Uganda 'Phobe to Attend (D.C. National) Prayer Breakfast

[Newsjock]

Source: The Advocate

David Bahati, the author of Uganda’s so-called “kill the gays” bill, which proposes the death penalty for gay people, has announced that he will attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4. President Obama is also expected to attend the event.

The annual prayer breakfast is organized by The Family, a conservative Christian organization that counts several high-ranking politicians among its members and whose teachings are said to have inspired Bahati’s bill.


Read more: http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/01/16/Uganda_Phobe_To_Attend_Prayer_Breakfast/

[Jamastiene]

1. I cannot believe he will be coming here.

I would actually feel more comfortable in NC that day than I would in DC. At least local yocals who try to gay bash me can be tried and possibly convicted. What that guy is advocating is atrocious. :scared:

[Divine Discontent]

11. I can't believe he'd let him (if he knows yet), because how is this Ugandan's actions any different

than if the bill was that all blacks, women, Muslims, or whatever, were to be killed? I would hope he would put his foot down and say absolutely not.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. It's time we held anti-NPB demonstrations

This thing is a perversion of Christianity -- if it's possible that Christianity can be perverted any further.

At least, in the days when presidents were expected to kiss Billy Graham's ass ring, it was just one guy, and he eventually turned out to be less than odious. But these Family members have more in common with the Manson Family than anything else.

I'm surprised that there has been no call to picket churches, or to hold anti-protests against reproductive clinic "protesters".

While we're at it, maybe we could get the State Department to exclude from entry anyone who advocates violence against others due to sexual orientation. We've been doing this for years for all sorts of other "threats", mainly leftist writers; why not exclude genocidal politicians?

--d!

[chervilant]

30. Ah...

but don't you see? That is precisely how this puerile mythology called Christianity has gained such a solid foothold. One cannot question or challenge Christianity, or one is immediately branded an irreligious person, which is tatamount to broadcasting that one worships the devil.

Fear, bigotry, resentment, ignorance, and a plethora of all that we humans abhor drive our pathetic need to create explicable mythologies to assuage our collective guilt. We have a long, long, long way to go before our species honestly gets in touch with our spirituality.

[Dogmudgeon]

34. Fortunately, it isn't the whole of Christianity

Popular belief in God and Jesus does not trouble me, and most mythologies are benign. That may be heretical of me to say in a forum of my fellow unbelievers, but I don't think those believers do much more than to go along with the program. It's that "program" that causes the trouble. There's a core of pathological, authoritarian Christianity that likes to set itself apart from its sane brethren, and it's got the whip hand.

A concentrated "assault" on those churches -- Fundamentalists, neo-Calvinists, Catholic traditionalists, LDS, and Branch Davidian clones -- could break the grip in a big hurry.

De-chuching society and restoring an authentic sense of spirituality will happen naturally, but not before the grip of fear is broken.

--d!

[chervilant]

36. hmm...

While I agree with most of what you've said (Joseph Campbell has been a most helpful resource for me with regards to understanding humanity's need for mythologies and rituals), I find it difficult to have fruitful conversations with my 'Christian' brethren, particularly when they're family; to whit:

I have just made a radical career change from mortgage lending to teaching (absolutely LOVE teaching and am quite good at it, according to my students). I have had to work three jobs to keep my nose barely above the waters of insolvency (and I am most aware how fortunate I am to even HAVE three jobs!), and have found myself quite short of resources this month because there is no substituting during the several weeks of vacation teachers have in November and December. My 'Christian' family members have declined to assist me, asserting that I have "a long history of being a 'financial and emotional' wreck."

Well, well, well... whatever gets them through the night.

This too shall pass (I'll make it to the other side, I'm confident), but I will long remember how little compassion has been forthcoming from my 'Christian' family members.

By the way, I do believe there is a Creative Force in this Universe, albeit not micromanaging our species' daily activities in a 'purposeful' manner. I also pray daily--in fact, multiple times a day. But, my prayers tend to be "Thank you for gifting me with a red-tailed hawk" or "Thank you for hot water on a cold winter's day."

[RZM]

45. I don't agree with much of this at all

First of all, I believe that a propensity for organized and communal spiritual beliefs has been hardwired into us through a long evolutionary process. It's entirely possible that early human groups (and perhaps even other early hominids) with organized spirituality had a cohesiveness that gave them an edge over groups that did not and thus the former were more successful in getting their genes into subsequent generations. This has been hypothesized recently -- if I can remember where and find the link I'll post it, but I don't buy this 'pathetic need' business at all.

Second, if you question or challenge Christianity and don't profess any other organized religious beliefs, doesn't that mean you ARE irreligious? I sure am. I've never been shy about engaging Christians in discussions about faith in which I put my atheism front and center. I've found that if you do so in a respectful manner, people really don't care. I've certainly never been accused of being in league with the devil. In fact, I've never had a single negative consequence come from my lack of faith at all. The worst that happens is they pester me to join them at church or tell me they will 'pray for me,' which doesn't bother me at all.

[Nancy Boy]

3. Obama

The President should attend and call the fucker out. Just really embarrass The Family and Uganda at the same time. But I doubt anyone will do anything like that. It'll just be protesters who can be easily ignored that do all the standing up.

But, still. One always hopes for some awesomeness.

[dotymed]

4. I wish.

Obama should call him out on it, right there, and show the other "guests" what an idiot this Ugandan is.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. He should call him out before, I think

Rather than making it a last-minute confrontation, tell them now he's not coming unless the guy agrees to withdraw the bill. Then the Ugandan has the time to talk to whoever else in Uganda is supporting the hateful bill. And Obama can then make it clear that if the Ugandan doesn't withdraw the bill, and still gets his invitation to the prayer breakfast, then the 'The Family' is supporting the thing.

Obama has already said he opposes the bill; I think this is a time where he needs to make clear it's a moral opposition to it. This looks like a case where the White House needs to be bombarded with email asking him to not pray with the guy until he's given up the bill.

[Nancy Boy]

10. That'll work, too

Maybe he can do both. I would enjoy seeing it on CNN regularly for a while.

[truth2power]

32. "Obama has already said..."

Obama SAYS a lot of things. What he DOES is something else entirely.

I think one of the most descriptive terms I've seen to describe him is "Dr. Pangloss". "All-words".

[chervilant]

31. hmm...

Some awesomeness, AND some HONESTY...

[RZM]

46. That would be awesome

I think there's even a slight chance he might do it. Probably if he speaks though he'll settle for some watered-down, 'now you kids . . . play nice' type thing. Still he should let this idiot have it with both barrels.

And is your handle a reference to the Placebo song? Just curious :)

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

5. It's just a two minute murder.

:sarcasm: tag for those that need it.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. I guess we know what they will be praying for.

[Starry Messenger]

9. Sad but true, my friend.

It makes me sick.

[usregimechange]

6. Now that's the change we can believe in!

:eyes:

[Shallah Kali]

12. Bahati is in The Family (aka C Street) which created the National Prayer Breakfast

The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family'
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120746516

GROSS: So you're reporting the story for the first time today, and you found this story - this direct connection between The Family and the proposed legislation by following the money?

Mr. SHARLET: Yes, it's - I always say that The Family is secretive, but not secret. You can go and look at 990s, tax forms and follow the money through these organizations that The Family describe as invisible. But you go and you look. You follow that money. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It's not so invisible anymore. So that's how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family.

GROSS: So how did you find out that Bahati is directly connected to The Family? You've described him as a core member of The Family. And this is the person who introduced the anti-gay legislation in Uganda that calls for the death penalty for some gay people.

Mr. SHARLET: Looking at the, The Family's 990s, where they're moving their money to - into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which has described its goals in the past as an international, quote, invisible family binding together world leaders, and also an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads - graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO's through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by -according to Ugandan media - which is run by David Bahati, this same legislator who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

GROSS: Now what about the president of Uganda, President Museveni? Does he have any connections to The Family?

Mr. SHARLET: Well, first, I want to say it's important that you said it, yeah, it hasn't gone into law. It hasn't gone into effect yet. So there is time to push back on this. But it's very likely to go into law. It has support of some of the most powerful men in Uganda, including the dictator of Uganda, a guy named Museveni, whom The Family identified back in 1986 as a key man for Africa.

They wanted to steer him away from neutrality or leftist sympathies and bring him into conservative American alliances, and they were able to do so. They've since promoted Uganda as this bright spot - as I say, as this bright spot for African democracy, despite the fact that under their tutelage, Museveni has slowly shifted away from any even veneer of democracy: imprisoning journalists, tampering with elections, supporting - strongly supporting this Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009.

He's come out just this - just last week and said that this bill is necessary because Europeans are recruiting homosexuals in Uganda, that Europeans are coming in and trying to make Ugandans gay. And he's been rewarded for this because this is sort of where these sort of social issues and foreign affairs issues and free market fundamentalist issues all come together.

[Myrina]

13. I can believe he'd show to a "Family" event, what I can't beleive ...

... is that Obama's going to play nice and be in the same room with him.

Sometimes ya just gotta put your foot down and say 'enough of this shit'.
Other times, ya just gotta use that foot and kick some jackasses like Bahati in the pants.

[fasttense]

14. I can just hear the prayers of those in this supposed "Christian"

prayer breakfast.

The perfect prayer for the perfect hypocrite:

Dear God, Please fill my heart with hate, bigotry and fear so that I may murder and torture with no regret. Just like your son, Jesus Christ, did not murder those with leprosy out of fear and loathing, give me the strength of blind ignorance and rage so I may kill innocents simply because they are not like me. As your son, Jesus Christ did not bow down to Satan in the desert, let me bow down to all that is most evil in mankind and fill my heart with never ending arrogant pride and disdain for other. For these we ask in your name. Amen.

[CanonRay]

15. I surely wish Obama would decline for once

We need to break this precedent.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Obama only takes a stand against the Left

He will try to accommodate everyone else.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Bhati and Obama have many friends and political operatives

in common. Let us not forget that Bhati's law was influenced by Exodus International, an organization which includes Donnie McClurkin, whom candidate Obama hired to speak on his behalf on the campaign trail. McClurkin is infamous for his accusations that the gay community conspires to kill children. Obama hired him and called him a good, moral man. He called him friend. McClurkin has announced war against gay people in the United States.
The President needs to speak to people other than Joshua DuBois and Leah Daughtry on this. He needs to reach beyond what he has been told is the whole of the faith community. Few religious people actually support genocidal pogroms. Seems Obama thinks that they do.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. That kind of comment doesn't belong here.

[IndianaGreen]

18. If death penalty for gays Rick Warren can give the Inaugural Invocation

the equally repugnant Bahati will receive a warm welcome as well.

The issue is why would Obama attend an event that is organized by the cultist The Family?

No self-respecting human being should participate in the National Prayer Breakfast.

[chervilant]

35. hmm...

Well said.

[Jackpine Radical]

21. Guess who's a long'standing member of the Family--(Note date)

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate
By Barbara Ehrenreich

Mar 19, 2008

There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells"--their term--and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, Sharlet joined The Family's home for young men, forswearing sex, drugs and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners--alone.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes--knitting together international networks of right-wing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs.

More at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich

[sulphurdunn]

22. Either churches and religious groups

need to get out of the lobbying business or start paying taxes. It's not so much preaching politics from the pulpit that bothers me as it is the glad handing and elbow rubbing with politicians that equates their prayers with religion but not influence peddling.

[Captain Hilts]

23. Rick Warren is respectfully-received in DC, so there you go. nt

[Christa]

24. I trust Rachel Maddow to extensively report on this nt

[Fearless]

25. So he wants to kell me now? Good. Let him try. Prison is the best place for him.

[marshall]

26. This man probably wouldn't even be admitted into the UK

But the US will fete him at a national event.

[Jamastiene]

42. The US would put him up in a 5 star hotel with all the amenities

at taxpayers' expense. I'm not so sure I like what I see coming in the future. It is beginning to look like a hideous future is in store.

[benny05]

27. Good Grief

Our GLBT friends have been marginalized enough by the current Administration and Congress. Why would anyone invite a hate monger from a rogue country?:-( :evilfrown: :puke: :crazy:

[katandmoon]

28. Why is Obama attending this piece of shit? Will we never have a president who doesn't cravenly

kiss the asses of rightwing religious bigots?

[dana_b]

33. no excuses but most of D.C. will be there

I woud love to see the President and many others "just say no" to this event or to him. Actually the former. This whole event is sickening to me - especially after reading "The Family".

[dbonds]

29. He needs to tell them to fuck off.

For many reasons, but especially because of David Bahati. The Family should be ran out of DC.

[Mari333]

37. allrighty then, hows those FUMES uder the BUS, even worse now!

man, inviting a man who wants to murder gay people to a frigging prayer breakfast in DC...

how much LOWER can the white house set their bar??

[MadLinguist]

38. Maybe there will be an opt-out for the 6th commandment

Christians being so laissez-faire and all, why not? I mean stealing and bearing false witness have already been fully implemented as opt-out commandments for all of the attendees. And Lord Dog almightee, we know the 7th is optional for these folks. Might as well let murder join the ranks.

[suffragette]

39. This made me remember the West Wing Dr. Jacobs episode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD52OlkKfNs

But, although President Obama does remind me of Bartlet in some ways, I can't picture him engaging in this type of smackdown, though I would love to see it.

[IndianaGreen]

40. Hillary Clinton has brought pressure to Uganda to kill the bill

Per original story:

Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the former minister of internal affairs, who is now Uganda’s representative at the UNSC was expected to arrive in Uganda on Friday. It’s unclear what his schedule will be or if a briefing to President Yoweri Museveni on the impact of the proposed Bill on his work in New York is in the works.

Mr Museveni also revealed that he had received several phone calls from world leaders, including from US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. His reaction, say observers, shows that the Uganda government is taking the issue seriously enough.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/-/689844/843418/-/n5cj94/-/

In true fundie fashion, Bahati is also blaming an American author for his troubles:

“We need to protect our children and stop recruitment,” he says.

In the interview with Inside Politics Mr Bahati blames American author Jeff Sharlet who writes about the intersection between religion and politics.

“Sharlet is a liar and is responsible for generating the interest in this Bill abroad. He just wants to sell his book,” Mr Bahati says referring to the author’s new book “The Family. The Secret Fundamentalism at the heart of American power.” The book profiles The Fellowship, the organisation that has invited Mr Bahati to the prayer breakfast next month.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/-/689844/843418/-/n5cj94/-/

[newspeak]

41. It reminds me of the pink stars during Hitler's regime

and Hitler stating "who says God is not on my side." I am not gay, but I have relatives who are-intelligent, compassionate people. Inviting this homophobic, ignorant man sends the wrong message.

[Behind the Aegis]

43. Small correction, but they were pink triangles.

The only one who had pink stars were those like me, who were two "bad" things, in my case, Jewish and gay. There were, of course, other combinations. If someone had more than a few "triangle offenses," 'gay' and 'Jewish' always took precedence. It is important to also note, the yellow triangles (mostly stars) and the pink triangles were 1/3 times larger than the other triangles so they were easier to identify by distance.

[RZM]

47. Where is that quote from?

I'm not saying he didn't say it, but in general, he was very anti-religious and disapproved of Christianity. Not trying to be nit-picky, it's just sometimes you hear people saying Hitler was a Christian, which wasn't really the case (I'm not saying you think that of course). That being said, the Ugandan bill is reminiscent of Nazi-style legislative persecution.

[Vidar]

44. Great company Obama keeps.

[Odin2005]

48. "BUT IT'S JUST ONE SONG"