December 11, 2009

Pastor Rick Warren Speaks Out Against Antigay Ugandan Law

In response to recent speculation he supports a proposed Ugandan bill to further criminalize homosexuality in the East African country, Pastor Rick Warren, founder of the Evangelical Saddleback Church in California—who has been heavily involved in Ugandan religion and politics—has issued a letter and video statement to Ugandan church leaders calling the bill “unjust, extreme and un-Christian toward homosexuals.” His response comes after media criticism that he did not respond to the bill sooner and that his teachings against homosexuality might have influenced Ugandan leaders to draft the bill in the first place.

Reportedly, in addition to punishing anyone convicted of performing homosexual acts with life imprisonment, the bill mandates the death penalty if the accused person is HIV positive, a repeat offender, a “person of authority” over the other partner or if the partner is younger than 18. All citizens would be required to report any known homosexual to the police within 24 hours or risk three years in jail.

“As a pastor, I’ve found that the most effective way to build consensus for social change is usually through direct diplomacy and behind-the-scenes dialogue, rather than through media,” said Warren, who, along with his wife Kay, heads Saddleback’s HIV/AIDS Initiative. “But because I didn’t rush to make a public statement, some erroneously concluded that I supported this terrible bill, and some even claimed I was a sponsor of the bill. You in Uganda know that is untrue.”

While he maintains his traditional evangelical views on homosexuality in the video, claiming “all sex outside of marriage is not what God intends” and “Jesus reaffirmed what Moses wrote that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman committed to each other for life,” he urges Ugandan church leaders to reject this proposed legislation.

“As you know, in Africa, it is the churches that are bearing the primary burden of providing care for people infected with HIV/AIDS,” Warren says. “If this bill passed, homosexuals who are HIV positive will be reluctant to seek or receive care, comfort and compassion from our churches out of fear of being reported. You and I know that the churches of Uganda are the truly caring communities where people receive hope and help, not condemnation.”

He adds, “It would be inconsistent to save some lives and wish death on others. We’re not just pro-life. We are whole life.”

Watch Warren’s video below.

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Previous Comments:

Rich, AZ, 2009-12-16 10:43:14
"""Pastor Rick Warren Speaks Out Against Antigay Ugandan Law""" You must remember these laws were pushed by the pray breakfast congressmen in DC that traveled to Ugandan and spoke out against gays. Ugandan lawmakers are just following what American lawmakers were telling them then they travel to Ugandan. Ugandan lawmakers will be in Washington, DC in March, 2010 for the big international pray breakfast. At the same time, now our lawmakers are NOT speaking out about the radical laws.

Richard Broussard, San Francisco, 2009-12-15 16:35:12
The insidious extremist Christian cabal 'The Family' of Capital Hill’s C St. fame has had it's ugly hand in this ghastly Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda legislation from the get-go. Brings to mind the Rockefeller Foundation's part in supporting the German eugenics program. In much the same way as the American Eugenics Movement morphed into Hitler's "Final Solution", once again the good ol' U.S. of A. has exported hate to have it sprout sharper teeth on foreign soil. Will we ever learn?

RZ, Washington, DC, 2009-12-15 09:44:10
You can find support for slavery and oppression of women in the Bible too. It is essential to separate the rules that may have made some sense 2000 years ago from the essence of Christianity, which is that God loves each of us unconditionally and it is our duty to translate that message into langauages that everyone can use understand and use. Rick Warren's ideas about homosexuality are just bigoted. They do a great deal of harm and in my view are unchristian.