God Loves Uganda

"The words of the Gospels, repeated to a child, a workman or a peasant, do not surprise him in the least. Nothing is told with a view to effect. Not a word in the Gospels is intended to startle." Ernest Hello, Life, Science, and Art

The state of homophobia is severe in Uganda, as evidenced by God Loves Uganda, a sharp title for the influence of American conservative evangelists. These well-meaning do gooders have apparently ignited the wildfire of bigotry, so says Rev. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian priest self- exiled from Uganda because of his support of LGBTI rights.

The documentary is an honest and effective depiction of the varied support for an anti-gay bill pending before the Ugandan legislature. Because half of Ugandans are under the age of 15 and undereducated, they are easy targets for the young acolytes of the International House of Prayer (IHOP), a Kansas City Christian group sending missionaries to underdeveloped worlds like Uganda.

The missionaries are effective because they believe what they preach and they are attractively young and American. The message is simple: Listen to what the Bible says, and if you still don't believe, look at these gay pornographic images of men and coprophilia, nasty stuff by any measure. Of course, that activity is hardly the usual for gays, but who's counting when it comes to recruiting?

Of those most effective proselytizers, Scott Lively is an anti-gay activist who preaches about the evil gay agenda to such an extent that some feel he is responsible for stirring up the entire population. A Ugandan preacher, Robert Kayanja, says gay activity is like murder. The preachers are legion, spouting similar Biblical passages with great lungs.

Although the arguments against the anti-gay movement seem spot-on, evidence shows extremists winning Ugandans. I am, however, grateful for IHOP giving Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams apparently full access to the business. Most extremists seem unaware of their flaws. Someday those excesses could bring down a country.

Known as the "Pearl of Africa", Uganda is undergoing a transformation movement caused by the west. In God Loves Uganda this story follows the influence of Christian missionaries who are trying to "save" this country and implement their own religious moral beliefs. The story starts off with the church of IHOP (International House of Prayer) and then transition on the how these Christian beliefs are influencing the political, cultural, and lifestyle of Uganda. Directed by Roger Ross Williams, an interesting tale of how the American Christian Right is being exported to impact the world. I saw this film as part of the Atlanta Film Festival

Although beautifully shot and designed as a Christian I would be terribly offended. No one from IHOP is telling the Ugandans to beat the homosexuals. Christians don't only go to Uganda to share that "homosexuality" is wrong. They go to serve the people, bring medicine, help build churches and wells. Although there is a bill originally called for life imprisonment for anyone engaging in homosexual intercourse and for the death penalty for repeat offenders. The penalties have since been reduced, but the harshness of the bill remains and it might yet become law. This is one side of the story and I think it is a wrong way. It is Simply misleading, outrageous, and don't waste your time.It blurs American Extremists to American Christians and it is simply wrong. Demonize the Christians and leave Africa alone because they are better off is the moral of this movie.

As more and more people in the USA are getting wise to the fearmongering of the Religious Right here and in the western culture, they've decided their fertile field is in the Third World specifically Africa. The test case for them seems to be the troubled country of Uganda, known until recently as the place where Idi Amin ruled in the Seventies and hosted the terrorists in Entebbe who hijacked an El Al airliner.

Idi Amin is gone now, but the craziness lives on. And now it is being fueled by our Christian Right who have decided that this is a fertile evangelical field for their kind of religion which includes a mindless fear of gays. Not that it wasn't there before, but it's being brought to a high boil.

It is incredibly ironic for a multitude of reasons. First until the missionaries came and told them so, most Africans didn't realize gay was so evil. Secondly the colonial powers didn't unlearn their colonies about gays when they left in 50s and 60s. Third those same powers are now one by one allowing lesbians and gays to marry.

In walks the religious right and the bacillus of homophobia is injected in the body politic. The efforts of the right wing evangelicals there have culminated in one of the strictest of sodomy laws, not seen for two centuries. Life in prison for a first offense of sodomy, death for 'aggravated' homosexuality.

The Ugandan Parliament has been toying with this bill for over a year now. Other countries in Africa like Ethiopia and Nigeria have gone ahead and have passed such legislation.

But the reason that Uganda has gotten such attention is its best flirting with terrorism and because of the fact that gay activist David Kato was murdered two years ago. Kato became the face for African homophobia as surely as Matthew Shepard did in the USA. From what I know of him he was a Nelson Mandela figure for the LGBT folks of the sub-Saharan African continent.

The God of God Loves Uganda is not the creation of the religious right, it is the God who recognizes that love is the strongest force in the Universe even if it is between same gender people. This film is an expose of the other God who finds no place in his kingdom for LGBT people.

Watching documentaries such as these you wonder why people condemn themselves out of their own mouths. The news here is just reported, not laid on with a heavy hand. With some cross cutting footage from gay Ugandans and friendly clergy the impact of their statements is positively condemnatory.

The scenes of beating of gay men after a rousing sermon and a rousing session of the Ugandan Parliament that looked like a lynch mob is powerful and disturbing. As surely as Jews were made scapegoats LGBT people are the same, the parallels with Nazi Germany are too clear to overlook.

God Loves Uganda should be seen and reseen by all LGBT people and their straight allies. Every Gay/Straight Alliance group should get this for showing once it's commercially available. Every LGBT youth group like Gay/Lesbian Youth Service in my town and in all areas should have this film shown. The stories of the gay Africans will inspire you.

And this film review is humbly dedicated to David Kato that gentle soul who battled with love, reason, and information against a ruthless enemy. May his spirit triumph.

A chilling inside look at the missionary efforts of the US evangelical right to instill their "bible based" homophobia into Uganda. I won't repeat the fine observations made by other reviewers, except to say this is a must see for all LGBT persons/ activists and their supporters. It's frightening, sobering and inspiring all at the same time. It's also remarkable for the amount of footage devoted to an inside look at the gatherings and meetings of the International House of Prayer. These frenetic prayer sessions, characterized by manic, crazed, jerky movements on the part of the participants, testify in a graphic manner to the lack of any real interior peace or integration on the part of the (perhaps) well meaning zealots. Here we have human beings in the grip of a fever of fanaticism, without the "peace that surpasses understanding" of the gospels. A fever of emotional certitude coming from the ego rather than from the depths of their interior being. Contrast this with the gentle peace and quiet confidence of the two gay- supportive pastors featured most prominently. These are both remarkable human beings who exude a compassion and wisdom that breathes peace throughout the entire documentary. These are persons centered deep within their interior beings where the Spirit lives and breathes, a peace that gives them such courage in the face of opposition. This is especially so for the saintly bishop, whose gentleness masks a steely will to stand up against injustice. He is even more remarkable for his quiet inner optimism and confidence in Uganda's future, despite the terrible situation in Uganda at

the moment. This is the quiet confidence of a man deeply attuned to his own inner being, listening to a higher voice not of his own making, which sustains and inspires him. This is not a man enslaved to his inner demons who drive him to peaks of frenetic emotionality. The bishop is a gentle quiet tenacious presence contrasted with the tin rattling clamor, noise and confusion of the zealots, insisting that they know that God wants this and God wants that. Remarkable, I wish the film had mover of him.

The simple contrast between the demeanor and peaceful body language of the supportive Christian pastors with the alarming intensity of the crazed zealots is one of the most powerful messages of the whole film. It's a simple rule of Christian discernment, the Good Spirit brings peace. (Apologies for the explicit Christian references, since the Spirit is certainly not limited to Christians alone, but In a documentary replete with so many young missionaries ignorant of the basic rules of Christian discernment, it seemed appropriate.)