UN CALLS ON UGANDA TO Drop The Anti-Gay Law
Kill the Gays Bill of Uganda supported tacitly by some UltraConservative Evangelical Fundamentalist
In the process of introducing powerful men to Jesus, the Family has managed to effect a number of behind-the-scenes acts of diplomacy. In 1978 it secretly helped the Carter Administration organize a worldwide call to prayer with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and more recently, in 2001, it brought together the warring leaders of Congo and Rwanda for a clandestine meeting, leading to the two sides' eventual peace accord last July.
Such benign acts appear to be the exception to the rule. During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand “Communists” killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise. “We work with power where we can,” the Family's leader, Doug Coe, says, “build new power where we can't.”
From Jeff Sharlet article in Harper,2003 Jesus plus nothing:Undercover among America's secret theocrats By Jeff Sharlet Harper's 2003
So let's begin with Evangelicals & Ultraconservatives spreading their hate of Gays/ Homosexuals- LGBT Community- Would they really be adverse to the Death Penalty for all Homosexuals or just limiting all their rights not just the right to marry.They use the Gay Marriage issue as a rallying of a wider base so once it is accomplished they move onto more radical public policies and legislation to rein in the rights of all individuals who are Gay. We also see that through the efforts of Ron Luce at BattleCry! and Engles at "The Call" & International House of Prayer (IHOP)etc. these evangelicals are doing just what they accuse liberals and Gay of and that is propagandizing to the young from ages 5 to 25 to get them softened up to accept a more radical view of America as in need of revival and saving and turning America into a Christian Evangelical Fundamentalist' State.
Excerpts from the upcoming nonfiction film SILHOUETTE CITY - an investigation of apocalyptic Christian nationalism.
In a recent interview on Feb. 4, 2010 Doug Coe spoke to Warren Throckmorton on the subject of Uganda's law and confirms Fellowship Foundation opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Feb 4th, 2010
But is this just PR for surely he and his group are fearful of going public if they were in favor of such a law especially as it has become an international news item and a concern of the United Nations. His criticism of the law has another element and that is by being against the Death Penalty or 14 years in prison Doug Coe for some appears not so radical after all. This is an old political move so if Doug Coe is just against giving certain rights to Gays he appears to be somewhat more reasonable. But we can not take his word for it as everything he does in public is part of his on-going agenda of cultivating the Elite of the rich and powerful and the well connected to be true Christian leaders of a Warrior Pro-prosperity Pro-Free Market Capitalist War Mongering Jesus.
Doug Coe & The Family have survived so long among the powerful in Washington by knowing how to play the game. So when its time to boldly go forward that's what is done but sometimes one needs to back-peddle and recover your ground and wait and be patient. Doug Coe has never apologized for the various Genocidal atrocities committed by various members of the Family over the past 75 years or so. If one reads Jeff Sharlet's book on the group we come to understand that deception, prevaricating and lying at times maybe necessary that is lying to the general masses but not to another member of the Family.They believe the masses are not capable of governing themselves and they the masses are lesser beings than the faithful members of The Family. And whatever a member of the Family does is really beyond reproach though if something they have done becomes public they need to go through the normal routes as other politicians or powerful individuals that is do what is necessary to look as if these rules actually matter .
also see: ***below Jesus plus nothing:Undercover among America's secret theocrats By Jeff Sharlet Harper's 2003
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We should remember that the Evangelical Christian Fundamentalists and their UltraConservative counterparts view Gay Rights and Homosexuality as but one part in their view of what is wrong with America. They believe whether its Pat Robertson or Ron Luce or even Rick Warren or Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich,Bill o'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh or Michelle Bachmann or Ann Coulter that there is an ongoing "liberal" or "Secular Humanists" conspiracy to radically change America and to somehow or other make these Christians and conservatives into second-class citizens. They believe America went astray at the least beginning with FDRs New Deal followed by the banning of Lynchings and then desegregation and decriminalizing Homosexuality and adultery and premarital sex and on the way more rights to women, Blacks, Hispanics and that they were told that American citizens have a duty to respect the rights of others not just white heterosexual male conservatives. So these Religious and secular Conservatives have a long laundry list of grievances which they fear will not be addressed by the politicians who are either beyond salvation or who are not committed to the Cause and those who will fight against their cause. So first decades ago they searched for issues which would rally their supporters ( As Frank Schaeffer has pointed out) such as abortion , Gay Rights, a Liberal secular humanist' School system which extends from pre-school to university post-graduate work.
Martin Sempra & Rick Warren - Genocide of Gays in Uganda is barely mentioned by US politicians the US media even though an American organization "The Family" and other Christian Evangelicals and those who make their living by claiming that they can "cure homosexuals" are linked to the law in Uganda- there are over one half million gays in Uganda -the calling for the death of 500,000 Ugandans is a big deal and should be seen as a Crime against Humanity.
US administrations over the years have imposed sanctions on foreign nations so why doesn't the Obama administration send letters of protest to the Ugandan government and threaten to cut off any aid to the country and toss their diplomats out of the United States. Canada , Britain and other countries could take similar actions against Uganda and show that they actually care about human rights. But I guess its difficult when all three countries think the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements on human rights are "outdated" or "quaint" as Condoleeza Rice has said. And we know there is little difference between the Neo-Conservatives and the current crop of Neo-Liberals who favor abuse and torture of POWs or "detainees" & who favor "indefinite detention" ( indefinite incarceration) and imprison children since they do not recognize the UN designation of "Child Soldiers" or the mentally ill spying unnecessarily on large numbers of their own citizens .
The United States and Great Britain both committed a Crime against humanity by invading & occupying Iraq so Uganda killing a few thousand gays doesn't mean much to those who rule these three countries-unless there's something I missed.
Is 'The Family' Behind Anti-Gay Bill That Includes Execution?
The Young Turks Dec. 1, 2009
"The Family" & Anti-Gay Death Penalty in Uganda - Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow & Jeff Sharlet discuss shadowy U.S. "The Family" connections to new Death penalty Anti-Gay legislation in Uganda. From MSNBC & msnbc.com Dec. 1, 2010
Rachel Maddow takes down gay-to-straight conversion seminarist Richard Cohen (pt 1/2)
Rachel factually destroys Richard Cohen whose book was an inspiration to Ugandan officials yet he has dubious credentials as a therapist & whose teachings have essentially been debunked by essentially all national (and even state) psychological associations and associated peer-reviewed assessments. He is not licensed as a psychotherapist. He has been forced out of various professional associations
Rachel Maddow takes down gay-to-straight conversion seminarist Richard Cohen (pt 2/2)
Ya gotta love Rachel's expression at 6:43 !!
Some so called "liberals" are either fooling themselves or are insincere in their concerns about Gay rights or even Human Rights in general when they applaud Obama's oblique reference to Uganda as a coup for Gay Rights. The thing of it is that Obama did not refer to the country by name or being more specific about the anti-Gay law and how this law is in great part a made in USA law.Nor does he mentions Doug Coe & "The Family's connections to this made in America Law. Without the interference of "The Family" and other conservative Evangelicals the quacks snake-oil salesmen who claim to cure Gays from being gay this law in all probability would not have been put together let alone pass into law.
These America evangelicals went to Uganda and gave them the whole wing-nuttery conspiracy theory of the "Gay Agenda" in which gays are depicted as a negative or evil force at work in society and that Gays are actively recruiting Ugandan children to the Gay lifestyle. The Gay agenda as depicted by Conservatives and the Religious Right is a fantasy invented to "fear monger" against giving or allowing Gays the same freedoms as all other members of society. Obama's Evangelical friend Rick Warren has praised Uganda as a "Purpose Driven Nation" with I guess Jesus on its side.
The other oddity or is it irony in all of this is that the same evangelicals in America who refuse to condemn the Ugandan Kill the Gays law is that when they are criticizing Sharia Islamic Law in their writings , preachings and interviews in the media they will use the example of how Sharia law is anti-Gay and anti-feminists anti-multiculturalism and anti-secular .
They will point these facts out to get more moderate conservatives and liberals on board with their hatred of Islam. Yet much of the changes that the Islamists extremists want to bring about are not much different from the changes Evangelical Christian Fundamentalists are in favor of. And as the Islamist according to these Christians and Islamophobes such as Robert Spencer ,Daniel Pipes, Pam Gellar , Michelle Bachmann,& their counterparts in Europe would make Christians and Jews in their societies into second class citizens so the Evangelicals want to make all non-Christians second class citizens in the countries they control or have them all deported or worse.
UN human rights chief calls on Uganda to shelve anti-gay bill By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 15, 2010
The United Nations called on Uganda to scrap a bill which could execute and imprison gay people.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said today that the proposed legislation was "draconian" and "blatantly discriminatory".
Pillay reminded Uganda of its human rights obligations and said the bill would "seriously damage the country’s reputation in the international arena".
She said: "It is extraordinary to find legislation like this being proposed more than 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – as well as many subsequent international laws and standards – made it clear this type of discrimination is unacceptable
Endnote:
from: ***below Jesus plus nothing:Undercover among America's secret theocrats By Jeff Sharlet Harper's 2003
...a group of believers who refer to themselves as “the Family.” The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.
The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.” 11. The Los Angeles Times reported in September that the Fellowship Foundation alone has an annual budget of $10 million, but that represents only a fraction of the Family's finances. Each of the Family's organizations raises funds independently. Ivanwald, for example, is financed at least in part by an entity called the Wilberforce Foundation. Other projects are financed by individual “friends”: wealthy businessmen, foreign governments, church congregations, or mainstream foundations that may be unaware of the scope of the Family's activities. At Ivanwald, when I asked to what organization a donation check might be made, I was told there was none; money was raised on a “man-to-man” basis. Major Family donors named by the Times include Michael Timmis, a Detroit lawyer and Republican fund-raiser; Paul Temple, a private investor from Maryland; and Jerome A. Lewis, former CEO of the Petro-Lewis Corporation. The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast, which it established in 1953 and which, with congressional sponsorship, it continues to organize every February in Washington, D.C. Each year 3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations, pay $425 each to attend. Steadfastly ecumenical, too bland most years to merit much press, the breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can “meet Jesus man to man.”
In the process of introducing powerful men to Jesus, the Family has managed to effect a number of behind-the-scenes acts of diplomacy. In 1978 it secretly helped the Carter Administration organize a worldwide call to prayer with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and more recently, in 2001, it brought together the warring leaders of Congo and Rwanda for a clandestine meeting, leading to the two sides' eventual peace accord last July. Such benign acts appear to be the exception to the rule. During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand “Communists” killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise. “We work with power where we can,” the Family's leader, Doug Coe, says, “build new power where we can't.”
and so it goes,
GORD.
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