The Anglican Church of Uganda welcomed the nation's brusquely named Anti-Homosexuality Act, and again blamed Western values and influences on Uganda. "The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 is good and we are grateful to the President for assenting to it," he said.

Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council says the imposition of the LGBTQ+ agenda and values on cultures that follow biblical values is part and parcel of many NGOs and even non-profits. Many Western charities have begun requiring churches in Africa to sign on to LGBTQ+ values as a condition of their receiving financial aid. The Church of Uganda has suffered financially for its unwillingness to be in communion with the Episcopal Church since its decisions in 2003 to approve the consecration of a same-sex partnered bishop. It continues to be under pressure financially because of its courageous unwillingness to cave in to this assault on biblical values in the applications for aid from NGOs and NPOs.

Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu restated the church's rejection of capital punishment, and endorsed life imprisonment. "As expressed in our responses to earlier versions of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill over the last fifteen years, the Church of Uganda supports life and, in principle, does not support the death penalty and recommend life imprisonment instead."

Kaziimba blasted the West, arguing that "Homosexuality is currently a challenge in Uganda because it is being forced on us by outside, foreign actors against our will, against our culture, and against our religious beliefs. They disguise themselves as "human rights activists," but are corrupting real human rights by adding LGBTQ to their agenda."

The archbishop said that the new Act would offer greater protection to children through "strong anti-grooming measures" and "strong restrictions on promotion", and by not allowing those convicted to work with children.

President Biden called the Act the "the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda" and said that his administration is considering the "application of sanctions". Likewise, EU Foreign Affairs Representative Joseph Borell described the Act as "contrary to international human rights law" and said that Uganda's failure to protect its citizens "will undermine relationships with international partners", noted The Daily Sceptic.

But there is glaring hypocrisy in all this.

Here are some of the countries where homosexuality is currently illegal: Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar and the UAE. Notice anything? They're some of Europe's biggest energy suppliers, and in the case of Saudi Arabia one of America's most important "allies".

"When was the last time you heard the US threaten sanctions against Saudi Arabia for its stance on gay rights? And how brave of the EU to condemn Uganda's law, while buying billions of dollars of energy from Qatar and the UAE!"

The Uganda Archbishop also suggested that homosexuality was being forced on Uganda against its will by foreign countries and contended that heterosexual relationships were "the African way" and "the Biblical way". "They disguise themselves as 'human rights activists,' but are corrupting real human rights by adding LGBTQ to their agenda," he said.

WELBY'S SILENCE

It is profoundly ironic that Archbishop Justin Welby has said nothing to date about the Uganda situation. VOL sent a note to Lambeth Palace press asking for comment, and got no response. Did Welby respond to the archbishop of the Church in Wales, Andrew John who asked Welby to intervene? And what of the silence of the CofE House of Bishops?

Perhaps Welby was thinking about the reception he got in Ghana when he said he was gravely concerned by the draft anti-LGBTQ+ Bill debated by the Ghanaian parliament. He had a chat with the Archbishop of Ghana's response to the Bill, and then apologized to the Ghanian archbishop because he quoted Resolution 1.10 but omitted the fact that it rejected "homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture," and could thus be cited in support of aspects of the Bill!

Perhaps Welby learned his lesson or took legal advice this time to keep his mouth shut.

UGANDA MARTYRS

There are big remembrance events in Uganda today, as it is Martyrs Day. Thousands will gather at the shrines in Namugongo to commemorate the 40+ young Christian and Muslim boys who refused the sexual advances of the King of Baganda. The cultural resistance to homosexual practice is bound up with Ugandan Identity which is closely linked to these martyrs. Now that is something Western pansexualists don't get. These martyrs opposed sodomy while the Church of England is looking for prayer to bless same-sex unions. And you wonder why the Africans won't cave into the West!

But Kaziimba is an equal opportunity cultural offender. He said this: "Fornication, defilement, and adultery are also attacking our families, our souls, and our country. Many of the people loudly protesting against homosexuality are quietly fornicating or betraying their spouse through gender-based violence, adultery, or defiling their own children.".

Public discussion of the bill often equates to debating whether any nation may treat same-sex sexual behavior as criminal. Nearly half of African nations do this, whether the law is grounded in Christian or Muslim concepts.

That still leaves plenty of Ugandan law to be debated, usually on whether people should be imprisoned, much less for life, based on consensual sex between adults. Uganda's law rejects consent as a defense.

One of the most influential shaping forces in this entire Ugandan debate was a video by a young man who had been recruited by western LGBTQ+ "charities" to produce pornographic videos encouraging homosexuality in Uganda [watch his testimony here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxBQq26i_Zk]. He was recruited in exchange for payments far greater than what his family could earn in order for him to go to school. The financial temptation was so great that he yielded himself to this. Once he contracted sexually-transmitted diseases, he turned to his sponsors for help and was simply thrown aside and ignored. This is the kind of predatory behavior the West is practicing. This is also why the Church of Uganda launched its own family-friendly programing in contrast to Western programming.

No, the Ugandan Church should stand fast in its repudiation of this behavior. If it does not, homosexual behavior will tear their nation apart.

END