BREAKING: Ugandan "Kill gays" pastor arrested

Pastor Martin Sempa and seven others have been charged by Ugandan authorities with conspiring to frame another pastor on sodomy charges.

Box Turtle has a comprehensive report:

Christmas has come early for the LGBT community in Uganda.The Daily Monitor,Uganda’s largest independent newspaper,reports that two people are in custody and six others are being sought for conspiracy charges over last year’s pastor wars.

The two in custody include anti-gay pastor Solomon Male, along with lawyer Henry Ddungu. They are being charged in connection with as “conspiracy to injure the reputation of Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral, Kampala,” according to Daily Monitor. Also charged are pastors Bob Robert Kayiira, Michael Kyazze and Martin Sempa, lawyer David Kaggwa, Deborah Kyomuhendo and David Mukalazi.
...
Interestingly, the government-owned New Vision is also prominently reporting the arrests as well.
For the Archbishop of York this should all ring a bell. His blood brother Robert Kayanja, went through the same ordeal of false witness from Ssempa. From New Vision dated September 25, 2009:
THE first half of this year left its mark in the history of Uganda’s Born-again church. Renowned pastor, Robert Kayanja, was accused of sodomy.

A group of five pastors and their colleagues pinned the Rubaga Miracle Centre cleric but Kayanja denied the allegations, calling them mudslinging.

The accusers were pastors Michael Kyazze, Martin Ssempa, Solomon Male, Kayiira and Semujju.

Anita Kyomuhendo and David Mukalazi were the co-accusers. The Police investigated the matter and cleared Kayanja, averting a prolonged court battle.

With respect to David Bahati's anti-gay bill the Ugandan-born Archbishop of York said in November 2009 that he intended to keep silent. Bahati and Ssempa are very close allies.

Posted by John B. Chilton on December 23, 2010 10:12 AM | |
Comments (3)

The last paragraph of the Box Turtle Bulletin report reads:

Public charges of sodomy are a common way to settle political and other scores in Uganda. Should the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill become law with its death penalty and other heightened penalties for advocacy on behalf of LGBT people or failure to report gay people to police, such conspiracies will increase and carry far greater dangers. The bill will mean that no one will be safe, including straight people.

Surely this is one of the more salient points. Legislation provides a legal instrument through which these men can persecute one another. Suppose it's a matter of which ones of them have greatest access / influence / cash as to who receives punishment.

Torey Lightcap

Posted by www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=560747865 [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 23, 2010 10:28 AM

Don't you know that the so called orthodox get a "pass" on all of the rest of the moral law so long as they oppose homosexuality?

Here is a case in which they commit false witness, one of the Big Ten of sins, one that is actually in the Moral Code. And they bear false witness in order to steal the person's reputation or parish, another violation of the Big Ten. And if they had their way their false witness would lead to murder, a third violation of the Big Ten, Murder.

I now have to wonder if the west's fundie evangelicals (including the fundie Anglicans) are the influencers or the infleuencees.

After all the so called orthodox take the same positions here. They commit false witness against the good people of TEC, accusing them of abandoning the Nicene faith. That is just one plank in the raft of false witness they commit. They commit theft by alienating property and assets until forced to restore them with only an "oops" as contrition. They support the murderous intent of laws like the Ugandan kill gays bill and argue for the restriction of Human Rights to expose gays to further violence.

But no matter, they are orthodox, they get a pass because their theology is pure. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Posted by Michael Russell [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 23, 2010 11:14 AM

@Torey and @Michael:

Bingo and Bingo.

Posted by John B. Chilton [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 23, 2010 11:30 AM

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