Portland Mercury on Twitter Portland Mercury on Facebook Portland Mercury on Instagram

This Week in the Mercury

Up & Coming

Music

Up & Coming

This Week's Music Previews


Prime Directive Achieved!

Film

Prime Directive Achieved!

Finally, an American reviews Star Trek into Darkness!



  |  

Monday, January 4, 2010

Religion / Homo No One Could've Predicted

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 10:01 AM

So... a group of American evangelicals travel to Uganda to tell Ugandans—poor, devout, tribal Ugandans—that gays and lesbians have a "hidden and dark agenda," an agenda that includes turning straight men gay, raping and sodomizing children, and destroying the family. And then legislators in Uganda turn around and propose a new law that calls for the imprisonment and execution of gays and lesbians before we can carry out our hidden agenda for Uganda. Now these American Christians—if I may use that term—are claiming that they never intended to, like, get anyone killed or anything.

The three Americans who spoke at the conference—Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality”—are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

“I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality. “That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

No one could've predicted that whipping up anti-gay hysteria would have potentially deadly consequences. It's not like Uganda has a history of genocidal violence, right?

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this thread:
By Email
With RSS

Comments are closed.

Our Friends

Our Enemies

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use | Takedown Policy