@yahoo.com. February 16, 2010.  Bronx, New York

Ugandan Christian minister Martin Ssempa claims: Same-sex sex is a criminal act contrary to nature
 
Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan Christian minister who runs the Family Policy and Human Rights Center in Uganda, recently took issue with the dissenting remarks President Obama made on the Anti-Homosexuality bill at the Washington, DC, February 4th National Prayer Breakfast.

In countering Obama's denouncement of the Ugandan bill, it is reported that Ssempa, addressing Obama's remarks, said "homosexuals and lesbians are never targeted for who they are, [but] rather [for] what they do. It is the repugnant sexual acts which they do which constitute a crime, a sin and a rebellion against the order of nature."

Ssempa's anti-homosexual rhetoric "against . . . nature" is grounded in the words of the Apostle Paul; hence, Uganda's divine call to pass its Anti-homosexuality bill

His comment, that same-sex sex is "a rebellion against the order of nature" is especially interesting to me because I am, like Ssempa, a Christian minister.

Ssempa, expounding like most preachers do, enlarged upon his "against . . . nature" assertion by calling it "repugnant," "a crime," and "a sin," so that we, his hearers, should obviously conclude that same-sex sex is the most horrendous affront possible against both God and society. Of course, being a preacher of the Book, Martin Ssempa is taking his "rebellion-against-the-order-of-nature" statement from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle Paul, who is the author of the Biblical letter, refers to same-sex sex as "against nature."

So, there we have it. By the sacred text the Christian minister of Uganda speaks with absolute authority: a crime! a sin! rebellious! repugnant! Certainly, on the basis of such scriptural authority (and with the good preacher Ssempa telling us exactly how the text is to be interpreted), the Ugandan Parliament should enact certain "anti-homosexuality" laws.

Not so fast. Who is to say what the Apostle Paul meant? Certainly not the Ugandan Parliament

But that's just the point. What does "against nature" mean in the context of Romans chapter 1 (not to mention in the context of the entire book of Romans where Paul uses the phrase "against nature" in reference to other subject matters). Not all Bible scholars and teachers are in agreement with Ssempa. For these, Ssempa's inference of the passage is the least likely.

Thomas Hanks, agreeing with other Bible scholars like himself, says Paul is not condemning homoerotic acts as sin but is placing these acts under the cultural category of "uncleanness." Robin Scroggs, L. William Countryman, Robert Goss and Bernadette Broonten, James Miller, James Boswell and Daniel Halminiak all offer an interpretation of Romans 1 quite different from the Reverend Martin Ssempa. Jeff Miner very simply says that Paul is addressing a different set of facts and that therefore Romans 1 is "the easiest passage to interpret" because it simply does not apply to same-sex sex in the context of love, commitment and marriage, which is our present day context and not Paul's first century context. According to Miner, Romans 1 cannot be superimposed upon our present-day unique set of questions around homosexuality. Paul is not addressing our questions.

So now we are at an impasse. If the Ugandan Parliament is to enact laws against homosexuals because their acts are "a crime, rebellious, repugnant and a sin" based on the Apostle Paul's Roman 1 phrase "against nature;" and if the phrase "against nature" is really not as clear in meaning as it appears on the surface; then perhaps Parliament needs to step back a bit and not be so certain it's bill is somehow infallible, as Ssempa, on the authority of the Word of God, would have Parliament believe.

Enter Obama and his book The Audacity of Hope. Now two different, opposing Christian faiths appear: Obama's and Ssempa's

And as a matter of fact, that's exactly what Obama said in his book The Audacity of Hope: "I am [not] willing," he wrote, "to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans [chapter 1] to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount" (page 222, emphasis mine).

Obama would rather err on the side of loving his fellow man as himself (The Sermon on the Mount) than to accuse his fellow LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender) neighbor of being a rebel, a sinner, a criminal, and just plain discussing (Romans chapter 1) as Ssempa would and does. Now we have two distinct Christian walks: President Obama's and Martin Ssempa's. And the question is how does any Parliament enact laws preferring one Christian practice over against another Christian practice? It shouldn't.

Obama: It is not the business of government to impose any stipulation upon its citizens that would interfere with the individual's right to live according to the dictates of one's own conscience

And so, Obama also comments about this - Parliament's place in all of this - in his book The Audacity of Hope: "Our argument is less about what is right [and more] about who makes the final determination - whether we need the coercive arm of the state to enforce our values, or whether the subject is one best left to individual conscience and evolving norms" (page 221). And this, too, he writes: "Contrary to the claims of many on the Christian right who rail against the separation of church and state, their argument is not with a handful of liberal sixties judges. [Their argument] is with the drafters of the Bill of Rights and the forebears of today's evangelical church" (pages 216-217, emphasis mine).

Obama is saying the question of same-sex sex between two consenting adults is a moral question for the individual to decide for himself, not a question for government to determine on behalf of its citizens. It is a private decision left to the individual. And Obama is saying the first American evangelicals knew that, so they therefore created a government where the church does not rule through legislation and the government does not dictate to the conscience of the individual. (And especially, one might opinion in Uganda, when two words - "against nature," in the context that Paul was writing - is so misunderstood and misapplied as it is today.)

The basic difference between Obama and Ssempa on their view of the relationship between the church and government

Early on when the Anti-Homosexuality bill first erupted in Uganda, I authored the following words and placed them on the Other Sheep website: "I fear for Uganda, or any state, when the church, by how it acts, might as well be parliament, and parliament, by how it acts, might as well be the church."

In the matter of same-sex sex, the question for any society to ask is not "What is right?" but rather, "Who should determine what is right: the church, the state, or the individual?" The answer is the individual.

Obama understands these sentiments and expressed them clearly in his book The Audacity of Hope. Ssempa does not.

by Rev. Stephen R. Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, Bronx, NY. February 16, 2010. Email: sparelli2002@yahoo.com

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

OPEN LETTER FROM SOULFORCE TO THE USA TELEVANGELISTS IN UGANDA: FOLLOW RICK WARREN'S ADMONITION AND DENOUNCE THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL

Today in an email from Mel White, I (Rev. Steve Parelli)  received the following:

An Open Letter from Soulforce to Jan and Paul Crouch, founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and the Evangelical Christian broadcasters who are featured on Lighthouse Television, TBN’s affiliate in Uganda, including: Matthew Crouch, Joyce Meyer, Andrew Wommack, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, and Franklin Graham:


By now you are well aware of the anti-homosexual bill pending before the Parliament of Uganda. We urge you to denounce this bill. Use your personal friendships with President and Mrs. Museveni, with MP David Bahati (your Christian colleague who proposed this bill), and with Stephen Langa, (the Ugandan Christian organizer behind the bill) to take a public and passionate stand against it.

The media are blaming the visit to Uganda by three of your colleagues for this despicable and truly un-Christian law. In fact, for years you have used your Lighthouse Television programs, your radio broadcasts, and your massive public meetings to warn Ugandans of the so called “threat homosexuals pose to Bible-based values and the traditional African Family.”

In no small part you are already responsible for the current call by Ugandan leaders to enforce the old law condemning lesbian and gay Ugandans to up to 14 years in prison. This new law increases that sentence to life imprisonment and even death by hanging. Denounce this new bill or the blood of lesbian and gay Ugandans will be on your hands.

It isn’t just the “liberal media” who are condemning the bill. In mid-November, Exodus International, the ministry that promises to assist homosexuals in overcoming homosexuality, warned, "If homosexual behavior and knowledge of such behavior is criminalized and prosecuted, as proposed in this bill, church and ministry leaders will be unable to assist hurting men, women and youth who might otherwise seek help in addressing this personal issue.” While Soulforce does not agree with Exodus that lesbian and gay people need to be "cured," we wholeheartedly agree with their position on this hateful bill.

Warren Throckmorton, a member of the Clinical Advisory Board of the American Association of Christian Counselors warned that this legislation would make their mission “to extend the love and compassion of Christ to all” a difficult if not impossible task.

Your colleague, mega-church pastor Rick Warren, in a very public video appeal to his fellow clergy in Uganda, gives five reasons why Ugandan Christians should not support the bill: (1) it is “unjust, extreme and un-Christian; (2) it would “force pastors to report their pastoral conversations with homosexuals to authorities; (3) “…it would have a chilling effect on your ministry to the hurting… homosexuals who are HIV positive will be reluctant to seek or receive care, comfort and compassion from our churches out of fear of being reported; (4) “All life, no matter how humble or broken, whether unborn or dying, is precious to God… It would be inconsistent to save some lives and wish death on others…” And (5) “the freedom to make moral choices, and our right to free expression, are gifts endowed by God.” Warren reminds the clergy that Uganda is a democratic country “…and in a democracy everyone has a right to speak up.” Warren concludes by urging them “to speak out against the proposed law.”

The People of Soulforce urge you to take Rick Warren seriously. It is very possible that your silence on this matter will convince the people of Uganda that it is God’s will to condemn homosexuals to life imprisonment or even death by hanging. Your powerful media voices have made you superstars to Ugandans. We implore you to use your power to denounce this bill. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this time the Christian community became known for love and justice rather than fulfilling the stereotype of the “liberal media” as ‘hate-filled bigots?

You often ask others, “What would Jesus do?” This is the perfect time to ask yourselves that question.

The People of Soulforce

Mel White, Founder
Bill Carpenter, Interim Executive Director
Chuck Phelan, Board Chair


ADDENDUM: EXAMPLES OF OTHERS WHO CONDEMN THE BILL

This bill has been condemned by leaders of Western nations including the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, and Great Britain and the President of the United States. The European Parliament passed a resolution against the bill and threatened to cut financial aid to Uganda if it is enacted. They described the bill as “state-legislated genocide.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urge Uganda to shelve the bill and decriminalize homosexuality.

The 16,000 members of the HIV Clinicians Society of South Africa and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS warned that excluding marginalised groups would compromise efforts to stop the spread of AIDS in Uganda where 5.4% of the adult population is infected with HIV.

The Sunday Times in South Africa warned Uganda that it is in danger of being "dragged back to the dark and evil days of Idi Amin.”

The New York Times stated unequivocally “that such barbarism (in the bill) is intolerable and will make Uganda an international pariah.”

The Washington Post labeled the bill "ugly and ignorant", "barbaric", and "that it is even being considered puts Uganda beyond the pale of civilized nations.”

The Los Angeles Times warned that the bill would cause gay Ugandans to face an "impossible, insulting, historical, cruel and utterly false choice of having to choose between being gay and being African.”

The Anglican Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha said that the Bill "would become state-legislated genocide.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said in a public interview that he did not see how any Anglican could support it: "Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can’t see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades. Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers."

The Vatican legal attaché to the United Nations stated that "Pope Benedict is opposed to 'unjust discrimination' against gay men and lesbians.”


ADDENDUM:

AS IN THE US, PAUL CAMERON IS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF THE HALF-TRUTH, HYPERBOLE AND LIES ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY AND HOMOSEXUALS UPON WHICH THE BILL IS BASED

Stephen Langa, the March 2009 workshop organiser, specifically cited an unlicensed converstion therapist named Richard A. Cohen who states in a book that was given to Langa and other prominent Ugandans,

“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; 40 percent of molestation assaults were made by those who engage in homosexuality.”

These statements were based on faulty studies performed by Paul Cameron who has been expelled from the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association. Cohen, himself, confirmed the weaknesses of these studies, stating that when the book will be reprinted, these statistics will be removed.


ADDENDUM: OUR SOURCES

Jeffrey Gettleman, writing for the New York Times, January 4, 2010, reported on “Americans’ Role in Uganda Anti-Gay Push.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04uganda.html

Erin Roach, posted on Baptist News, November 18, 2009, the news that “Exodus Opposes Uganda’s Proposed Anti-Gay Law.”

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=31715 

Baptist Press, December 13, 2009, announced that “Mega-Church Pastor Rick Warren Condemns Uganda Anti-Gay Bill.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/mega-church-pastor-rick-warren-condemns-uganda-anti-gay-bill

The editors of Wikipedia have assembled the best history of this bill and the world’s response:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill

YouTube carries the complete video of Rick Warren’s Open Letter to the Clergy of Uganda*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmGu9o4fDE
*We wish to express our thanks to the Rev. Rick Warren for taking this rather courageous step on behalf of the lesbian and gay people of Uganda. Pastor Warren did everything in his power to avoid meeting with our gay and lesbian parents and their families in 2009 during the Soulforce American Family Outing. We have tried on many occasions to help him understand the tragic consequences of his own teachings about homosexuality and homosexuals. And though we continue hoping that he will meet with a Soulforce delegation to hear the scientific, historic, psychological and personal evidence that homosexuality is one of God’s gifts, we pause in our pursuit just long enough to give him thanks for reaching out to save the lives of our lesbian sisters and gay brothers in Uganda. Thank you, Pastor Warren. We are grateful!

NPR November 24, 2009, radio broadcast TRANSCRIPT (by link) on the tie between The Family, an evangelical-fundamentalist group and Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

by Rev. Steve Parelli, Executive Director of Other Sheep, with thanks to attendees of the RMN 2009 Convocation who notified me of the broadcast.

In a radio broadcast entitled "The Secret Political Reach of 'The Family" as heard on NPR Fresh Air from WHYY on November 24, 2009, host Terry Gross interviewed Jeff Sharlet about The Family and its connection to the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

You can find the full transcript by clicking here.  The second half of the transcript addresses the Uganda-Family "kill-the-gays" connection in detail.

I'm not surprised that such a group exists and that they could make their way into certain susceptible evangelical minds.  I'm from the evangelical-fundamentalist faith tradition and have heard it said personally, in the late 1980s, from the mouth of an evangelical-fundamentalist pastor who was ordained within a good-standing, well recognized conservative Baptist denomination that "they [gays in the USA] should all be taken out and hung." And he was saying it blatantly to my face, on Sunday morning just prior to entering the pulpit to preach, knowing full well I was dealing with same-sex attractions. My presence discussed him.  His response was to literally wipe out all homosexuals.  Such unbarred evangelical hatred of homosexuals is likely to find a religious, Bible-quoting country like Uganda where it can be unleashed.

So much for the myth of exporting homosexuality as a Western idea (as if homosexuality in Africa never existed before colonialism came to Africa); instead, what we actually have is the exportation of Western evangelical-fundamentalist extremism that says "kill the gays."  I'm thinking my evangelical fellow-pastor who said "they should all be taken out and hung" would be very much at home in The Family, at least in The Family in Uganda where evangelial extremism is sanctioned by the government as true religion.

I am indebted to friends I made at the Reconciling Ministries Network Convocation in September, 2009, who notified me by email on December 1, 2009, that they had heard this broadcast and were bringing it to my attention.

Other Sheep is a sponsor of The American Prayer Hour

Bipartisan congressional resolution condemning anti-gay legislation

February 3, 2010

Ugandan Anti-Gay Legislation Threatens Human Rights, Reverses Gains in HIV/AIDS Fight, Berman Says

Washington, DC – Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution condemning anti-gay legislation now making its way through the parliament in Uganda

“The proposed Ugandan bill not only threatens human rights, it also reverses so many of the gains that Uganda has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This issue has united leaders of different political and religious views in Uganda and worldwide in one common belief in the rights of all human beings regardless of sexual orientation.”

More than three dozen members of Congress joined Berman in introducing the resolution (H. Res. 1064), including Committee Ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA); Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Chair Donald Payne (D-NJ); Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee (D-CA); and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.

Click here to read the text of the resolution.