Ugandan Bishop Pops Off—on Christmas!

There is no end to Gay bashing in Africa, but now an Anglican bishop has sunk to a new low: using his Christmas sermon as the occasion.

The New Vision, “Uganda’s Leading Website,” reports this:

THE Government should not yield to pressure and legalise homosexuality and lesbianism, the Bishop of Bukedi Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Nicodemus Okille, has appealed.

The bishop, who was delivering his Christmas sermon at St. Peter’s Church of Uganda Tororo on Tuesday, said the acts violate both the biblical teachings on marriage and African culture.

Okille criticised the advocates of gay rights, saying they had no place in the Kingdom of God.

Some Bible preaching, huh?

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “God hates fags. Gay sex is unafrican. Give lots of money to the Anglican Church.”

Using Christmas Day to deliver this hateful sermon is beneath the Christian religion—but it helps fill Archbishop Henry Orombi’s coffers.

Nigerian Witchhunts: Pentecostal Violence against Children

As if there weren’t enough to be depressed about, the British newspaper The Guardian reports about the scapegoating of children in Nigeria:

Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities.

Do read the article; yes, it’s depressing, but it’s an invaluable firsthand account for anyone who wants to understand Africa, its churches and worldwide fundamentalism. Here is the Pentecostal church at work—taught Biblical literalism by American and Scottish missionaries, the article claims—not the Anglican Church of Nigeria, which prefers to scapegoat Gay, Lesbian and Trans people instead. Archbishop Peter Akinola doesn’t advocate gouging Gay eyes out or throwing acid in their faces (although Davis Mac-Iyalla’s been threatened with the latter), he wants to jail Gay people for 14 years instead.

With all that is screwed up about Nigeria, you’d think Akinola would speak out against the abuse of children. But you’d be wrong. Since Anglicanism has to compete with Pentecostalism (and by many reports, is losing that competition), you’d think he’d compare and contrast these two versions of “Christianity.” But again you’d be wrong.

Beware the next time you hear some right-wing American Christian tell you to support missionary work. Chances are, the missionaries are just teaching Pentecostal-style hucksterism: how to get rich by stealing and committing violence in the name of God.

Lord, have mercy. Defenseless children!++

Kolini Tries Bait & Switch in Rwanda: “No Mingling” with Gays

Here’s the news from The New Times in Kigali, as aggregated by AllAfrica.com:

Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini has called on churches in the East African region to fight against homosexuality for the good of the society.

The leader of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda insisted that Anglican churches in East Africa will not mingle with the homosexuals in the affairs of the church for the good of the community.

“We are reformed Anglicans who want to adhere to the original creeds of the Bible, and that’s why our church has decided to ignore the 2008 Lambeth Conference because it has not done much to fight homosexuality in the communion,” he said on Sunday.

Other than being another blanket condemnation of Gay people to advance his position in domestic and Church politics, it’s hard to interpret Kolini’s exact meaning. If he actually did say the words “the original creeds of the Bible,” it’s an incoherent statement; the Bible doesn’t contain any creeds.

The “no mingling” bit is equally confusing. Remember, English is not the native language of Archbishop Kolini or the news reporter, Grace Mugabe. The meaning and use of words changes from place to place. If you thought Biblical interpretation was difficult, try parsing the English spoken in Africa.

Suffice it for now that Kolini has felt the need to demonize Gay people, so ignore the plausible distraction and keep your eye on what he’s really up to. You can bet it’s really about politics.++

Nigeria & Shariah: Cool Out

There’s an interesting report today about Nigeria in The New York Times. It debunks the notion, constantly repeated by Anglican schismatics, that Archbishop Peter Akinola has to promote draconian anti-Gay laws to compete with the Muslims.

Shariah hasn’t worked out too well. One guy got his hand amputated for stealing a cow, but otherwise, the politicians turned out to be politicians.

The shift reflects the fact that religious law did not transform society. Indeed, some of the most ardent Shariah-promoting politicians now find themselves under investigation for embezzling millions of dollars. Many early proponents of Shariah feel duped by politicians who rode its popular wave but failed to live by its tenets, enriching themselves and neglecting to improve the lives of ordinary people.

For the past two years, U.S. Episcopalians have been treated to the amazing spectacle of White Southerners trying to place themselves under the jurisdiction of Black African archbishops, in a bid to segregate Gay people. Schism is now a cottage industry, complete with coffee mugs, T-shirts and cheap mousepads, as well as multi-million-dollar lawsuits.

The frenzy has even reached usually-placid Canada, where last week a retired bishop defected to Chile and became a Southern Conehead.

Loyal Episcopalians have tried pointing out to the dearly departed that they’re hitching their buggies to horses they don’t know; that the cure is worse than the disease. But the fever continues unabated.

In 2006 Akinola tried to get a law passed in Nigeria that would make it illegal for LGBT people to go to a meeting, visit a website or have lunch together. His proposed penalty: 14 years in prison.

It was so ridiculous that even George Bush’s State Department protested.

When Episcopalians publicized this outrageous proposal, the newbie “Anglicans” replied that Akinola’s program was much more humane than the Islamic fundamentalists to the north, with whom he was said to compete for hearts and minds, because under Shariah the punishment for Gay sex is death.

But Shariah doesn’t criminalize lunch, and any government that wants to outlaw “sodomy” soon finds the Gross Domestic Product plumeting to zero. There’s too much sex going on to possibly root it all out. You’d have to deputize half the population, and even then most people will look the other way.

So now the “Anglicans” are stuck. They’ve hitched their wagons to an archbishop who’s an international joke. Akinola tried to prohibit freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and freedom of thought. They knew exactly what they were getting into, and they went with him anyway.

Their plunge over the cliff will be long and hard, so look away and don’t watch.

Meanwhile it’s interesting that the four U.S. dioceses considering secession (out of 110) have suddenly taken up with the Chilean Coneheads, not Akinola. His sun has set.

Still, it’s a long way from Falls Church to Buenos Aires, and the archbishop there is fruitcake. Sooner or later the Virginians will run out of places to hide. Not secession nor nullification nor segregation are sufficient to keep them safe from Gay people on their knees.++