Churches join criticism of Uganda’s ‘anti-gay’ bill: CEN 1.08.10 p 6.

The draconian penalties in Uganda’s proposed ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ have come under sharp criticism from the Christian Churches of Uganda.

In its December 17 Christmas message, the Uganda Joint Christian Council, a coalition of the country’s Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, said that while its individual member churches had not yet issued formal statements on the proposed bill, all were opposed to the harsh penalties proposed for the suppression of vice.

On 14 Oct MP David Bahati of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) tabled a private-members bill before parliament entitled the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ that would stiffen Uganda’s sodomy laws. The proposed law has come in part in response to concerns over growing child-sex tourism in East Africa and the highly publicized arrests of two NGO workers, as well as with the perception that Uganda’s culture is under siege by the West.

Bahati’s bill seeks to establish a legal definition of homosexual acts that would provide for their criminalization. Consensual homosexual acts between adults would be subject to penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment, while “aggravated homosexuality”—homosexual relations with a minor or homosexual acts committed by an HIV-positive individual—would be a capital crime or merit life imprisonment.

Article 13 of the bill imposes a seven year term of imprisonment or fine for promoting homosexuality, while organizations found guilty under the law would be closed down. Failure to inform would be an offence under the act punishable by imprisonment.

The proposed bill has drawn sharp criticism from overseas governments, NGOs and church groups. On Dec 24, the Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu told Radio 4’s Today Programme that he was “opposed totally to the death penalty” and was “not happy when you describe people with the kind of language you find in this Private Member’s Bill, which seems also not only victimizing but diminishment of individuals.”

On Dec. 14 Dr. Rowan Williams told the Telegraph the proposed penalties were of “of shocking severity” and “makes pastoral care impossible. It seeks to turn pastors into informers.”

In its Christmas message, released under the signature of the Uganda Joint Christian Council’s chairman, Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga of the Uganda Orthodox Church, the churches said they were “particularly concerned” about “ritual murders, corruption, homosexuality, road accidents and reckless life styles.”

All three churches were agreed that “homosexuality is a detestable act.” While the social mores of some societies now viewed it as a “fashionable way of life” this did not change the fact that it was a “biblically unacceptable practice.”

The churches had been “following the ongoing debate on the current bill on homosexuality that is being considered by Parliament,” noting that “we ourselves are currently studying the Bill and have not yet adopted a common position on all the issues.”

However, the churches were agreed upon the need to suppress vice and supported laws prohibiting “homosexual practices including same-sex marriage.”

The proposed penalties were unacceptable, as “we do not, as matter of principle, support the death penalty or other forms of extreme punishment such as life imprisonment as proposed in the Bill,” the said.

The “problem of homosexuality cannot be addressed by the law alone,” the churches noted, adding that Uganda’s Christian Churches were “concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of all members of the human family, including those who find themselves trapped in questionable lifestyles such as gays and lesbians.”

Coercion was not the solution, the churches concluded, appealing to “all parties to seek sustainable solutions to this problem. This would, among other things, involve teaching, mentoring, counseling and rehabilitation of all victims who are within reach,” the Uganda Joint Christian Council said.