Last night, Amanda and I went to see the documentary “God Loves Uganda” at the Human Rights Film Festival at ASU. It is about the new law in Uganda that allows homosexuals to be executed. The film showed how this all unfolded, and it is mainly due to the American missionaries’ influence. I went in with a negative attitude towards the evangelicals, and this attitude was not undeserved. But this film helped me think about the issue from a different perspective.
One of the main characters (and I use the word “character” intentionally) was Jim Engle, director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. Amanda immediately recognized him from the equally disturbing documentary, “Jesus Camp.” Although Engle is terrifying, the film showed a team of missionaries from the church preparing for their trip to Uganda. It was clear that their intentions were good. They wanted to help orphans and the poor. Most missionaries have good intentions, and they have helped enormously in building schools and churches. The problem is that these organizations are also indoctrinating the people benefitting from their services. For some reason, evangelicals are fixated on homosexuality. (I don’t get it… Why can’t they be obsessed with the things Jesus taught, like acceptance?) The Ugandan people have been influenced by these beliefs and have responded in radical ways. Not only is homosexuality a crime punishable by death, but newspapers publish pictures of people they believe to be gay, resulting in hate crimes. The missionaries seem to be indifferent. They feel that Uganda is lucky to have Christian leaders, and God says being gay is a sin, so…. *shrug*.
The other really interesting thing in this film is how money is tied to all of this. During the Clinton administration, there was funding to educate people in the use of condoms. The HIV rate dropped dramatically. Then, Bush passed a law that said we’d provide help to Uganda, but only if they taught abstinence. They complied, and HIV is once again on the rise. When Uganda introduced the anti-homosexuality bill, funding increased by three times from right-wing American groups. Can you blame Ugandans for playing by their rules?
As I watched this, I just felt so sad and wondered, where is the Gospel in all this? When missionaries were preaching, they pretty much just said, “You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus and follow the rules or you will go to hell.” They talked about raising an army and fighting evil. There was no mention of love and grace and acceptance. I am always surprised by how different my version of the Gospel is than theirs. My heart breaks for the LGBT people of Uganda, and I pray that there will be church leaders brave enough to welcome them.
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