Scott Lively
Scott Lively is the leading American conspirator behind the Ugandan “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”, and at last Sexual Minorities Uganda is bringing him to account. They have filed a statement of claim in a court in Massachusetts.
This is not a matter of religious belief or freedom of speech. Lively is entitled to express his belief that freedom of speech is a bad thing, and that advocacy for gay rights should accordingly be criminalised. He is entitled even to lie that the Nazi rise to power was a homosexual conspiracy, ignoring the 100,000 arrested for homosexuality during the Nazi regime. The court action against him is for his actions, not his words or beliefs.
The wrong is conspiracy to commit a crime against humanity, namely persecution, defined in international law as the “intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity.” The conspiracy succeeds according to Lively’s wishes: even before the passing of his Bill gay men are murdered and lesbians sexually abused by the police. Organisations which speak for them are proscribed, and human rights NGOs which might speak for the LGBT community will not, in case they are removed from the country. Gay people are refused AIDS treatment, and a clinic set up to treat gay AIDS sufferers is threatened with closure.
It is not that gay people are safe if they are quiet and pretend to be straight. They are named in the press, and their address details given.
This is what Lively wanted. He whipped up hatred of gay people with this precise purpose. He organised and spoke at a conference for legislators and others in 2009, where he told the lie that gay people seek to recruit children to homosexuality through pederasty. He incited those politicians and others to the hatred and violence they now pursue.
People die because of Scott Lively.
He is proud of this. He has been working in Uganda to create this situation since 2002, and wrote, my host and ministry partner in Kampala, Stephen LANGA, was overjoyed with the results of our efforts and predicted confidently that the coming weeks would see significant improvement in the moral climate of the nation, and a massive increase in pro-family activism in every social sphere. He said that a respected observer of society in Kampala had told him that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the “gay” agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true.
What is that gay agenda? Not to convert children, or harm society, but to live in peace and be treated like human beings. A nuclear bomb is not a proportionate response.
Directly because of Lively’s activities, gay people and gay organisations in Uganda suffer severe deprivations of fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and the press, and the rights:
- to be free from arbitrary arrest and detention;
- to be free from torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;
- the right to respect for human dignity;
- the right to privacy.
Dear Clare
Thank you for this post which, together with the statement of claim, makes very chilling reading. Perhaps this man is the devil masquerading, or perhaps he is a homosexual in denial. Whatever he is, I hope the action against him is successful on all counts.
How dare he travel abroad and spread dangerous and deeply damaging falsehoods among the nations where he is received? What a deeply irresponsible way to behave. Of course, he sees that as his god given mission, to spread fear and hatred. Words fail me.
But nothing will stop me loving these he persecutes, and praying for them.
XXX
Lively’s story is not just that our actions are immoral, but that we do intentional harm. He does not see us as human beings, but as enemies. You would think, with the fall of the “Holy Spirit Movement”, that Ugandans would beware violent preachers.
Ah. There’s a thought: we deliberately do one thing he finds bad, so he thinks we will deliberately do any possible wickedness. Or, the only thing holding back a tide of filth and evil is his valiant campaigning. I tend to feel the tide rises within him.
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Unbelievable hatred. Simply unbelievable.
Thank you for opposing it with me.
I’m always on your side, if you’re in the right love.
this man does not know the love of God in his life, if he did then he could incite hatred; Jesus only ever “lost it” it once, and that was when he challenged people who were supposed to be showing people God and were in it for a fast buck. Is it James that says what comes out of a person mouth shows what he has in his heart. From what I read this person does not have the light of God in his heart, it is something dark and twisted.
Read on my Twitter feed that a leading evangelical has come out in favour of Equal Marriage, on the grounds that the Church should be encouraging people who love each other to worship God together, what a difference
That is Steve Chalke. Worth reading. And here is a long blog thread debating that possibility.
I think the need is to worship together, with people who are willing to forbear to tell the other precisely how their Christianity is wrong. Get to know each other first, and make the first question What can I respect in this person?