Kill or jail gays but not pastors: Church of Uganda

At last, the Church of Uganda, the Anglican Communion branch there, has spoken up on the anti-homosexuality bill it has been studying for months. Their confusing statement, released today to Christianity Today, is long on bewildering rhetoric and very short on proposed amendments.

Indeed, Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, blogs that the "changes" only serve to show the church wants to "make it more clear that homosexuality is against the law."

The only specific amendment suggested would qualify a provision of the bill that now says people who fail to report gays to authorities could be imprisoned themselves. The Church would like to see pastors, doctors and counselors exempted. Otherwise, they back all efforts to be sure homosexuality is "excluded as a human right."

So, family and friends who fail to turn in gays to authorities would still be facing jail, as per the original bill's wording. (Note to actress Anne Hathaway, who told a British mag she left the Catholic Church because it wouldn't welcome her gay brother: Stay out of Uganda.)

Tuesday's statement was released to CT by Rev. David Zac Niringiye, assistant bishop of Kampala in the Church of Uganda. He last spoke in that magazine when he was annoyed over U.S. churchmen such as Rick Warren criticizing the bill as unjust and unChristian. Niringiye said then:

The international community is behaving like they can't trust Ugandans to come up with a law that is fair. No! No! That is not fair! When the Western governments or Western churches or Christians speak loudly about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of this bill, you actually begin to fuel the idea that homosexuality is the product of Western culture."

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http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/02/gay-death-penalty-church-uganda-anglican/1