UGANDAN LGTB ACTIVIST MURDERED

Jim Burroway at Box turtle Bulletin reports that David Kato Kisuule, LGTB activist in Uganda, was murdered.

David Kato was a spokesperson for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and one of the plaintiffs (or applicants) in the successful lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction against the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the U.S. publication of the same name). Kato was one of three applicants who had been named by the tabloid under a headline tagged “Hang Them!”

Few details are available a this time.

Lord, have mercy!

IT'S CALLED CONSEQUENCES, MP BAHITI

From Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin:

Mike Jones at Change.org has learned that Ugandan MP David Bahati, who was slated to come to Washington, D.C. to attend next week’s conference of the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management, will not be permitted entry into the conference....
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Warren Throckmorton confirms that Bahati, author of Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, still thinks he’s going to the conference, but Hadden told Throckmorton via email that “the ICGFM Executive Committee has agreed that his attendance is not consistent with the mission of the organization.”

Sadly, what I said in the past appears to be true. The secular organizations will pressure the leadership in Uganda to remove the pending anti-gay legislation from the agenda, more-so than the religious organizations, which serves to highlight the courage of Ugandan religious leaders like Anglican Bishop Christopher, who, in his retirement, chose to take up the cause of and minister to gay and lesbian persons in the country where "homosexuality is illegal and where gays and lesbians are routinely tormented and harassed". Bishop Christopher stands in opposition to the legislation, unlike certain of his brother Anglican bishops in Uganda.

BISHOP CHRISTOPHER - THE DESMOND TUTU OF UGANDA?

From San Diego Gay & Lesbian News:

SAN DIEGO – The Right Rev. Christopher Senyonjo could have retired in 1998 as Bishop of the Diocese of West Burganda, Uganda, with his pension and the satisfaction of serving the Anglican Church faithfully for many years.

But in 2001, he felt a calling to help the young people who came to his private counseling service for advice on how to deal with coming out in this east African nation of 33 million people where homosexuality is illegal and where gays and lesbians are routinely tormented and harassed.

So Bishop Christopher, as he is fondly known and who is often referred to as the Desmond Tutu of Uganda,, was compelled to help the confused and frightened young gays who had mustered up the courage to seek his counsel.
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A scandalous tabloid in Uganda called Rolling Stone even put his image on the front cover of a recent edition that called for the hanging of LGBT people, putting his life in danger. Never mind that the bishop is straight, and is a husband, father and grandfather.

To his enemies, Bishop Christopher turns the other cheek. He believes he is doing God’s work – and so do many of his supporters across the globe.

The bishop is in San Diego this week to accept California Senate Resolution 51, which will be presented to him by state Sen. Christine Kehoe on Thursday, Dec. 2, during a reception at Eden in Hillcrest.

Senate Resolution 51 commends Bishop Christopher’s work and calls for government to be more stringent in monitoring abuses by churches that are supporting the false claims of so called “ex-gay ministries” and exporting homophobia to countries like Uganda. It also encourages faith-based organizations in the U.S. to support the creation of policies in other countries that do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Ever the humble man, Bishop Christopher says he feels honored by the resolution.

“Thank God there are people who appreciate what I am doing,” he says. “I didn’t think, in my lifetime, that I would be recognized for what I am doing. … It encourages me to go on serving to the end of my life.”

H/T to MadPriest, who called my attention to the article and the video of the courageous Bishop Christopher. MadPriest himself also speaks powerful and true words about God and God's love:

There is one credal statement of which no greater can be imagined. It is never provisional and it cannot be subject to any other statement. All other statements are subject to it and are untruthful if they do not fully agree with it or give rise to anything that is not of it. There are no exceptions. Scripture, the Church and God cannot add to, lessen or change it in any way. It is of itself as God is of Godself, because it is God. It is the greatest truth from which all reality flows.

God is love.

Read the rest of MadPriest's words at the link above.