But JIm--isn't the problem that you can justify this sort of treatment with a reductive, fundamentalist reading of scripture?

It doesn't help if we just pretend that Leviticus 20:13 doesn't exist. The more clearly we can make the case that scripture must be interpreted, the better off we'll be. The only way I know to get people who are inclined to a literal reading of scripture to the "aha" moment of acknowledging the need for interpretation is to hold up all the discrepancies--the good and the bad together--in the light, and ask them to choose.

Because there comes a point when you do have to choose. How you make the choice--that's what really matters.

Three or four years ago, in an interview since deleted by Anglican TV, Orombi estimated that his church had received more than $200,000 from his American "Orthodox Friends". I wondered at the time if this estimate might have been on the low side. Do you have any notion, beyond "awash", of roughly how much money may have been channeled to the Ugandan church by the US right in recent years?

Scripture has nothing to do with this and never should be used to justify hatred and injustice.

Pure and simple this is homophobic bigotry exported by England to its colonies, backed up by colonial law and justified by English missionaries.

If the Africans want to be free of colonialism, they might begin by casting off this homophobic baggage rather than embracing it.

Third-hand apocryphal story: in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (famous for its Hasidic community), a Jewish gay man was "cruised" at the subway station by a Hasidic rabbi.

"Remember Leviticus 20:13, Rebbe!", the gay man said, facetiously.

The rabbi replied: "But I don't to lie with you as with a woman. I want to lie with you AS A MAN!"

But seriously: anyone who would even pretend to UNDERSTAND Leviticus, much less apply it anachronistically today, is f'd up on so many levels, I don't know where to begin. (STARTING w/ going against Jesus's Great Commandment!)

"Are you going to be PSEUDO-Hasidim, or are you going to follow Jesus?" THAT is the question these Ugandans (and their US FUNDERS) need to be asked!

JC Fisher

What needs to be pointed out, Jason, is that Christians do not follow the Bible -- they follow Christ Jesus, and all things, including the Bible, are subject to him. If we do not read and interpret the Bible through the prism of Christ Jesus, we miss the point and are liable to do some very dangerous, unhealthy, sinful things. He himself said: "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life" (John 5:39-40). Our minds must open to Christ Jesus to understand the Bible aright: "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45).

So when we read the Bible, we must measure everything we read against Christ Jesus. When we come to something like Leviticus 20:13, we have to remember his primary directive: "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you" (Luke 6:31). (Unless we are suicidal masochists, none of us wants to be hanged or stoned or otherwise killed for any sin, so if we follow Christ Jesus' words, we will not do so to others.) And we have to remember what he told those who were so zealous to enforce Old Testament law in the case of an adulterous woman: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). If we really believe his words, and are honest about all of us being sinners in one way or another, then by necessity we Christians must drop the rocks. Mercy, compassion and love trump all other considerations in the ethics of Christ Jesus, and since that is what God lavishes on us, we are obligated to lavish the same on others. Jesus says we won't get mercy if we don't give it (Matthew 18:23-35).

For Christians, the overriding question is not "What does the Bible say?", but "What would Jesus do?" (Marketing may have made those four words seem a trite slogan nowadays, but they really are all-important. Christianity's failures in the world are not due so much to outside forces working against it, as they are to the failure of so many Christians to even attempt to be Christlike.) By word and example, Christ Jesus taught us to be not the ones who strike, but the ones who allow ourselves to be struck without seeking revenge (Matthew 5:39). Uganda's would-be executors of homosexuals, and their overseas sponsors, find no safe haven in his gospel and do not stand in the light of his God: "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness... Whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen" (1 John 2:9, 4:20). Needless to say, killing people is not loving them.

In fact, the "orthodox" and the "fundamentalists," for all their self-proclaimed "biblical fidelity" as a motivation and a justification, seem to be zeroing in on one thing only. After all, one doesn't hear them calling for, on the basis of the Old Testament, the execution of:

-- People who work on Saturdays (Exodus 31:15)
-- Adulterers (Leviticus 20:10)
-- Children who disobey their parents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
-- People in contempt of court (Deuteronomy 17:8-12)
-- Heterosexuals who engage in premarital sex (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)

The list could go on, but this is enough to beg the question: so why is following Leviticus 20:13 to the letter so essential, but these other verses can be ignored and not acted on? Obviously, either the agenda of the "orthodox" and the "fundamentalists" is not all that biblical, or their notion of "biblical fidelity" is rather selective, so the Bible isn't quite the be-end and end-all for them that they claim, in the end.

But back to my original point: we are not "Biblians," but Christians; we follow Christ Jesus, not the Bible. So all things, the Bible included, must be measured against Christ Jesus, who told us to love God, love our neighbors (not kill them) and treat others the same way we want them to treat us -- the very kernel of his gospel. If we're not doing that, then we need to do some serious soul-searching and question whether or not we are really Christian at all. In the end, Christ Jesus will judge us on how we treated others, for how we treat them is how we treat him (Matthew 25:31-46).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world could do with a whole lot less Christian and a whole lot more Christlike.

One correction, due to bad typing at the end of a rather long day: "so the Bible isn't quite the be-end and end-all for them..." should read "be-all and end-all..."

What a well thought out comment Gregory! Too often we can respond with emotion, to emotion, which ramps up the tension and turns into an argument. You have calmly and rationally put forward solid information that isn't "in your face!" If we could dial down the tension throughout the Communion and make it more about sharing ideas and less about "being right!" we would do much better.

Thanks so much, Gregory for this very thoughtful essay. I frequently feel depressed by the fundamentalist and never know how to combat their justification of cruelty to others. This part is a terrific argument:
"...one doesn't hear them calling for, on the basis of the Old Testament, the execution of:
-- People who work on Saturdays (Exodus 31:15)
-- Adulterers (Leviticus 20:10)
-- Children who disobey their parents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
-- People in contempt of court (Deuteronomy 17:8-12)
-- Heterosexuals who engage in premarital sex (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)