Uganda and the Homosexuality Issue

By Anthony:

Recently a friend alerted me to a new documentary coming out called, "God Loves Uganda."  It's a documentary arguing that evangelical missionaries from the United States have been largely behind the strong passion of Ugandans to outlaw homosexuality.  You've probably read about this bill in the news in recent years.

I haven't watched the documentary yet but I have seen many short clips from it and I think it is important that I give you some information about this controversial issue from my perspective.  I think that the documentary is skewed from what I can tell.

Before I begin my analysis, let me just state my view on homosexuality.  I agree with the Christian Reformed Church that homosexual orientation (that is, same-sex attraction) is not sinful in itself, and most often it is not a choice.  But I do believe that acting sexually on that same-sex attraction is sinful.   However, as Christians we are called to love all people, no matter what sins they deal with, and we should respond to those people with same-sex attractions, with love, compassion, and a willingness to listen.  I also disagree with the proposed bill in Uganda that would make homosexual sex or related behaviors into criminal behavior.  While I think homosexual sex is sinful, I do not think it falls under what a secular government should condemn as criminal.

Okay, now let me explain why I think the documentary is skewed, and in doing so, I'll give you more of the context surrounding the issue of homosexuality in Uganda.

You can read about the documentary and the point of it here - http://www.godlovesuganda.com/film/story/

Next, you can watch the trailer below or watch it here.


This video below of questions and answers about the documentary is particularly enlightening.  This shows me that their agenda is not just to say that the bill is a bad in Uganda, but that the view that homosexuality is sinful, is also a wrong view.  I think it would be better for them to be honest about that up front.  If they believe that, fine, but then don't pretend the documentary is only about whether it should be a law or not.



You can view many more clips and videos from the documentary - here.

Okay, now these are some things that should be kept in mind if you watch the documentary, or discuss this issue of Uganda and homosexuality with any of your friends or churches.

1.  None of the missionaries I know in Uganda are trying to stir up bigotry and hatred towards homosexuals in Uganda, nor do I know of any of them that are supporting these bill proposals.  Maybe there are some out there, but if there are, I think they represent a small minority of missionaries in Uganda.

2.  The bill does not advocate for genocide of all homosexuals.  The death penalty is only for certain severe cases.  From Wikipedia - The bill divides homosexual behavior into two categories: "aggravated homosexuality", in which an offender would receive the death penalty, or "the offence of homosexuality" in which an offender would receive life imprisonment. "Aggravated homosexuality" is defined to include homosexual acts committed by a person who is HIV-positive, is a parent or authority figure, or who administers intoxicating substances, homosexual acts committed on minors or people with disabilities, and repeat offenders. "The offence of homosexuality" is defined to include same-sex sexual acts, involvement in a same-sex marriage, or an attempt to commit aggravated homosexuality.   I think there are great reasons to be against the death penalty in these cases too!  But it's important to have our facts straight when talking about this.

3.  Ugandans have been against homosexuality for a long time.  This is NOT a new passion that American evangelicals have brought to Uganda.  If you know the history of Uganda, you know that possibly the most important heroes in their history were young boy martyrs in the 1800's.  Read about them here - Uganda Martyrs.   These martyrs are more important to Ugandans than I think people like George Washington or Benjamin Franklin are to the average American.  Every year thousands and thousands of people come to Kampala to remember the martyrs.  They are celebrated by Catholics and Anglicans, the two biggest church groups in Uganda still today.  Why were they martyred?  Because as Christians they refused the requests of the king to have homosexual sex with them.  For the past 100 years these martyrs have been celebrated for resisting homosexuality.  The idea that homosexuality should be resisted is not some new thing promoted by American evangelicals!

4.  The violence suggested by the bill against homosexuals is also not new.  In our discussions with Ugandan friends about this issue, we were informed that if someone in a village is found out to have committed homosexual acts, mob mentality would quickly take over and that person would be put to death.  How often does this actually happen?  We have no idea.  But this is what we were told.  Again, I'm not saying this is a good thing!  But my point is that these are not "new" ideas implanted by American missionaries.

So, from what I can tell, the documentary doesn't take these ideas into account.  It seems quite biased, but I will try to watch it when I can.  If it comes out on DVD while we are in Uganda, feel free to send it to me :)

I do think there is some tiny bit of truth in the documentary.  I don't like a lot of what I see going on in Uganda regarding this issue.  And I don't like some of what a couple individual missionaries are saying in the documentary.  But it seems like a very poorly done and ridiculously biased documentary.  Please read this additional review of the documentary as it brings up many other important criticisms of the documentary that I have not addressed.  God Loves Uganda: In a documentary along the lines of 'Jesus Camp,' who's demonizing whom? by John G. Stackhouse, Jr.  It is an excellent review.  After reading it, I'm left thinking this documentary should rank as one of the worst documentaries ever made, almost totally false propaganda.

In the question and answer video above, they said that no missionaries stood up to say that killing of homosexuals is wrong.  Well, we have done so in our conversations in Uganda.  And here I am saying so again.  So let's all be in prayer for Uganda over this complicated issue, for guidance for their leaders as they sort out what to do, and for Ugandans to have the love of Christ for all people.  And let's pray for ourselves as well that we will be people of love and compassion to all.

"Do Not Wear Yourself Out to Get Rich..." Proverbs 23:4

By Sara:

I just finished reading the book "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" by Ronald Sider. If you are interested in topics like giving, justice, and poverty, I strongly recommend that you read this book. But in case you don't have the time, let me give you an overview of what it is about and how you can change your lifestyle to help the poor. I can't give all the details, so if you want to know more, I'd suggest reading the book so you can understand Sider's arguments better.

This book was a good balance to "When Charity Destroys Dignity." That book left me thinking about how important it is to give wisely, but at the same time, wondering how I could practically do that. "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" gives those practical applications for giving. It explains why Christians should care for the poor far more than they already do, yet without causing dependency in the process.

The book begins by explaining, convincingly, why there is a problem in the world. We all know that there is a lot of poverty out there, but do we realize what a problem it is - or how very rich we really are? At least 1.2 billion people live without furniture, extra clothes, food in the cupboards, electricity, running water (or clean water for that matter), books, literacy, hospitals, or monetary savings. Another 1.6 billion aren't much better off. In fact, the richest 5% of the world's people earn 114 times as much income as the poorest 5%. Sider gives far more statistics and information to convince the reader that we are very affluent. And he goes on to describe some rationalizations we might make to give less to the poor.


We may think there are good reasons to keep as much as we can for ourselves, but as Christians, we need to realize that God cares very much about the poor. Sider gives a lot of evidence from the Bible about God's concern for justice and for the rich to help the poor.

So if we are convinced that God wants us to give to the poor so they can live and have justice, what do we do? Sider goes into the many complex causes of poverty. I can't describe them all, but he talks about sinful personal choices, unbiblical worldviews, disasters, inequalities of power, colonial injustice, and structural injustice in economics. He explains how market economies are pretty good, but need changes in the way they operate in order to promote greater justice in the world. Left to itself, a market economy is mindless and will supply what the wealthy can pay for even if that means millions of poor people starve. He describes the problems this causes with the poor and the environment we live in and gives ideas about how things could be improved.

And how do we respond? Well, first Sider says, once we care, we need to examine ourselves. We, the affluent, have, more often than not, made our affluence and possessions our god. Here is one particularly striking quote:
"...we are caught in an absurd, materialistic spiral. The more we make, the more we think we need in order to live decently and respectably. Somehow we have to break this cycle because it makes us sin against our needy brothers and sisters and, therefore, against our Lord. And it also destroys us. Sharing with others is the way to real joy."


Do you know how much the average person in the US gives to charity - all charity? In 1998, it was 2.1% of their income. Church members gave to churches, on average, 2.66% of their income and 0.4% to other benevolences.

If we want to be more generous, Sider gives many ideas about how to do this. Here are just a few of them:
1. Graduated Tithe - give 10% on what you calculate to be the amount you need to live on, then give an extra 5% on each $1,000 you make above that base amount (15% on the first 1,000, 20% on the second, etc.).
2. Live in community so you can share belongings with others instead of owning it all yourself.
3. Balance your giving between emergency relief, development, and broad structural change, but don't neglect other areas of Christian work like evangelism.
4. Question your own lifestyle and work to reduce your budget by spending less on food (like eating less meat, growing food in a garden, etc.), lowering your energy consumption, resisting the appeal of advertising, resisting obsolescence (buy quality products when you buy and keep them a long time), refuse to keep up with clothing fashions, etc.
5. Make sure you evaluate the work of the organizations you give to. Among other questions to ask: is justice rather than continual charity (dependence) the result of their work? And do they use their funds efficiently and wisely?
6. Practice the Sabbath. Rest one day out of seven and do your best to limit the hours you work - turn away from the mad consumerism of our culture.

Sider also talks about working for social change. Encourage our country to have a more caring foreign policy and correct the weaknesses of our market economy. Make international trade more fair, reduce unmanageable debt among very poor countries, protect the earth and empower the poor.

These political things seem impossible to change and you may wonder how you can possibly impact these societal causes of poverty. Well the book does mention some organizations you can support that effectively promote such structural changes. A few of those are: Bread for the World, Debt AIDS Trade Africa, and The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

Also, as a woman, I want to mention that emphasizing better education and health care for women is a very effective way to combat poverty. A majority of the very poor people in the world are women. And for every additional year of schooling for women in poor countries, infant mortality rates decline by 5-10% and the fertility rate decreases too.


And now you know some specific ways you can be more generous toward the poor in a wise way. Let's go out and give with joy!

Machine Gun Preacher

By Anthony:

Recently I watched a movie called "Machine Gun Preacher."  It is based on the true story of Sam Childers, who became a Christian soon after getting out of prison, and went on to pastor a church.  He later went on a mission trip to Uganda, and heard about the Lord's Resistance army and how they were abducting children.  He then felt called by God to both build an orphanage to feed hungry children affected by the war, and also to fight against the LRA in Southern Sudan in order to protect these children.  I thought the movie was very well done in all ways: acting, plot, special effects, etc.   It was very thought-provoking.  And it was well balanced.  The movie did not leave you with easy feelings.  There was stuff in the movie to make you think what he was doing was not a good idea and maybe even wrong, and stuff in the movie to make you think he is a hero.  They show him as a real person, with flaws and virtues. 

I'd recommend seeing it if you feel like learning more about the suffering northern Ugandans and the people of South Sudan have gone through, or if you are up for wrestling with tough issues.  The main issue raised is whether we should use violence to protect the innocent or whether violence only begets more violence.   I think I'd probably end up on the side of being willing to use violence to protect children. On the other hand, I'm not sure what I think of Childer's behavior for 2 reasons. 

1. He took things into his own hands, rather than trying to create bigger more meaningful change (such as getting other governments involved, having the US send aid to Ugandan army, etc.).  He seems to be the typical Westerner who doesn't want to work things through in a slow African way, but wants to jump in and immediately take charge himself to instantly solve problems.
2. There have been many Ugandans who were trying to end the violence with the LRA through peace talks, and a reconciliation/forgiveness process. For an American to come in and continue the violence, while many Ugandans were trying to solve the issue peacefully, well that is troubling and could have hindered efforts to have peace talks.  

It's tough to know the right answer. I certainly understand his motivation.  Perhaps it is we who are complacent and uncaring, and he is the one on the front lines doing what needs to be done. 

The movie also has some powerful scenes of him talking to Christians, to try to raise more money to feed his hungry children in Uganda.  It shows Christians who think they are poor, but are continuing to buy frivolous stuff while people are dying of hunger.   It was convicting to say the least.

The website of the real person is here - Machine Gun Preacher.  You can read about him and his ongoing ministry.

African Friends and Money Matters

By Sara:

When we were in Uganda in 2009-2010, we had some friends recommend a book to us: African Friends and Money Matters.  In the midst of teaching, preparing lessons, and visiting villages, we just never got around to reading it.  Now that I actually had the opportunity to read it at my leisure, I wish that I had read it before.

Here at the farm, I borrowed the book from the farm manager and read it (Anthony read it too).  It was filled with so many stories and thoughts that we had when we were in Uganda.  For example, the book talked about how Africans tend to be spontaneously hospitable while Westerners tend to be more charitable through impersonal and planned giving.  We noticed this when we once arrived in a village where we didn't know who was going to meet us.  Random people brought out chairs for us to sit on and gave us water.  It turned out that they were complete strangers who were simply willing to show us hospitality.  That would have been a difficult thing for a Westerner to do.

Another example of a thought we had in Uganda is in the following quote: "Westerners see that it is unjust that they have so many material goods while many of their friends and fellow workers do not.  Yet they do not know what the solution is to this problem."  We knew that even though we were relatively poor by American standards, we had far more possessions than the Ugandans around us, but we struggled with knowing how to be generous and wise in our giving.

I hoped that by reading "African Friends and Money Matters", my questions and struggles would be answered.  But of course, there are no easy answers.  However, I did really appreciate the descriptions of general differences between Africans and Westerners.  Many were differences I noticed while in Uganda and others were new to me.  So here are some of the thoughts that I thought were especially pertinent.

The book explained that there is a social obligation in most African cultures to give to one's family or close friends who ask for help, but not to just anyone who asks.  It was good to know that there are some unspoken guidelines about the appropriateness of asking others for things.  So culturally, even for us, there would be times when people would really have no expectation that we would actually give to just any complete stranger.

I learned that most Africans readily share space and possessions, but are possessive of knowledge, while the opposite tends to be true for Westerners.  This was very interesting because Anthony will be participating in Timothy Leadership Training, where the premise is that people will learn from the training and then go out and show it to others.  And I will be working with farmers and encouraging them to share their knowledge and good ideas with others.  I appreciated knowing that this could be very counter-cultural for the Africans we will be working with and meeting.  And it is good to know that we will be challenged to become more free in sharing our possessions with others (I think this is something we are learning here at World Hunger Relief, too!)

Africans also usually desire to be mutually dependent upon one another, which can be frustrating for Westerners who are not perceived as being economic equals and therefore never in need of reciprocal assistance even though people frequently ask them for assistance.  It was helpful to know that this is the way most African society works.  However, it is confusing and a bit discouraging to think that we can't really ever be a part of that mutual dependence with our African friends.

In conclusion, the book didn't give clear answers to the question of how to be generous without being foolish in your giving, but it did give some good general suggestions at the end of how to live in Africa.  For one thing, it is good to be generous, but also to learn socially acceptable ways to say no to requests.  Secondly, the book encouraged Westerners to make African friends who they can trust to give them advice when they need it.  Such friends can help you determine whether someone unknown to you is really in need or not.

So, then, if you are going to live in Africa for any period of time, I would highly recommend this book.  Even though it may leave you with more questions than you had to begin with, it will make you start thinking through some important topics.