Malawi has been criticised by international groups for the prosecution of Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, jailed in December for holding a wedding ceremony. The men were charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency and could be imprisoned for up to 14 years if found guilty. A 21-year-old man was recently sentenced to two months' community service for putting up pro-gay rights posters, and a senior minister expelled a woman from her town even after a court acquitted her on charges of having sex with two girls.
Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, based in South Africa, said the recent series of incidents was no accident but rather the work of US evangelical Christian groups. "It's very well calculated. It's exploding at the moment but it's been happening for a year and a half. We have proof of American evangelical churches driving the religious fundamentalism in Uganda."
Full report at THE GUARDIAN:
Thanks to Greg for sending this story into MadPriest Towers.
Is there nothing that occurs in Africa that is not ultimately blamed or claimed by colonialism or neo-colonialism? Just sayin'...
ReplyDeleteOh my God, the photo makes it so real - so sad. Yo, God, what are you up to down here? Being with us in the midst of this pain and suffering is just not enough anymore. It's just not enough. Nor is that nothing answer to Job. Are you asleep?
ReplyDelete"It's very well calculated" - ie more evil manipulation.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
The call is to us -- How do we bring Incarnation to the crowd that has turned their fear into a sport? How do we bring Incarnation to Steven and Tiwonge? IMHO, such things abrogate the niceties of provinces. Those within the AC, and others so led, need to be there. How do we do that if our leaders are tied to conventionality? I don't ask this rhetorically, but practically. Are there those "on the ground" standing up to this evil whom we can support in this struggle?
ReplyDeleteI think one of our weaknesses, KJ, is that, although most of us believe it with great passion and sincerity, we are too reticent (humble even) to say "Jesus said" in front of our moral statements. This has given the haters the opportunity to cast us as secularists.
ReplyDeleteWe're so stupid. Nobody can disprove the statement, "Jesus said love your neighbour" etc. Yet we are being beaten by idiots who think the world was made in 6 days, a statement that could be disproved by a 4 year old quicker than she could eat a bowl of Coco Pops.
The Lord walks with the despised and spat upon all the way to Resurrection.
ReplyDeleteRemember these 2 next time the segregationists and splitters whine about being persecuted.
I wasn't thinking about changing the hearts and minds of the crowd, Mad One. That's a "God thing." I wasn't even thinking of "Jesus said," though he most certainly did, but that would be the proverbial pearls before religious swine.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking more of how we (Those of us within the AC who give a shit about the oppressed.) stand in harms way for Steven and Tiwonge. Does the AC have no one "on the ground" for what we are to be about? If not, why not and how do we get it done? If provincial conventionalities bar that from happening, then they are an evil to be disregarded.