Faced with mounting criticism for refusing to come out against Uganda’s Kill The Gays bill, bigoted pastor Rick Warren finally released a video message denouncing the bill and insisting he had nothing to do with its creation. (Despite reports, natch.) But while the video appeased some American gays who remain lived over faith-based support for the bill, the video — specifically directed at Uganda’s pastors — has now angered those on the ground in the East African nation.
Can’t this dude get a break? The Christian Post reports:
A group of 20 denominational heads recently formed the Uganda National Pastors Task Force Against Homosexuality and demanded that Warren “biblically issue an apology for having wronged us.”
“Your letter has caused great distress and the pastors are demanding that you issue a formal apology for insulting the people of Africa by your very inapropriate (sic) bully use of your church and purpose driven pulpits to coerse us into the ‘evil’ of Sodomy and Gaymorrah (sic),” the pastors, which include Martin Ssempa, state in a letter emailed to Warren.
They also note, “As you yourself have said, ‘..the Bible says evil has to be opposed. Evil has to be stopped. The Bible does not say negotiate with evil. It says stop it. Stop evil’. (12/2007) Since homosexuality is evil, you cannot possibly be against a law that seeks to stop it unless you have misunderstood it.”
[…] Ugandan pastors state in their letter to Warren that the bill has been “greatly misrepresented by some homosexual activists causing hysteria.”
They stress that the proposed death penalty applies only in special cases termed “aggravated homosexuality,” which include those convicted of unlawful homosexual rape of a child or handicapped invalid.
Now we’re not sure how one issues an apology “biblically,” but we imagine it’s done while standing on one leg, balancing a Bible in your left hand and doing the Jersey Shore fist pump with your right.
WARREN’S VIDEO TO UGANDA’S PASTORS:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Josh NYC
Rick Warren insisted “homosexuality is evil” and you just can’t put the shit back in the horse.
Evangelicals and Catholics are enrolling the poor, uneducated people in Africa because in America we see their Christianity as fraud. We see Rick Warren as a fraud.
Christians have a bigoted belief system.
Cam
These Ugandan’s sure have the victim thing down don’t they? Every single time someoby tries to call them out on being monsters for wanting to slaughter their own citizens they cry foul and start boo hooing over being bullied by evil imperialists.
Bill
The United States and its evangelical ‘Christians’ are directly responsible for this bill.
ANd when the leader of the free world tells the rest of the world that it is OK to treat LGTB citizens unjustly via the law, how can we act all surprised when a place like Uganda puts their own barbaric spin on THEIR anti-gay laws.
This Kill-The-Gays bill lands squarely in the lap of the United States, I’m afraid. If this country did not treat LGTB citizens the way we do, if LGBT citizens were treated equally under the law, we would see the rest of the world follow suit.
No one is blameless here. Heterosexuals, religious and otherwise, who have stirred up this anti-gay fervor throughout the world, each and every one of you have lent a hand in this legislation.
And you have the blood of innocent people’s lives on your hands.
And most of you could give a shit.
Morality indeed.
Mark
JoshNYC,
Are you kidding? Plenty of Americans agree with the Ugandans and would be more than happy to commit some kind of atrocity against gays. Hello! These Ugandan Evangelicals didn’t have power until they were mentored by American Evangelicals like Warren.
Also, this kind of crap isn’t limited to Africa. Take a gander to the homophobia in Russia and Eastern Europe that so-called Christians and others are pushing socially and politically.
schlukitz
Boo hoo. Poor Uganda.
They been insulted and bullied by Prick Warren.
Killing queers for Christ doesn’t count as insult or bullying, however, according to these sick bastards.
How fucking deluded can a nation of people get? They place the blame on others, but why did they allow the Christians in the door in the first place?
Obviously, they are incapable of logically thinking things our for themselves.
terrwill
No. 5 · schlukitz: Nice! I am adopting the moniker
“Prick Warren” for that I will give you Scarah Pallin
and Ann Cuntler : P
Basically Prick Warren was outed for what he thought would
be covert working with the homophobic savages in uganda.
He and the rest of the smilin’ scumbags who worked on
this legislation as a dry run for their ultimate freaking
wet dream of having similar legislation in the US got found
out and are scurring like cockaroaches when someone turns
the light on……
edgyguy1426
@ No. 3 Nicely put, Bill.
Magnus67
Rick Warren is now seeing the results of speaking out of both sides of his overstuffed mouth: he’s managed to piss off US conservative Evangelicals and moderates, (Yeah, nice work Warren!) and now the Ugandan Christian “wanna-be-killing-Queers-for-Jesus” camp is also LIVID (or as Qweerty spells it, LIVED) and demanding he take their side.
All the veneer of sermons, baptisms and Bible verses is just a cover to make it seem ordained by God to be violent to gays/ women/people with deformities and diseases. We’ve taught the Africans too well.
romeo
Call me when he recognizes our right to exist.
Rick Warren’s fame is predicated on a book of warmed over self-help cliches culled from other writers, most of whom were as lame as he is. But the book was put together in such a way as to appeal to many straight men, not all of whom were that religious or that intellectual, and the book made Warren very rich. Many of the people impressed with Warren are very influential. Those people need to take a look at the way Warren walked straight into this clueless as to the obvious consequences. And this is going to get messier, and uglier for Warren and his agenda. How sharp could the guy be?
Not to mention, look at how out of shape he is. This guy is
supposed to be America’s life counselor?
Josh NYC
Only “Christian” Americans hate gays.
tavdy79
“Can’t this dude get a break?”
Rick Warren has spent the last few decades setting himself up as the Evangelical equivalent of the Pope – he’s the only high-profile member of the US Religulous Reich who has any kind of respect from European evangelicals, mainly because he made sure his message was palatable – James Dobson is a laughing stock here, even amongst the wingnuts, but Rick Warren has huge respect. You can’t set yourself up in that kind of a position without expecting some pretty heavy flak.
Bill
Another point that no one is making is that the men who drafted this bill are saying that one aspect of this legislation is to prevent the spread of HIV.
Yet some very simple research in this area uncovers that fact that gays accounted for LESS THAN 1% OF HIV CASES IN UGANDA last year. In fact, heterosexual sex accounts for 80% of HIV cases in ALL of Africa and indeed, worldwide.
So, Uganda suggests that criminalizing the population that is by and large NOT responsible for spreading this disease in Uganda will fix the HIV epidemic there??? Really???
Could this be, perhaps, the kind of thinking that keeps Ugandans living in poverty, disease, and ignorance? And dropping like flies from AIDS???
Or perhaps they have simply not yet released their Anti-HETEROSEXUALITY Bill of 2010???
On a side note, I was in South Africa in March. While I was there, the pope was also there doing a ‘tour.’ And he was there to tell South Africans that condoms do not help prevent HIV. And to tell them that condoms were against God. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen him say it right in front of me with my very own eyes and ears.
And it was in that very moment that the oppression of religion was lifted from me. I saw religion and its subscribers for what they spiritually are – bereft of humanity. And I am far too much of a gentleman to put into words what these ‘people of god’ TRULY are, but clearly they are not to be trusted or believed for one minute. The pope cost untold numbers of Africans their lives that day. So that ‘the faithful’ would continue to drop their hard earned money into a collection plate so that the pope can continue to build his city of solid gold in Rome.
What else can I say? If there IS a god, if there IS a heaven and a hell, surely the pope is destined for a first-class ticket to hell. His followers? Well, they will have to travel coach, as the pope has taken all of their money in exchange for his 1st class ticket.
David
“Only “Christian” Americans hate gays.”
No. There are plenty of atheists who hate gays, who deliberately assert and defend anti-gay theology, endangering the lives of millions of people. Gay blogs have been criticizing professional ex-gays like Warren, but, because of the universality of the internet, every atheist who insists ‘The Bible condemns homosexuals’ is also deliberately complicit in nurturing anti-gay prejudice.
There are people from most faiths who are homophobic, because religion is just the excuse, the veneer of pseudo-respectability that bigots use to make their hate palatable to others.
Paul W
Uganda is a calculated experiment promulgated by a burgeoning Christian Insurgency founded by C. Peter Wagner. Pls read and learn. They’re using Uganda as a stepping-stone to toppling the US. This is a growing insurrection that is now trying to incite lone wolves to violence but may employ more direct measures to silence opposition.
Please read this. http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/12/20/224021/61/Front_Page/A_Lou_Engle_TheCall_anti_gay_rally_for_Uganda_in_2010_
David
“Yet some very simple research in this area uncovers that fact that gays accounted for LESS THAN 1% OF HIV CASES IN UGANDA last year. In fact, heterosexual sex accounts for 80% of HIV cases in ALL of Africa and indeed, worldwide.”
Not only that, HIV/AIDS had been in the population in Africa for several decades, completely ignored. Until gay white men began dying from it, and fighting our asses off demanding research and treatment and hospice – no one gave a damn when it was only killing dark skinned people in Africa.
“And it was in that very moment that the oppression of religion was lifted from me. I saw religion and its subscribers for what they spiritually are – bereft of humanity.”
You are a bigot and a hypocrite. Just like homophobes, you judge and condemn, and then revile, millions and millions of people based on the acts of some. Homophobes claim that homosexuals are not human, you say the same about people of faith.
Your hate speech above makes you the exact equal of any homophobe in Uganda.
terrwill
If one need to see what a farce organized religion is and that it is only designed to enrich the few and powerfull simply look at the message of contraception: According to church teaching it is a better outcome for persons to die of AIDS than to go “against” church dogma and use contraception…………
Bill
OK then, David.
I am a bigot and hypocrite towards those who wish to murder me.
Call me when the shuttle lands, moron.
As gay as ever!
OMG! Why are people so stupid, why do you want to kill anyway, isn’t that one of the ten commandments, how come they even thought of killing when they are so religious. Hate is a very powerful thing, they should be teaching people to just love they neighbours…. I ran over a bird the other day and I am totally feeling guilty of killing a living thing and I am not religious I just have a heart.
Josh NYC
David said: “There are people from most faiths who are homophobic, because religion is just the excuse, the veneer of pseudo-respectability that bigots use to make their hate palatable to others.”
Ahhhh, earth to David. It is a Christian teaching and a Christian belief that “homosexuality is wrong.” That’s what THEY believe and they do so because they think “God told them so.” So, it’s not an “excuse.” It is a belief. Calling it an excuse is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.
Say more, it’s amusing.
bernard pollack
Just as an FYI, we are going lots of blogging and video from Uganda at our website called Border Jumpers: http://www.borderjumpers.org
All our best, Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg
B
“Now we’re not sure how one issues an apology ‘biblically,’ but we imagine it’s done while standing on one leg, balancing a Bible in your left hand and doing the Jersey Shore fist pump with your right.” — Queerty is showing a lack of imagination.
How to apologize Biblically: “I apologize threefold. Thee shall be the number of my apologies, not one, and not two unless I proceedeth on to three. Three shall be the number of my apologies as five is an abomination unto the Lord, four is a step onto five, and any number beyond five cannot be reached unless thou proceedeth first to five.” (With apologies to the writers of _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, where they consulted the “Book of Armaments” before lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch in the general direction of the killer rabbit.)
On a more serious note, regarding Josh NYC’s comment: “Ahhhh, earth to David. It is a Christian teaching and a Christian belief that ‘homosexuality is wrong.'” …. some Christians believe that and some don’t, but it is also a belief held by some Muslims, some Jews, some atheists, and maybe even a Wiccan or two, and do feel free to add to the list – it’s not worth the effort to enumerate all the world’s religions.
B
In No. 15, David wrote, “Not only that, HIV/AIDS had been in the population in Africa for several decades, completely ignored. Until gay white men began dying from it, and fighting our asses off demanding research and treatment and hospice – no one gave a damn when it was only killing dark skinned people in Africa.”
Let me suggest a different reason – African witchdoctors don’t report statistical information to an African equivalent of the CDC. With AIDS shutting down the immune system, people would in general be diagnosed as having something else. So nobody knew.
http://www.avert.org/origin-aids-hiv.htm describes how HIV originated and http://www.avert.org/aids-history-86.htm has some of the history. One thing (not really mentioned) that made a big difference was the gay-rights movement: with it becoming much more acceptable to be gay than 20 years earlier, particularly in LA/SF/NY, it was much easier to determine that a disease was primarily spreading among gay men as a doctor could easily get reliable information about patient’s sexual orientation.
MCH
I came out in 1985 and I am thoroughly disgusted, now at age 40, by all the hate I see religious people pushing on others in the name of their religious beliefs. Fanatical people are extremely dangerous, and there is nothing necessarily wrong with just being a normal person who happens to be religious or spiritual, but what I have a problem with is using your personal religious views, whatever those are, to justify hatred, intolerance, bigotry and mistreatment of other people. When I see what some Congressmen say or think about gay people I’m stunned and shocked and feel incredibly betrayed. I don’t know what to say, other than we have to remain visible and active and keep pushing for our rights to be treated equally and we will eventually get there. It’s an outrage and it’s high time that LGBT individuals were treated with respect and dignity. We deserve it!
John from England(used to be just John but there are other John's)
B and David..
Show the proof were it says in the Athiest bible that Jews are evil like it says that stupid book that has spent decades killing people and causing harm.
Come on. Show us links.
Also show US the links of Atheist’s who have proposed the murder and killing of gays within the past centuries.
I double dare you.
Like Bill said which made me lol, “call me when the shuttle lands”.
Brilliant.
1EqualityUSA
Post #18 is utterly charming.
Josh NYC
To believe fairy tales, requires mental illness.
1EqualityUSA
Prick Warren is a conflicted soul. Proof? Scroll up and check out the insincereuneveneyebrowaction.
[email protected]
why be selective with any of these holy haters?
they are all buybull toting liars who dare to even lie on god!
shame!!!
alicia banks
eloquent fury
B
No. 24 · John from England tried to put words in people’s mouths by writing, “B and David..Show the proof were it says in the Athiest bible that Jews are evil like it says that stupid book that has spent decades killing people and causing harm.”
John, show where I ever suggested that some alleged “Atheist bible” claimed that “Jews are evil”. What I said is that some Jews, some atheists, some Christians, etc. are homophobic, which is true – homophobia occurs in a fraction of the population regardless of religion (including the lack of one) or ethnicity.
Why are you people so intellectually dishonest? It is really bad form to go around trying to put words in people’s mouths, not to mention it being a waste of everyone’s time. Grow up and try to act like an adult.
Mark_Your_Words
Christianity can only survive in dumb places. Thank God America is getting smarter.
Mark_Your_Words
@ B: You say some very stupid and frankly, very tiring things. You said there are some religions that do NOT make homosexuality wrong. Really, which ones?
Mormons make homosexuality wrong.
Baptists make homosexuality wrong.
Catholics make homosexuality wrong.
Lutherans make homosexuality wrong.
Episcopalians make homosexuality wrong.
Methodists make homosexuality wrong.
Muslims make homosexuality wrong.
Protestants make homosexuality wrong.
Seventh Day Adventists make homosexuality wrong.
Christian Scientists make homosexuality wrong.
I could go on… but the fact is 98% of the worlds religions make homosexuality wrong. So, shut up. Religion is our problem.
1EqualityUSA
Dear Mark_Your_Words, B has contributed some of the most factual, thoughtful posts on this site. His posts are some of the ones I look forward to when they pop up. If you disagree with them, then do so, but to start off by saying really negative things is not only slamming the door, but attacking the mind behind the words. He’s not the enemy.
Oh-Oh-Watnow
Plenty of atheists are famous for their gay bigotry – Nazis and Communists and everything inbetween actively hunted and murdered gays. Bigotry, hate and murder is a human thing. Stop killing people, stop judging and pointing the finger at everyone else. Christ forgave the prostitute when everyone else wanted to kill her, who will throw the first stone? – religious people killed Christ and they still havent learnt a thing.
Andrew
At the risk of sounding, um, less than respectful: Fuck the Ugandan anti-gay pastors.
B
No. 32 – just wanted to thank 1EqualityUSA for support.
Regarding No 31, where some guy (I suspect someone is using multiple identities because of the use of unusual stock phrases) is obviously in denial, I’ll refer people to http://christiangays.com/links/christian_other.shtml – nobody is claiming that some religious sects are not a problem, but it is simply not universal.
Jacob Mutabazi
Yes again religion wants to enter bedroms of people. When religions leave Africa then and only then will human ethichs and empathy return to the lost tribes of Africa. From Islam to new age nothing good has happened to mother Africa. Shame you religious monsters