Doug PollardFrankston Slouching towards Kampala
Frankston MP Geoff Shaw must either renounce his church or his seat
Today, the Ugandan parliament may pass a bill that mandates the death penalty for homosexuality in certain circumstance.
I’ve cribbed my heading today from Box Turtle Bulletin, which has been covering the progress of the bill since the beginning Really Long Link , so I won’t rehash all the details here.
And there are petitions galore on the subject: please sign asap Really Long Link
Origins of gay death penalty bill
The bill has been pushed and promoted by a clutch of US evangelists, notably Scott Lively.
“Stoking the fires of gay hate in Uganda has been Scott Lively, of California’s Abiding Truth Ministries. His book, the Pink Swastika, theorises that homosexuals were the driving force behind Germany’s Nazi atrocities. Meeting organiser was Stephen Langa, a Watoto Church elder.”
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“While not alone, Watoto is at the forefront of the anti-gay movement in Uganda. Stephen Langa, an elder at Watoto and the head of the Family Life Network, produced a March conference on homosexuality in Uganda and at least two of the sessions were held at the church. He then pressed the government “to enact stringent laws against the practice,” an article in New Vision, a Ugandan newspaper, paraphrased him saying.
“David Bahati, a member of Uganda’s Parliament, has since introduced legislation that would punish gay men and lesbians with the death penalty or life in prison in some cases, though the government has suggested the harshest provision could be removed. The bill requires doctors, priests, and others to report homosexuals to police. Gary Skinner (of both Hillsong and Watoto) has said nothing about the bill or at least nothing that has been reported in Uganda’s press. But the pastor has influence in Uganda.”
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What has all this to do with Frankston?
Well, Hillsong and Watoto are part of a worldwide network of Pentecostal churches with a strong anti-homosexual ethos. Another is Peninsula City Church in Frankston - where Geoff Shaw, the local MP is an active member.
Peninsula isn’t just a sister church to Watoto: it is actively connected. It sends missionaries there. Really Long Link
So Mr Shaw’s sickening anti-gay rant to his constituent Jakob Quilligan wasn’t some momentary brain-snap. It aligns with the tenets of the church he actively supports (you can read the exchange here Really Long Link ).
Peninsula City church preaches homophobia
Perhaps you think that this doesn’t prove that Peninsula isn’t homophobic. Then consider this.
Shaw’s church runs the Alpha Course, a sort of quick conversion to evangelical Christianity cult-style brainwashing system for non-churchgoers, headed by the Reverend Nick Gumbel Really Long Link
This is what Alpha teaches about homosexuality:
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(This next bit is shamelessly plagiarised from Mike Stutchberry Really Long Link )
The Alpha course compares homosexuality to paedophilia. The Alpha course advocates the idea that homosexuality involves “shameful lusts,” and labels homosexuals as “homosexual offenders”. The Alpha course encourages homosexuals to suppress their sexual urges and “be healed”.
In a much-referred-to newspaper article, an agnostic asked Gumbel what was so sinful about a homosexual friend who since he was a child had found himself attracted to other boys. Gumbel replies:
If a paedophile said, “Ever since I was a child I found myself attracted to children”, we wouldn’t say that was normal, would we? … Now, I am not for a moment comparing homosexuals with paedophiles”
The text says: “There is a great deal of evidence that homosexual orientation is something that is acquired or learned … ( caused by one of the following issues) “lack of love and affirmation from a same sex parent; a dominant, controlling or overprotective and possessive mother; a weak, ineffective or rejecting father; incest or sexual abuse”.
All of which has been thoroughly discredited by proper scientific research.
This course is endorsed and run by Peninsula City. Not hard to see where Geoff Shaw gets his bigotry from, is it?
(Thanks Mike!!)
Shaw must choose
Clearly Mr Shaws ‘apology; - which was of the non-apologetic variety and did not resile from anything he had said – was not sincere.
Mr Shaw must now choose – he must either renounce his virulently homophobic church, or his parliamentary career. He cannot have both.
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