Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Jeff Sharlet, who has a new book coming out soon about The Family, was on Fresh Air on NPR last week talking about some of his findings about this group and their work in Uganda on the kill-the-gays bill. Jeff spent a lot of time in Uganda researching for this book and what he found is very disturbing, particularly about David Bahati, the sponsor of the bill and the Family's leader in that country:
"Bahati said: 'If you come here, you'll see homosexuals from Europe and America are luring our children into homosexuality by distributing cell phones and iPods and things like this,' " Sharlet recounts. "And he said, 'And I can explain to you what I really want to do.' "Sharlet accompanied Bahati to a restaurant and later to his home, where Bahati told Sharlet that he wanted "to kill every last gay person."
"It was a very chilling moment, because I'm sitting there with this man who's talking about his plans for genocide, and has demonstrated over the period of my relationship with him that he's not some back bencher -- he's a real rising star in the movement," Sharlet says. "This was something that I hadn't understood before I went to Uganda, that this was a guy with real potential and real sway and increasingly a following in Uganda."
The American leadership of The Family has publicly distanced itself from this bill, saying that they oppose its passage. But that doesn't exactly resolve them of some responsibility here:
And he has connections to American leaders. Sharlet explains that Bahati is one of the Uganda leaders of an American evangelical movement called the Fellowship, or the Family -- the secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians who wield considerable political influence, both in Washington and abroad."I discovered ... that there was this very direct relationship," Sharlet says. "And [the Fellowship members] are emphatic and saying: 'We haven't killed any gay people in Uganda. This isn't what we had in mind. We didn't pull the trigger.' And that's true. They didn't pull the trigger. But there's a sense in which they built the gun, which was this institutional idea of government being decided by small groups of elite leaders like Bahati, getting together and trying to conform government to their idea of Biblical law. And this is what their American benefactors wanted them to do."
The same is true of Lou Engle, Rick Warren and other preachers who have taken their anti-gay crusade to Africa.
Politics
Comments
Let me get this straight, the innocent are being lured into sin by an outside influence tempting them with an Apple? This guy really needs to get some new material.
Posted by: Abby Normal | September 1, 2010 10:58 AM
Jeez, Abby, warn a girl - I nearly sprayed my iPhone with my morning caffeine!!
Posted by: CanadianChick | September 1, 2010 11:06 AM
"And [the Fellowship members] are emphatic and saying: 'We haven't killed any gay people in Uganda. This isn't what we had in mind. We didn't pull the trigger."
If this homophobic Ugandan legislation passes, they'll have blood on their hands just the same. They stoked this homophobia, and they will be indirectly responsible if additional violence and oppression emerge from it.
Posted by: Ahab | September 1, 2010 11:06 AM
If this oft repeated* claim is true, why don't they report it to the police, present their evidence? If they don't trust the local police, bring it to the attention of the US police, or Interpol, there are 'sex tourism' crimes on the books. (Or perhaps it's a case of massive projection) - Dingo
----
* "All that glisters is not gold , how oft have you heard it told?"
Posted by: DingoJack | September 1, 2010 11:06 AM
And this is remarkable ... how? If there's one constant in human political history, it's that whipping up the crowd against some "other" is a high-octane political fuel.
People in the USA tend to spend a lot of time congratulating ourselves on being exempt from this particular aspect of human nature, at least when we're not making disparaging comments about conservatives, liberals, Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, (insert terms for people with recent African ancestry), dirtyfuckinghippies, Asian-subpopulation-du-jour, rednecks, bankers, tree-huggers, preppies, ...
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | September 1, 2010 11:08 AM
@5 DC Sessions
The difference is people who are complaining or disparaging are rarely legislators talking about their plans to kill every member of those groups.
Posted by: Sivi | September 1, 2010 11:10 AM
But these people get to have even *more* fun than previous genocidal lunatics. I mean, at least in principle, it'd be possible to kill off every last Jew, or black person, or Muslim, on earth, and at that point, you're done. Nothing left.
However, gay people are born every day, everywhere on earth, and they don't need to have any particular ancestry to be gay. So there'd be no end to the killing, ever.
Posted by: DaveD | September 1, 2010 11:41 AM
They haven't been at this "democracy" thing long enough to have developed our custom of avoiding straight talk on such subjects. In time, they too may use winks, nudges, and dog whistles.
Hmmmm...
I wonder how much of the US division's distancing themselves comes from the Nigerians being gauche about things polite society keeps private? Sort of like rentboys?
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | September 1, 2010 12:01 PM
Africa is where American xians go to play out their fantasies of witch murders and gay genocide. Because it isn't happening here yet.
Unlike the gays in Uganda, child witches are being murdered right now. It is estimated to be around 1000/year. The African witch murderers are supported by some fundie xian US groups affiliated with Assembly of god churches. Sarah Palin's church.
Posted by: raven | September 1, 2010 12:32 PM
Daniel Tosh exposed their weird views on comedy central last week, as shown here:
Tosh.O.
Now, how do I get this out of my head?
Posted by: Heinrich | September 1, 2010 12:39 PM
That's what makes is so much more useful politically. It's like witches or heretics: you never run out.
Now that I think of it: I wonder how many "witches" were "unnatural women" who stood out by not conforming to the gender roles of the day?
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | September 1, 2010 1:04 PM
"The same is true of Lou Engle, Rick Warren and other preachers who have taken their anti-gay crusade to Africa."
These Christian, denied the right to commit violence here, want blood somehow somewhere, and Africa is as good a place as any to get it.
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | September 1, 2010 2:03 PM
Raven @ 9
Source?
Posted by: Deb | September 1, 2010 3:34 PM
Deb: you can start here:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=017254414699180528062%3Auyrcvn__yd0&q=child+witch&sa.x=4&sa.y=11
Ed's posted quite a few articles about this since Palin's VP candidacy first drew our attention to it. IIRC, each article has a link to a reputable news source.
Posted by: Raging bee | September 1, 2010 4:47 PM
I was completely surprised when I learned that Hillary Clinton was part of The Family. This organization goes against everything Hillary has presented herself as.
Also, the guy who introduced the homosexual death penalty legislature in Uganda did so at a Prayer Breakfast in the United States. (Didn't the Family also support condom burnings in Uganda, or something silly to that effect?)
Posted by: Objective Scrutator | September 1, 2010 4:48 PM
And Abby Normal wins an Internet with the very first comment. Well done!
~David D.G.
Posted by: David D.G. | September 1, 2010 4:51 PM
"Bahati said: 'If you come here, you'll see homosexuals from Europe and America are luring our children into homosexuality by distributing cell phones..."
I'm straight and too old to change my ways now, so I'm going to burn my cell phone.
Posted by: Ellie | September 1, 2010 5:18 PM
The Advocate has a great article on the Ugandan anti-gay bill that makes a good companion piece to Sharlet's interview.
http://www.advocate.com/Print_Issue/Cover_Stories/Dangerous_Liaisons/
Posted by: Ahab | September 1, 2010 5:40 PM
@1: Abby wins!
Doubly so because it's true. The fact that the narrative boils down so easily to the Christian narrative is not an accident. It explains why it sells so well to an audience that has already been primed with the Christian narrative.
Posted by: Yahzi | September 1, 2010 5:54 PM
It's been all over the news for years. Helen Ukpabio is one of the more notorious witch hunters. I've read that she is probably clinically insane but who knows really.
Posted by: raven | September 1, 2010 7:01 PM