Presiding Bishop says church opposes proposed Ugandan legislation
Episcopal News Service. December 4, 2009 [120409-02]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said Dec. 4 that the church believes "the public scapegoating of any category of persons, in any context, is anathema" and thus is "deeply concerned" about a proposed Ugandan law that would introduce the death penalty for people who violate that country's anti-homosexuality laws.
Jefferts Schori also noted in her statement that "much of the current climate of fear, rejection, and antagonism toward gay and lesbian persons in African nations has been stirred by members and former members of our own church."
"We note further that attempts to export the culture wars of North America to another context represent the very worst of colonial behavior," she said. "We deeply lament this reality, and repent of any way in which we have participated in this sin."
Homosexuality in the African nation currently carries a penalty of up to life imprisonment. If passed, the proposed bill would introduce the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," which includes assault against people under the age of 18 and those with disabilities.
Opponents fear that people, including family members and clergy, who support and advise homosexual people could be prosecuted and punished under the proposed law, which also would give Ugandan courts jurisdiction over its citizens who violate the law "partly outside or partly in Uganda."
The release of Jefferts Schori's statement was followed shortly by an announcement that a request for a Dec. 7 teleconference meeting of the church's Executive Council had been "withdrawn" by the members who signed a petition in mid-November asking for a meeting "regarding the urgent human rights situation in Uganda."
House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, who had earlier commented on the legislation, told ENS Dec. 4 that, as vice president of the Executive Council, she has asked the Rev. Gay Jennings, chair of the body's Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission, to have the committee consider how council "can make time-sensitive decisions between meetings if the need arises."
The committee had previously been charged with proposing revisions to the council's by-laws during the body's February 2010 meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Anderson noted that while the petitioning council members had withdrawn their request for the special meeting, council has not made a statement on the proposed Ugandan legislation. "I will encourage Executive Council to consider doing so at the February meeting, if the matter is still timely," she said.
One of the signers of the special-meeting petition, Sarah Dylan Breuer, told ENS Dec. 4 that "in conversations and information-gathering among members of council, the President of the House of Deputies and the Presiding Bishop to prepare for the [Dec. 7] meeting, a clear consensus quickly emerged about what needed to be said and how important it was to say it."
"Therefore the work of the special meeting was completed before the meeting began, and we withdrew our request for meeting," she added.
"Where two or three are gathered in his name, Christ shows up -- and that can be true in teleconferences and cyberspace as well," Breuer said of her experience leading up to the Presiding Bishop's statement and the withdrawal of the special-meeting request. "I see this process as a good example of how our polity can work creatively as well as 'decently and in good order' in the 21st century to act as the Holy Spirit leads. I am proud to serve under presiding officers so passionate about the good news of God's justice, and I am deeply grateful for the deftness and grace with which our Presiding Bishop and her staff made this process work."
Jefferts Schori said in the Dec. 4 statement that in the United States and elsewhere, "changed laws do help to shift public opinion and urge a more humane response to difference," noting the recent passage of the Hate Crimes Act in the U.S. extending the law's protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their gender or sexual orientation.
"We note the distance our own culture still needs to travel in removing discriminatory practice from social interactions, yet we have also seen how changed hearts and minds have followed legal sanctions on discriminatory behavior," she said.
The Presiding Bishop also said "we give thanks for the clear position of the United States government on human rights, for the State Department's annual human rights report on Uganda, which observes that the existing colonial-era law on same-sex relations is a societal abuse of human rights, and for the State Department's publicly voiced opposition to the present bill."
She said the church urges the U.S. government to "grant adequate access" to its asylum system "for those fleeing persecution on the basis of homosexuality or gender identity, to work with other governments, international organizations, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide adequate protection for these asylum seekers, and to oppose any attempts at extradition under a law such as that proposed in Uganda."
The church's General Convention in 2006 condemned (via Resolution D005) the criminalization of homosexuality, Jefferts Schori noted, saying that the church urges "all Episcopalians to seek their own conversion toward an ability to see the image of God in the face of every neighbor, of whatever race, gender, sexual orientation, theological position, or creed."
Finally, she called for prayer "for those who live in fear of the implications of this kind of injustice and discrimination, and as a Church, commit ourselves anew to seek partnerships with the Church of Uganda, or any portion thereof, in serving the mission of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
She also said that the Episcopal Church was "grateful for the willingness of the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace to hear this plea on behalf of all God's people, and urge their continued assistance in seeking greater justice," noting that the implication of proposed legislation would impede the communion's Listening Process.
The Anglican Church of Uganda on Nov. 6 issued a press release saying that it is studying the bill and does not yet have an official position on the proposed legislation. However, the release restated the Ugandan church's position that "homosexual behavior is immoral and should not be promoted, supported, or condoned in any way as an 'alternative lifestyle.'"
And AllAfrica.com has reported that the church's provincial secretary told the Monitor newspaper in Kampala, Uganda that jailing homosexuals was preferable to executing them. "If you kill the people, to whom will the message go? We need to have imprisonment for life if the person is still alive," said the Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye, according to the website.