Rick Warren, African AIDS, burning condoms and homosexuality
by Matt Comer, January 7, 2009, 8:11 am
From The Daily Beast:
[Rick] Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.
Damn.
About the Author: Matt Comer
Matt Comer, 24, is an LGBT journalist, blogger and activist currently living and working in Charlotte, N.C., where he serves as editor of QNotes, the LGBT news, arts and entertainment publication of the Carolinas. A native of Winston-Salem, N.C., Matt attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is still continuing to pursue his bachelors degree. He is the owner & editor of InterstateQ.com and has been active in LGBT advocacy work since the age of 14. Learn more about Matt, read his extended bio and see press clippings at MattComer.net.- View all posts by Matt Comer
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January 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Homosexuality is Ilegal in Uganda. So even if you “Damn It”, we will enforce the law. Nothing wrong with a pastor asking the Government to enforce a law which was established by the parliament. It wasn’t Rick Warren who wrote the law of Uganda. Independent of Warren and his HIV programs, Uganda will not accept Homosexuality because we consider it Anti-Life, Anti-family, Anti-Afrocentric culture and Anti-God. “For God and my Country.”
January 7th, 2009 at 10:17 am
“Anti-Afrocentric culture”
Too bad homosexuality was everywhere in Africa before Europe took over. I think someone needs a history lesson.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Take it from one who is soon to be a lawyer – the law is not always just, and in order to do good, sometimes you have to disregard the law. As a man of the cloth, somebody who speaks in the name of our Lord, this pastor should never be complicit in persecuting or victimizing anybody – and that’s exactly what he’s doing, both by holding out individuals to community condemnation and by his anti-scientific condemnation of life-saving methods of preventing HIV/AIDS. It’s inexcusable.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:41 am
I’m a Ugandan, and I’ve witnessed all what these guys are claiming.
1- Dr. Martin has helped my nation very much as regards HIV/AIDS prevention. Initially Makerere was a dean of death! lots of our relatives were dying at the university, reason being HIV/AIDS. the spread was so much causal sex, and sex promotions, with out a full knowledge of what sex entails. its not a matter of just sleeping with someone. Sex has ability to reproduce (bear children), it entails much more, emotion, physical and spiritual….
About the the “Burning of Condoms”.. Initially the government had detected that more than a Million NGABO condoms were deffected(http://abstinenceafrica.com/library/index.php?entryid=1780), and they were supposed to be destroyed to protect our people, The government had to destroy them. Dr. Martin helped us alot, he protected our lives by burning those condoms. I WOULD BE A STATISTIC this day if I WERE TO USE THOSE DEADLY CONDOMS.
I urge you to read more and get to the ground.. there many Ugandans in Uganda, who know this, and its a shame that you biased your article, your fellow writers and journalists have written about the matter since 2005 but u’re still giving fake information. Which kinda of writer are you? you’ve to give REAL TRUTH!!!..
There are lots of links to help you…http://www.google.se/search?q=How+Fake+Condoms+Got+Onto+the+Market&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
January 8th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I don’t think anybody at this site wrote anything… its quoted from another site. Can’t you read?