Francis DeBernardo on Discrepancy Between Pope's Political Intervention in U.S. and His Total Silence About Anti-Gay Laws in Africa

Francis DeBernardo at Bondings 2.0 on the . . . curious . . . discrepancy between Pope Francis's choice to wade into politics in the U.S., while he remained totally silent about cruel, draconian anti-LGBT laws when he went to Africa:

Anglican Communion Sanctions Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop of ECUSA Responds: Commitment to Be an Inclusive Church Based on Outstretched Arms of Jesus on the Cross

As Chris Morley has reported to us in several comments, at its Primates 2016 meeting in Canterbury, the Anglican Communion chose yesterday to sanction the Episcopal Church USA for supporting same-sex marriage. For Episcopal News Service, Matthew Davies reports what the presiding bishop of ECUSA, Michael Curry, told his fellow bishops as they moved towards sanctioning ECUSA for supporting LGBT people and their rights:

NY Times Claim That Anti-Gay Laws in Africa Are Blowback for U.S. Intervention: Critical Reflections

I have to admit that I raised my eyebrows a few weeks ago when the New York Times published Norimitsu Onishi's article citing various African commentators claiming that stepped-up anti-gay legislation in a number of African countries is "blowback" for U.S. support of LGBT rights in Africa. I did so because so much that I heard the African voices cited by Onishi saying sounded precisely like what I remember white Southern "liberals" saying during the period of the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s in the U.S.

Paul Vallely and Patricia Miller on the Pope's Failure in Africa: "How Gays Are Treated Is Fundamental to the Future of the Universal Church"

I am not by any means the only person giving testimony about how Pope Francis's silence regarding the threat to LGBT lives in Africa radically undermines his "reform" agenda for the Catholic church. Today's New York Times carries an essay by papal biographer Paul Vallely entitled "The Pope's Failure in Africa." Vallely's testimony is critically important because he has been a strong defender of Francis and a promoter of his reform agenda. 

Bob Shine on Pope Francis's Silence About LGBT People in Africa, and How This Silence Colors His Message of Good News

Bob Shine of New Ways Ministry on Pope Francis's silence about LGBT people in Africa, and how this silence colors his message of good news to the world:

On World AIDS Day, What Message of Good News Do Catholic Leaders Have for People Affected by HIV — After Pope Francis's Trip to Africa?

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. What was the official, unambiguous statement of good news offered by the leaders of the Catholic church to the world on World AIDS Day, regarding an illness that remains epidemic and lethal in particular in the continent of Africa?

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "In Our Christian Heritage We Received from the Missionaries, There Is Nothing of That Inclusive Language"

David Gibson writing for Religion News Service today:

"In our Christian heritage we received from the missionaries, there is nothing of that inclusive language," Archbishop Thomas Msusa of the East African nation of Malawi told National Catholic Reporter.

Swords. And Dying by Them.

What follows is a series of excerpts from things I read/watched this morning, which all seem to me to have a common theme, one about taking swords and dying by them (Matthew 26:52). Violence is in the air we breathe, throughout the world. Our choice is not whether we shall or shall not breathe. It's whether we shall or shall not cooperate with the violence that is part and parcel of our daily existence.

Jacob J. Erickson on Killing of Cecil the Lion As Part of "Larger Theological History of Environmental, Gendered, and Colonial Injustice"

In several comments yesterday, I recommended Jacob J. Erickson's recent essay at Religion Dispatches entitled "The Martyrdom of Cecil the Lion." What I like about Erickson's approach to this story is that he frames it as a story about "a larger theological history of environmental, gendered, and colonial injustice." I think he's right to see the story in this way.

Leah Mickens on Kenyan Catholic Bishops' Response to Polio Vaccination Campaign: Problem Is Not Just Kenyan Bishops

Yesterday, Leah Mickens published a statement about the response of the Catholic bishops of Kenya to the polio vaccination campaign in their nation, about which I had posted. As I did, Leah notes that the Kenyan bishops had previously opposed a tetanus vaccination initiative with claims that it was a covert attempt to make Kenyan women infertile. She points out that Islamic clerics in some countries have also been maintaining that polio vaccinations are used by the West to sterilize or give contraceptives to non-Western people.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Kenyan Catholic Bishops Oppose Polio Vaccination for Children

One minute, the Catholic bishops of Kenya are up in arms about the fact that the U.S. president dares to defend the human rights of a criminalized minority group in their country — the LGBT citizens of Kenya. As the right-wing Catholic media outlet Catholic News Agency (whose newsfeed directly links to the official website of the Kenyan Catholic conference) reported after Mr. Obama's remarks in Kenya, African bishops are depicting his statements defending gay rights as a form of "ideological colonization" of Africa by the West.

Kapya Kaoma on How Vatican Hypocrisy Endangers LGBTQ People

Yesterday, I wrote that I wonder what Pope Francis will say at the World Meeting of Families this September, given that the Catholic archdiocese hosting this event is headed by an archbishop, Charles Chaput, who is an anti-gay culture warrior with a deplorable track record vis-a-vis the rights of LGBT human beings. Here's Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian-born Anglican priest who's with Political Research Associates, who has blown the whistle on the U.S. religious right's involvement in movements spreading anti-gay hatred in Africa, writing recently about the same topic:

Pope Francis on "Ideological Colonization," Same-Sex Marriage, and Contraception: Genealogy of a Disreputable Idea

In the Philippines, Pope Francis warned against the "ideological colonization" of developing nations by developed ones intent on forcing Western concepts of family and sexuality on the developing sector of the world. As Joshua McElwee notes in the National Catholic Reporter article I've just linked, Francis was understood to be speaking against same-sex marriage and contraception with this remark.

"God Loves Uganda": Some Critical Notes

Steve and I had a chance to watch Roger Ross Williams's documentary "God Loves Uganda" last night. Our local PBS station aired it Monday night, and we had saved it. I don't have much to add to what astute reviewers have already said in praise of this film (and here).

"God Loves Uganda" Airs Tonight on PBS Stations in U.S.

A note to all of you that Roger Ross Williams's powerful documentary "God Loves Uganda," which tracks the role of the American evangelical right in fostering anti-gay hysteria in Uganda and other African countries, is being released today in DVD, and is also airing today on many PBS stations. If you click the link "TV (May 19)" on this page, it will open to a window that allows you to check your local PBS station to see whether it's showing the film, and at what time.

Yes, I Did Remove a Comment Here about "Ethnocentric Racists" Promoting "Sodomy" in Western Nations — Here's Why

A quick note to let you know about this situation, in case it explodes in some way in threads here: those who have followed postings here for some time may know that I posted a number of pieces back in September 2013 about comments (ugly ones) left here by a gentleman living in Nairobi, Mr. Njonjo Ndehi (see here, here, and here).

Frederick Nzwili in The Tablet: "Ugandan Catholic Church Leaders Are Backing the Controversial Anti-Homosexuality Legislation"

Frederick Nzwili in The Tablet on the response of the Catholic leaders of Uganda to the legislation just signed into law in that country, which criminalizes homosexuality and provides a sentence of 14 years in jail for "first offenders" and a life sentence for repeat offenders:

From Nigeria to Uganda to Russia to Kansas: The Common Thread of Christian Complicity

So here's what's going on in Nigeria right now: 

Division Over Gay Rights in U.S. Apparent Also in Global Catholic Church: Two Churches, Two Sharply Different Memories of Jesus

As the brief notes I posted prior to this about developments on the gay-rights front across the U.S. in just the past week suggest, the mind (and heart) of the American people remain divided about questions of inclusion and justice for gay human beings, even as there seems to be strong, ineluctable movement in the direction of recognizing the full humanity and full range of rights of those who are gay. Perhaps in some ways as strongly divided as the nation was at the time slavery was abolished . . . .

In United Methodist Church, "Ecclesiastical Disobedience Is on the Rise" Over Issue of Gay Marriage

For the New Yorker, Casey N. Cep reports that the United Methodist Church is deeply divided over the issue of full inclusion of LGBTI members in the life of the church--especially after the church started putting fathers on trial for officiating at the weddings of their gay sons. At its latest General Conference, UMC conference delegates voted 61% to 39% against the full inclusion of gay members and for upholding the ban on such inclusion that has been inscribed in the church's Book of Discipline since 1972.