American Evangelical Lou Engle Promotes 'Kill the Gays' Bill at Sunday's Rally in Uganda
huffingtonpost.com
Over 1,300 people gathered at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda on Sunday to hear American Evangelical Lou Engle preach at a rally and prayer service against "homosexuality, witchcraft, and corruption."
Engle's involvement in organizing TheCall Uganda was mired in controversy from the very beginning given his long history of violent anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric and preaching. At past TheCall rallies, like the one in support of Proposition 8 in California, Engle called homosexuality a "spirit of lawlessness" and called for "martyrs" to become "God's Avengers of Blood" to stop the "homosexual agenda" at all cost.
With this backdrop of violence, Engle chose to hold a huge religious rally to further gin up anger towards gay people in Uganda. Before the rally, Engle claimed in a press release that he would not be there promoting the "kill the gays" bill, in an effort to stem some of the push-back he was getting from human rights groups for his panned rally. Not surprisingly, once he arrived in Uganda, his tune was very different and very dangerous.
Not only did Engle fully support the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, but he whipped up bizarre fears of evil gays lurking in schools in Uganda. He also praised the backers of a bill that seeks to kill gays and imprison those who support them. Engle happily gave a huge platform to violent, anti-gay activists with his organization's TheCall rally in Uganda.
This is the danger of exporting radical American Evangelicalism and homophobia to other countries. Lou Engle has turned an already volatile situation into an untenable one where blood will most likely be spilled in the name of his extremism -- blood that will rest firmly on his hands. |
