Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama strongly criticized controversial anti-homosexuality legislation being considered by Uganda's legislature during an appearance Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast.
The organization which sponsors the breakfast, the Fellowship Foundation, has been associated with efforts to pass the bill, according to the ethics group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The measure would punish sexual activity between persons of the same sex with long jail terms or death.
It is "unconscionable to target gays or lesbians for who they are," Obama said.
The measure being considered in Uganda is "odious," he added.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also criticized the bill during an appearance at the breakfast.
On Friday, the White House issued a statement to the Advocate, condemning the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently being considered by the Ugandan parliament:
The President strongly opposes efforts, such as the draft law pending in Uganda, that would criminalize homosexuality and move against the tide of history.
As the Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld notes, this statement is the strongest yet issued by the Obama administration.
That's the kind of update we can believe in.
Keep up the pressure and great reporting, Rachel. What would we do without you?
You really need to go read the whole article, but Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, fills us in on yet another jaw-dropping way that C Street has affected lives (and deaths) in the worst possible way.
David Bahati, a member of the Ugandan Parliament and The Family, introduced a bill that would... well, let's let Jeff Sharlet explain:
SHARLET: Well, the new legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that’s aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be – I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex – in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you’re subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don’t report it, that could mean – you don’t report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.
And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it’s really kind of a perfect case study and the export of a lot of American largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.
The article has a lot more to it. But suffice it to say, these people must be stopped. Pushing their beliefs on to others, and to this extent, is criminal and sick. They give a whole new meaning to the word "cult".
The worst part is:
[T]he members of The Family, truly know what is best for the rest of us.
And just FYI:
Here is a list of current elected officials Sharlet mentioned in the interview:
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wy.
Sen. Chuck Grassley
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.
Sen. Bill Nelson, Fla.
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.
Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Penn.
Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D- Mich.
Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.
Other notable members:
Rep. Chuck Pickering, who had ongoing extramarital liaisons in his room at the cult house on C Street.
Chuck Colson, Watergate felon, who was released early from prison at the request of members of The Family
Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., whom Sharlet says provided classified documents to the cult
Sen. Absalom Willis Robertson, Virginia Dixiecrat and father of televangelist Pat Robertson
Democrat Bart Stupak... of the Stupak-Pitt Amendment to the health care bill that essentially does away with women's reproductive rights. Yes, that Stupak. Yes, that health care bill.
So much for what was left of Stupak's credibility, because if there is one thing C Street is not, it is healthy.
In late March 2008, as announced by Rick Warren's publicist A. Larry Ross, Uganda became the second official "Purpose Driven" nation on Earth, following Rwanda. Sometime during the year Uganda also gained the dubious distinction as a nation that distributes state-sanctioned anti-Jewish propaganda to school children. Up to one million copies of Manga Messiah, which features a basic mis-representation of Biblical scripture giving readers the impression that the Jewish Pharisees were in league with Beelzebub, will be distributed in Uganda with the apparent blessings of the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Uganda's First Lady Janet Museveni, who has participated in Rick and Kay Warren's HIV/AIDS conferences.
Following a March 2008 meeting with Janet Museveni, Rick Warren announced his plan to make Uganda the world's 2nd "Purpose Driven" nation and enthused, to an audience at Uganda's elite Makerere University, "The future of Christianity is not Europe or North America, but Africa, Asia and Latin America." Warren's declaration was followed up by Uganda's Archbishop, Henry Orombi, under whose aegis the Church of Uganda intends to distribute ten million anti-Jewish comic books; "Someday we will have a purpose driven continent!" [...]
According to Political Research Associates' senior analyst Chip Berlet, Manga Messiah is "[a] colorful comic training manual for motivating young leaders of the next pogrom against Jews. Not just offensive -- ghastly and horrific in content with a clear enemy scapegoat identified for venting apocalyptic religious bigotry."
Chip Berlet is not alone in his assessment that Manga Messiah betrays an ugly anti-Jewish slant. As a story by journalist Tom Baker, published June 28, 2008 in central California's Modesto Bee, quoted Japanese popular culture scholar Prof. Deborah Shamoon of Notre Dame University, "I think the representation of Jews is appalling."
Go here for much, much more, where you'll also be able to view the graphics more clearly.
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