Freethought Kampala fights homophobia and unreason in Uganda

[BurtWorm]

The Buturo in question is the bastidge responsible for the vile anti-gay law that shocked (a little) even the homophobic evangelists in America who actively worked to lay the ground for it.


(h/t: PZ Myers)

http://freethoughtkampala.wordpress.com/

An Oldie but Goodie – a response to Nsaba Buturo

October 19, 2010 in Ugandan Media | by James Onen | Leave a comment

<Just so we’re clear - the phrase ‘oldie but goodie’ in the title of this post doesn’t refer to the Minister of Ethics and Integrity – rather, it refers to my response that was published in June 2009. Thanks!>

One of my first public excursions into freethought advocacy was in form of a response to an article written by the Minister of Ethics and Integrity, James Nsaba Buturo, on June 1st 2009 called “Anti-God secularists want to dictate national agenda”.

In his typical fashion, rather than take the time to investigate and find out what is really the cause of the problems Uganda is facing, he attacks one of his favourite scapegoats – secularists.

He wrote…

Battles are being fought in the theatres of the media, schools, churches and in the minds of Ugandans. Forces of secularism and extreme liberalism are pitted against those which are advocating for a morally upright and spiritually-inclined Uganda. There are many Ugandans who believe that in this war, secular forces are having an edge over their opponents.

…he continued…

Secularists have reasoned, therefore, that if they can succeed in weaning Ugandans of God, they will have succeeded in exposing and rendering them vulnerable to dangerous, abnormal, illegal and unnatural practices such as homosexuality.

He concludes..

Our preferred choice must be to ensure that Uganda is rejuvenated and transformed and that our leaders put God first in their national duties.

Ugandans must be wary of anti-God secularists and extreme liberalists who seek to dictate the national agenda. The objective of all citizens of goodwill must be to decapitate Uganda of the tag of moral degeneration.

My response to Buturo’s article appeared in the New Vision on the 4th June (three days later) under the banner “letter of the day” (in the print version).

Below is an excerpt:

Any study on global life expectancy, standard of living, literacy, respect for human rights, education and crime rates shows that the most secular countries of the world today (e.g. Sweden, Norway, Japan, UK) far outperform their more ‘religious’ counterparts like the USA and Africa. Also, when looking at the most corrupt countries in the world, the list is filled with countries that are unwaveringly religious. The same goes for HIV prevalence and teenage pregnancy.


The most religious countries tend to be performing poorly in these areas compared to secularised countries. By looking at these and other global case studies and statistics, it is clear that irreligion, or secularism, of a country does not lead to societal breakdown as Buturo seems to imply. He has not succeeded in proving that correlation and therefore his argument fails.

Evidently, societies that don’t put ‘God’ first are thriving without a problem.

All this is from over a year ago, but since there was no mention of it on this blog (because by then this blog did not exist), I thought it might be worthwhile to bring it up for the benefit of those that might have missed the exchange.

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[BurtWorm]

2. Not quite the reception I was anticipating.

:wtf:

[Hannah Bell]

3. Rick Warren

The legislation was drawn up following a visit by leaders of U.S. conservative Christian ministries that promote therapy they say allows gays to become heterosexual.

"Before the introduction of the bill in parliament most people did not mind about our activities. But since then, we are harassed by many people who hate homosexuality," said Patrick Ndede, 27. "The publicity the bill got made many people come to know about us and they started mistreating us."

(wa po)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101903438.html

Who is supporting and promoting this legislation? Well, one of the proponents is a minister named Pastor Martin Ssempa. He was a familiar face to American conservative Evangelicals, because Mr. Ssempa has been a frequent guest of Pastor Rick Warren at One Saddleback Church in California.

n a list of key points, Warren denies any association with the Uganda bill, or its supporters and authors. But Talk2Action political researcher Bruce Wilson doesn’t believe Warren’s claims.

Wilson has been researching the NAR for years. On December 10, he published a devastating dissection of Warren’s statement. Among other things, Wilson says: "Warren’s statement … contains several blatant lies. In one, he claims that C. Peter Wagner wasn’t his key advisor for Warren’s 1993 doctoral dissertation. But the abstract of Warren’s 350-plus page tome lists one academic figure, C. Peter Wagner, as Warren’s ‘mentor’ for the dissertation." It’s an important point because Wagner is known to be the chief organizer and instigator of the NAR.

Wilson points out other lies as well. For instance, Warren insists that he doesn’t know any members of the Uganda parliament. But in the course of his church activism in Uganda, Warren has worked with the wife of President Museveni, who is an MP.

But Rick Warren’s African ties are not a new subject for Wilson. In January 2009, he did a Huffington Post piece on growing UN Security Council concerns over Warren’s religious affiliations with African leaders who have been accused of war crimes.

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/it_took_a_while_but.php

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/