Dept. of Lying Hatemongers

From the Times:

Last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda’s capital to give a series of talks.

The theme of the event, according to Stephen Langa, its Ugandan organizer, was “the gay agenda — that whole hidden and dark agenda” — and the threat homosexuals posed to Bible-based values and the traditional African family.

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

My, my, my. "Hidden and dark agenda"? Silly me. I thought our agenda was perfectly open and apparent. We'd like to be treated like normal human beings, thanks.

And let us not avert our eyes from the details of what was said, no matter how vile it may have been. At this point, it no longer needs to be said that gay men are not pederasts. (Or, perhaps more precisely, gay men are no more likely to be pederasts than straight ones.) That slander has long been debunked, and it is beneath my dignity to spend any time doing so at this point. (If you require "proof" of this negative, you're probably reading the wrong blog.) The lack of truth did not stop these "Christians" from spewing forth their bile to an eager and credulous audience, however. The result?

Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying
they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what
came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior.

Oh, spare me. Spare me your faux protestations, and take the anger you deserve like the men you claim to be. The combination of ignorance and hubris necessary to fly to a country utterly foreign to you, declaim about a class of people you clearly despise and about whom you know nothing (whatever your claim to be "experts"), hold forth that homosexuals are out to molest a country's children and destroy its families, and then recoil in baffled surprise at the whirlwind that burgeons up is beyond me.

What despicable, wretched people these three are.

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

“I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality.

“That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

Really? How lovely that some of the nicest people you've met are gay. I can think of one particular gay man that would joyfully kick your teeth in, given half the chance. I wonder if Mr. Schmierer feels similarly duped when he tosses spray cans into bonfires and they inexplicably explode. As for the other two, anyone who says that homosexuals "recruit" deserves all the opproprium he gets, and anyone who claims to have been "cured" of homosexuality is probably so miserable from self-loathing that one almost (but not really) has to feel sorry for him.

Mr. Lively and Mr. Brundidge have made similar remarks in interviews or statements issued by their organizations. But the Ugandan organizers of the conference admit helping draft the bill, and Mr. Lively has acknowledged meeting with Ugandan lawmakers to discuss it. He even wrote on his blog in March that someone had likened their campaign to “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.” Later, when confronted with criticism, Mr. Lively said he was very disappointed that the legislation was so harsh. [ed: certain links from original article disabled]

What kind of "nuclear bomb" did the odious Mr. Lively expect? How much harshness would have been to his liking?

Faugh. Let these three deny that this law is, in part, their handiwork. The truth is that they are perfectly happy to see gays and lesbians persecuted under the law, and are happy to exploit the homophobia of a foreign culture to promote their own hidden, dark agenda. Anyone who pretends that these three did not intend to make the lives of gays and lesbians materially worse, and more horrible than they already were in a country where they are castigated, targeted victims of violence is a fool.

To hell with such "Christians."