The documentary “God Loves Uganda” exposes the US Evangelical community’s funding and fostering of anti-gay hate in Uganda. LGBT activist and guest author Sean Sala talks about the film and saving Africa’s LGBT community from the downward spiral of Evangelical extremism.
I shuffled into a San Diego bar after the screening of the film “God Loves Uganda” to have some whiskey with its Oscar-winning director, Roger Ross Williams and the Reverend Albert Ogle. Both were tired but ready for a drink after a long day of preparation and a successful night. Williams, a tall filmmaker from New York sat next to the much shorter Episcopalian Reverend in full garb, collar and all. On the surface, I suppose they might seem to an outsider an unlikely pair, but these two men are on the forefront of what could help educate and save the LGBT community of Africa.
The producers of “God Loves Uganda” describe Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” legislation as “an American influenced bill to make homosexuality punishable by death,” and warn that as it wins “widespread support, tension in Uganda mounts and an atmosphere of murderous hatred takes hold. The film reveals the conflicting motives of faith and greed, ecstasy and egotism, among Ugandan ministers, American evangelical leaders and the foot soldiers of a theology that sees Uganda as a test case, ground zero in a battle not for millions, but billions of souls.”
With the lights in the bar dim, and whiskey poured, these two men laughed and shared about what else could be done and what was in store for the documentary. And with a few hilarious personal stories in between all of the serious talk, I listened and learned.
After the screening in San Diego, I was helping tear down the trimmings of a successful night. San Diegans had come out in droves earlier that night and filled the Birch North Park theatre to see Williams and his latest piece. But it was people’s reactions after seeing the documentary that caused my heart to truly understand the purpose of this project. It can save Africa’s LGBT community from the downward spiral of Evangelical extremism.
Williams’ documentary is an exposé on what is happening in Uganda and  in so many other nations in Africa to the LGBT community. To say the nation of Uganda is on fire with hate is an understatement. The entire continent is in peril! Just the other day the President of Zimbabwe called for the beheading of LGBT citizens. A prominent global activist’s body in Cameroon was found with severe wounds and seared with an iron. Africa itself is on fire with hate.
A while ago I wrote an exclusive op-ed for this site, about how ministries such as the now folded Exodus International have played a role in the fruition of genocide on the continent of Africa. But “God loves Uganda” goes deeper into a much more “out there†and aggressive movement from a cultish Church in Kansas City, Missouri. This movement is lead by Lou Engle of the “International House of Prayer.â€
The connection between what is called “IHop” and the nation of Uganda specifically is astounding. This church, like a network of killer bees, has thousands of staff and volunteers who have set their sights on Africa. They call America a nation of “failed social policy†and seek to “multiply themselves” in the nation of Uganda which has a very low-aged and susceptible population of young people. IHop missionaries literally say that they see this population in Uganda as ripe to “multiply” themselves. Seeing this almost stuck me back to scenes of the Borg from Star Trek — how lifeless and robotic these Church members are. Their idea of multiplying is going across the oceans, preaching the Gospel with a tagline, “It’s OK to criminalize homosexuals.â€
Their message has spread like a fire. Indeed in Uganda especially, IHop has plants that stay and live in Uganda permanently. One woman in the exposé says that she is “married not to a man, but to Uganda.” She claimed that she was delivered from a “lesbian lifestyle.†She now lives in the country and multiplies disciples of herself. A few people might see this as minute, but when the rich, white Americans come over-seas, their mission to serve the community always has a catch to their services: “You must become one of us.â€
Clearly a Gospel of service to community is a bait and switch, and was never Biblically found in the New Testament. IHOP’s focus is not hunger, but homosexuality! That one must “squash homosexuality†from their nation is the cornerstone of this crusade.
The documentary also contains our “favorite” LGBT bigot Scott Lively, who has been put on trial by a U.S. federal Court for crimes against humanity. He himself has claimed that the gay community is directly responsible for the holocaust and other atrocities worldwide.
The Rev. Cannon Albert Ogle has revealed in his aggressive work via the St. Paul’s Foundation how big the problem is and how time and time again, these churches are finding loop holes behind their religion and power through U.S. taxation.
When I was packing up the ticket sales booth at the end of the screening I overheard a young 19-year old man speak about his recent experiences in the Charismatic Church. He shared with his friend standing with him — a beautiful, middle aged, dark-haired woman who brought him to the screening — how these movements are “brainwashing.”
For a few brief moments, as he explained to me a defense of why he “does not have faith” in anything anymore, I had flashbacks of myself at his age: young, gay and confused. Not because I was gay, but because he was surrounded for years by a cultish culture that drilled into his brain that he is inherently evil, especially for being gay.
I told him, “the old crazy Bible thumper in me, would have told you that if you don’t follow Jesus… A,B,C,D, you are going to hell. But the Jesus I encountered in the Bible was a direct opposite of what Churches teach, especially when it comes to homosexuality. Putting that all aside though, It’s OK to be angry at God. It’s OK to question and just remember that God loves you. His love is much more vast than a religious creed. Ya’ll will work it out.”
In my activism, I don’t get to interact with too many guys as young as this 19-year old. But what I saw in his eyes after I said that was something so simple: hope. Hope that he will one day reconcile his faith. Hope that one day he and God can talk once again in unity and not in confusion. Confusion that man had put upon him. Confusion that man put upon all of Africa.
Which begs the question: How can we help Africa directly? Where can we start? How can we spread the message to young people in America and the young people in Uganda and other nations that being LGBT is OK. How can we stop this hate?
I had these questions too. I, as an activist thought, “where can I start” in regards to Africa?
Then I sat in a bar with that unlikely pair — an Oscar winner from New York and an Episcopal Priest – who bought me a round of whiskey.
Then I found my start.
Roger Ross Williams’ film is going global.
You can visit the St. Paul’s Foundation online, and watch the trailer below of “God Loves Uganda.”
//www.youtube.com/embed/_x3PTLQRQbA
After resigning from Servicemembers United he is in progress of challenging the top ten Mega Churches in United States to denounce Uganda’s Parliament from executing gays and he is the chief organizer of the San Diego rally on March 25th to demand the Supreme Court to rule for full federal marriage equality. He also has formed the “Military Freedom Coalition†to challenge the Transgender ban in the Military. He is also currently working on LGBT issues affecting the continent of Africa.
He served in the United States Navy six years for Naval Intelligence, three combat tours and is an Iraq war Veteran.