Religion Dispatches
…known as Scott Lively, but as an American evangelical. When Warren goes to Kenya, he’s not Warren, but an American evangelical. As long as they have a church title and stand for conservative politics, they have influence. The Africans don’t always have the resources to follow their statements so they say: this man of God says this is going on in the world. Or Scott Lively goes to the Uganda Anti-gay Conference, and the media says that an American…
Read More…ly structure that does not follow the so-called “one man/one woman” model. Kenya has been a particular focal point of the U.S. Christian right for years. In 2010, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ; founded by televangelist Pat Robertson), opened an office in Nairobi, around the time that Kenya was debating a new constitution that included controversial addendums to its penal code regarding abortion. The ACLJ pledged when it opened in N…
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…last summer. Many American activists were pressing him to publicly condemn Kenya’s colonial-era law making homosexuality a crime. But Kenyan gays and lesbians were wary. In the weeks leading up to Obama’s visit, Kenyan politicians took to the airwaves to assert their anti-gay bona fides. Deputy President William Ruto gave a guest sermon in a church to announce that Kenya “had no room” for homosexuality. As the vitriol increased, so did the inciden…
Read More…ong after, the former acquaintance called to threaten Subhi from a Turkish phone number. Power noted that Subhi spoke at a recent UN Security Council Session, the first-ever dedicated to LGBT rights, which she said was an important precedent to set: But also, it allowed us to convey, in a single voice, and with the authority of the Security Council – which is the premiere global enforcement body for peace and security – it allowed us to convey tha…
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…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…
Read More…ve on their particular set of issues—to reflect on these recent debates in France in light of the ever-evolving Black Lives Matter movement. In France, these debates surround a series of bans enacted (and subsequently struck down) on the burkini, the full-coverage women’s bathing garment that most closely resembles a skirted scuba diving suit. As BLM helps white America “get woke,” what might it take to wake up a French worldview that ties secular…
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…on a Bollywood Float at the Vancouver Pride Parade, a move that “thrilled” the South Asian LGBT community, reports Can-India News. Kenya: Equality activists urge president to ban forced anal exams Eric Gitari, executive director of NGLHRC-Kenya, urged President Uhuru Kenyatta, who appears to have won reelection in an election being contested by the opposition, to take a stronger stand on behalf of LGBT human rights and to end the use of forced ana…
Read More…new collection of stories by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Kenyans. “He could not do that in Lagos (Nigeria).” Kushner also quotes Reverend John Makokha, director of a Kenyan gay rights alliance: “The source of homophobia is the Church,” said Makokha, the reverend who works with churches and mosques throughout Kenya to promote acceptance of gays. He said he and fellow activists spend most of their time convincing families of LGBT i…
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…a-based scholars to do the field work, most of it in Southern Africa, with Kenya and Nigeria representing the East and the West respectively. While one may squabble about some of the choices—why for instance, Ghana was not chosen to bring more representation to West Africa—no one volume can do everything. This book is a product of a collaborative effort among the authors, Anglican scholar Cyril Imo writing on Northern Nigeria, church historian Joh…
Read More…rts struck it down, the environment has proved too dangerous for a growing number of Ugandans. But in Kenya they face constant attacks, kidnappings, extortion and police harassment. Recently, almost a dozen LGBT people were taken by the United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) to a safe house in Nairobi, after they were attacked on a night out. Even that agency – the very group tasked with protected LGBT people – has admitted its own staff are hosti…
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