Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
As I've written about before, Uganda is currently considering an incredibly brutal anti-gay law. Apparently it's not good enough to make homosexuality illegal and put people in prison for it for life, now they may go even further and put gays to death - along with anyone who advocates on their behalf. And now -- surprise, surprise -- it turns out that the people behind this in that country are members of The Family.
Jeff Sharlet, the foremost -- perhaps only -- expert on The Family (aka The Fellowship), did an interview with Terry Gross on NPR last week in which he pointed out the links between the Uganda politicians pushing this legislation and The Family:
Mr. SHARLET: Well, the legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family. He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.GROSS: So you're reporting the story for the first time today, and you found this story - this direct connection between The Family and the proposed legislation by following the money?
Mr. SHARLET: Yes, it's - I always say that The Family is secretive, but not secret. You can go and look at 990s, tax forms and follow the money through these organizations that The Family describe as invisible. But you go and you look. You follow that money. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It's not so invisible anymore. So that's how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family.
GROSS: So how did you find out that Bahati is directly connected to The Family? You've described him as a core member of The Family. And this is the person who introduced the anti-gay legislation in Uganda that calls for the death penalty for some gay people.
Mr. SHARLET: Looking at the, The Family's 990s, where they're moving their money to - into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which has described its goals in the past as an international, quote, invisible family binding together world leaders, and also an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads - graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO's through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by -according to Ugandan media - which is run by David Bahati, this same legislator who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
GROSS: Now what about the president of Uganda, President Museveni? Does he have any connections to The Family?
Mr. SHARLET: Well, first, I want to say it's important that you said it, yeah, it hasn't gone into law. It hasn't gone into effect yet. So there is time to push back on this. But it's very likely to go into law. It has support of some of the most powerful men in Uganda, including the dictator of Uganda, a guy named Museveni, whom The Family identified back in 1986 as a key man for Africa.
They wanted to steer him away from neutrality or leftist sympathies and bring him into conservative American alliances, and they were able to do so. They've since promoted Uganda as this bright spot - as I say, as this bright spot for African democracy, despite the fact that under their tutelage, Museveni has slowly shifted away from any even veneer of democracy: imprisoning journalists, tampering with elections, supporting - strongly supporting this Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009.
He's come out just this - just last week and said that this bill is necessary because Europeans are recruiting homosexuals in Uganda, that Europeans are coming in and trying to make Ugandans gay. And he's been rewarded for this because this is sort of where these sort of social issues and foreign affairs issues and free market fundamentalist issues all come together.
GROSS: How did The Family create its relationship with Museveni?
Mr. SHARLET: In 1986, a former Ford official name Bob Hunter went over on trips at the behest of the U.S. government, but also on behalf of The Family, to which - for which both of which he filed reports that are now in The Family's archives. And his goal was to reach out to Museveni and make sure that he came into the American sphere of influence, that Uganda, in effect, becomes our proxy in the region and that relationship only deepened.
In fact, in late 1990s, Hunter - again, working for The Family - went over and teamed up with Museveni to create the Uganda National Prayer Breakfast as a parallel to the United States National Prayer Breakfast and to which The Family every year sends representatives, usually congressmen.
GROSS: What's the relationship of Museveni and The Family now?
Mr. SHARLET: It's a very close relationship. He is the key man. Now...
GROSS: So what does that mean? What influence does The Family have on him?
Mr. SHARLET: It means that they have a deep relationship of what they'll call spiritual counsel, but you're going to talk about moral issues. You're going to talk about political issues. Your relationships are going to be organized through these associates. So Museveni can go to Senator Brownback and seek military aid. Inhofe, as he describes, Inhofe says that he cares about Africa more than any other senator.
And that may be true. He's certainly traveled there extensively. He says he likes to accuse the State Department of ignoring Africa so he becomes our point man with guys like Museveni and Uganda, this nation he says he's adopted. As we give foreign aid to Uganda, these are the people who are in a position to steer that money. And as Museveni comes over, and as he does and spends time at The Family's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a place called The Cedars, and sits down for counsel with Doug Coe, that's where those relationships occur.
This is not at all surprising to anyone who has read Sharlet's book, which documents in great detail how The Family has built connections in foreign governments around the world.
Politics
Comments
Hello, John Grisham? I think I found your next book.
Posted by: Abby Normal | November 30, 2009 9:38 AM
Abby, no one would buy it, it would be to convoluted and fantastical. . .
Posted by: Chilidog | November 30, 2009 9:58 AM
Stranger than fiction, Chilidog.
Posted by: Em | November 30, 2009 10:53 AM
Good article on Uganda from Religion Dispatches: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/2070/uganda%27s_radical_anti-gay_measure_and_the_american_religious_right/
Posted by: kehrsam | November 30, 2009 11:07 AM
Sort of an update on The Ugly American.
Posted by: MikeMa | November 30, 2009 11:27 AM
I heard the radio interview.
What I wondered, then and now, is whether exposing the connection that government officials have with this bunch of nut-jobs would help them or hurt them in terms of getting re-elected.
Posted by: BaldApe | November 30, 2009 11:46 AM
This is just perfect. After all, if any gays are actually killed, it's just a bunch of
nigg...Africans./s
This Ugandan law gives the really homophobic parts of the religious right a way to put the hate on gays through proxy, and thus keep their hands clean. What scumbags.
Posted by: Shawn Smith | November 30, 2009 12:08 PM
[high-fives Chilidog]
[looks embarrassed, realizing that nobody high-fives anymore]
[dies of embarrassment, realizing that nobody even emotes in brackets anymore]
Posted by: Abby Normal | November 30, 2009 12:19 PM
Andrew Sullivan also argues that Rick Warren passively supports Ugandan leaders looking to use government power to kill gays: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/rick-warren-silent-enabler-of-hatred.html
Posted by: Michael Heath | November 30, 2009 12:59 PM
The American anti-gay right has blood dripping from their hands.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | November 30, 2009 1:05 PM
If Uganda passed such a law, any Ugandan gay person would have automatic asylum in Europe or the U.S., since they would have a legally binding fear of prosecution in their own country. The Family is basically advocating that all Uganda gay people come here to be safe. I like that. Maybe we should ask gay and lesbian groups to start a fund to help them get here.
Posted by: Ann Klein | November 30, 2009 1:44 PM
From Sullivan's article:
This guy really is under no pressure whatsoever to tell the truth, is he? Telling a lie that's that fucking blatant can only mean he has no worry at all that his followers will abandon him. They will turn a blind eye to his flagrant dishonesty and keep sending money.
Sickening.
Posted by: Wes | November 30, 2009 1:53 PM
This Ugandan law gives the really homophobic parts of the religious right a way to put the hate on gays through proxy, and thus keep their hands clean. What scumbags.
Posted by: sikiş izle | November 30, 2009 2:47 PM
No, being good, telling the truth is irrelevant. What matters is that you're "chosen". Check out the discussion about King David and Ghengis Khan from Sharlet's earlier NPR appearance:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106115324
Posted by: Savagemutt | November 30, 2009 3:29 PM
Amusingly, it appears that,due to poor formatting and general incoherence, the above commenter is asking whether he/she is a hypocrite, so I'm happy to respond. Are you a hypocrite, um yeah? Not sure. Are you an idiot? Unquestionably.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | November 30, 2009 4:08 PM
Sadie, what's wrong with calling them hypocrites? There is no way that this law can be reconciled with any reasonable notion of human rights or justice.
Yet I'm betting every single one of the bastards supporting it knows full well what an injustice slavery is. It isn't much more than special pleading. Which makes them hypocrites, doesn't it?
Posted by: Leni | November 30, 2009 4:43 PM
Leni, I imagine the problem is that he/she chose to call them by a racial epithet before calling them hypocrites. Expressing your outrage towards homophobia by using racist language (OMG THOSE AFRICAN SAVAGES!) is hypocritical. This news from Uganda is terrible, but I often wonder why the only international news I ever hear about Africa involves genital mutilation, people murdering albinos and selling their body parts to witch doctors, or human rights violations in places like Uganda. There's never any news about the more stable regions on the continent, never any reports on successful projects implemented by the people themselves. Just guilt stories on heroic foreigners trying to help, or horror stories about how "those savages" brutalize one another.
Posted by: J | November 30, 2009 6:18 PM
Posted by: Jefrir | November 30, 2009 7:17 PM
And there is also legislation in Uganda making it illegal to practice "witchcraft", with a 10yr-to-life sentence.
Posted by: Joe Max | November 30, 2009 8:35 PM
People who might dismiss Joe Max's comment as simply an example of unimportant absurdity, a 'meaningless law,' should read Bartholomew's Notes on Religion -- or, if they can get access to it, see the two BBC4 Documentaries dealing with the treatment of young children who have been accused of being witches in Nigeria. These are children, many with ages in single digits, who are being estranged from their families, tortured, even killed because of various "Christian" (their terms, not mine, or any Christian I would have respect for) preachers. There was a particularly horrible example of one being doused with acid by his own father because a pastor had said he was a witch.
It's easy to laugh at the absurdity of superstitions, but they can be deadly.
Posted by: Prup (aka Jim Benton) | November 30, 2009 10:08 PM
In her show tonight Rachel Maddow tied both The Family and Rick Warren into the Uganda plan to execute gays. This segment isn't yet posted at her site.
She did quote a Newsweek blog where Warren refused to speak out against this legislation saying it's not his place to do so. Money quote:
Dishonest and hypocritical, as usual from him given he has no problem speaking out on the wrongness of other political issues, like abortion rights or gay marriage.
Posted by: Michael Heath | November 30, 2009 10:52 PM
@ 21, quoting Rick Warren:
Not his calling? At Think Progress one year ago this week:
Posted by: Dr X | December 1, 2009 12:06 AM
I'm assuming that the Ugandan creeps, like pretty much the rest of the entire planet, think that the African slave trade was a hellish injustice. I suppose if they don't actually think that you'd have a point. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they do. I'm also assuming that the legacy of that injustice would have special relevance to the ancestors of the people who bore the brunt of such massive, on-going brutality. I'm sure it does, just not in a way that causes them to think what they are doing is also an injustice. I think it should, which is what inspires me to call them hypocrites. And it wasn't so long ago, either. We still feel the effects of it today on the other side of the world. I can't imagine why they wouldn't.
On a more personal note, sometime in the early 19th century my Austrian ancestors "inexplicably" converted from Judaism to Catholicism and changed their surname. That has almost zero impact on my daily life, but if you think it doesn't bother me or if it has not informed me in any way, you'd be wrong. And if I started trying to pass anti-Semitic laws I do think that would make me a hypocrite given what I know about my ancestors and because it has personal significance to me.
Alas, this is only one of the tiniest ways in which these assholes are hypocrites. We have many options to choose from. There is certainly no need to confine it to this.
Sadie wrote:
I assumed s/he was being sarcastic, but now that I think back on it that was probably not a good call.
Posted by: Leni | December 1, 2009 12:15 AM
Re: Slaves.
Most slaves taken from Africa to the Americas came from the west coast (Senegal to Cameroon, say), Uganda is inland from Kenya which is on the east coast. Slavery probably wouldn't be an issue, I would think* - DJ
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* but, as usual, this is based on my limited reading. I certainly would bow to superior knowledge in this matter.
Posted by: DingoJack | December 1, 2009 1:59 AM
DJ, as I remember the east coast of africa also had a long history in the slave trade although east african slaves mostly ended up in the arab or chinese slave markets rather than being sent west
Posted by: Ramel | December 1, 2009 2:40 AM
seriously, Are all you white people nuts? comparing slavery and Homosexuality. us black people aint amused a bit by that comparison.firstly, it seems you cant seem to comprehend why homosexuality is now being viewed as an evil act, well let me tell you assholes. i hate the way you FAGS are on a recruiting spree within Africa because of the poverty, White fools raping young boys and promising money if they dont tell. FUCK YOU ALL, YO PERVERTS, next thing yo all going to ask the world to do is to go easy on guys who take a liking for animals, or the guys who prefer the underage girls, or all those perverted sexual acts you white fools seem to be so into coz yo sooo bored. from reading yo comments it seems all yo interested in is to bring back slavery, well surprise, WE ARE READY FOR YOU ALL MUFFS
Posted by: truth | December 3, 2009 3:55 AM
truth - citations or STFU. Simple enough for you> - DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | December 3, 2009 4:02 AM
FAGS was a typo, right? Didn't you mean to write Catholics there?
Posted by: Josh | December 3, 2009 5:37 AM
Speak, truth, to Poe.
Posted by: Metro | December 3, 2009 8:43 AM
bloody haters, STFU to you Dingo, are you a FAG, Keep with the facts, or at least, what you know
Posted by: truth | December 5, 2009 9:28 AM
You tell 'em, Truth! That Dingo fellow thinks he's so great!
Posted by: Modusoperandi | December 5, 2009 12:27 PM
Yep, us FAGS Demanding to know the FACTS*; from Sources should stick to the - FACTS from sourCes they KNOW, right???!!
Project much?
Demo - You're Incorrigible! - DJ
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*(you forgot random all-caps, not to mention your lack of general random capitalisation and over use, and inappropraite use of punctuation, very sloppy. If you're not careful they will pull your Internet loony license)
Posted by: DingoJack | December 5, 2009 12:52 PM
Thank you Ann Klein, post #11. Good idea. And as for the poster called "truth" I hope you get over all of your hating and can find someone in your life who can teach you kindness. I assume you use the name 'truth' hoping that you might find some. I hope so too.
Posted by: erica | December 9, 2009 11:51 AM
OK, now all the adults* have had their say: "Those darn Keatons!" - DJ
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* and some definite non-adults
Posted by: DingoJack | December 9, 2009 12:10 PM
Erica, you think am hating! You don’t know the half of it. My problem with the gay community is their need to increase in numbers and so the intensive recruiting taking place in our children's schools, i have heard the ordeals of traumatized kids who were raped by older boys, which older boys as it turns out are getting funded by white Homos to initiate unknowing young boys into this obscene practice, this is Africa people, these perversions were never there.
For Dingo, may I note it out that there was slave trade all over Africa, just because your country picked western Africa to show your dislike for the black people should not stop you from getting the facts.
And on a final note, I don’t mind you FAGS keeping your perversion in your countries, in a way its better, as your population will decline and the Beautiful Black people will rise in number and guess who will be calling the other "sir yes sir".
But mostly, and this goes to you Erica, CAN YOU PEOPLE STOP COMPARING SLAVE TRADE WITH HOMOSEXUALITY, these fags couldnt live through the conditions our ancesters lived through in those dark times. keep your perversion to yourself.
Posted by: Truth | December 11, 2009 11:34 AM
Isn't comment #26 just a repaste of a previous rant by "truth" in an earlier thread? Looks like someone's in a bit of a rut here.
...i have heard the ordeals of traumatized kids who were raped by older boys, which older boys as it turns out are getting funded by white Homos to initiate unknowing young boys into this obscene practice...
Funded? Back that up, please, or keep your demented fantasies to yourself.
Whenever someone uses a handle like "truth," you can bet it's either lies or total insanity. Or both.
Posted by: Raging Bee | December 11, 2009 11:49 AM
All you notice are the punctuations and then you go on ranting about my hate, and then comment #36 gets closer to the point but still misses it. People, you may call it re-pasting, but am pointing out the plight of these young boys and girls, but oohh no! you chaps would rather deal will very unimportant issues and totally miss the point. IF YO GAY AND YOU WANT YOUR RIGHTS, DON'T RAPE ME AND FORCE ME TO BELIEVE IN YOUR PRACTICE, this all thing of increasing your numbers so that you get listen to is wrong, immoral and makes me choke on my own vomit all the time. save us from your misled comments.
Truth is a name chosen for a purpose, since all of you know nothing about Uganda, and as a Ugandan, i want to give you the facts. GET IT
Posted by: truth | December 15, 2009 8:20 AM
truth: You need to back up your wild, semi-coherent assertions with facts. Anybody can rant, but it takes evidence backing up that rant to make it right.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | December 15, 2009 8:59 AM
Truth stated:
a) any evidence that the 'gay community' needs to increase their numbers? Most studies show that homosexuality is a normal variation in sexuality found in perhaps 5-10% of the population in a number of species, including humans.
b) raping of boys as a form of 'grooming'. Citations? This practice is more probably the work of illegal militias, criminal gangs or pedophiles (all of whom are more likely to be heterosexual than homosexual, as stated earlier)
c) You, of course have concrete proof that these activities are funded by 'white homos', right?
East Africans would have been Muslim slaves, not European ones. Also, I doubt if slavers (who, initially at least, bought prisoners of war or kidnapped persons) 'disliked' their slaves, it was far worse than that, they didn't care about them one way or the other. Slaves were taken from West Africa because of the mistaken belief that they were more hardy in resisting tropical diseases. Oh and by the way 'my country' had little to do with the African Slave Trade.
I'm sorry to say I don't share you optimism about Africa's future. Climate change, disease, endemic poverty and the attendant internecine wars seem more likely. The Western Countries will probably still come out well ahead, although the growth of China and India will give the non-western countries a run for their money.
Ah, actually you were the first person to compare homosexuality to slavery, no one else did. Since 5-10% to the African population is homosexual, at least some homosexuals did survive the conditions in those dark times.
Oh I could critique the rest but, meh. It boils down to Truth gives us evidence or STFU. - DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | December 15, 2009 9:29 AM
Your info is outdated and inaccurate. Jeff Sharlett has retracted his statement that the Family promoted or is at all in favor of Uganda's proposed ant-homosexuality bill. See: http://tiny.cc/F7E8A
Posted by: Mark | January 4, 2010 11:30 PM