God Loves Uganda: How An Oscar-Winning Producer And A Fiery Reverend May Save Africa’s LGBT People

The documentary “God Loves Uganda” exposes the US Evangelical community’s funding and fostering of anti-gay hate in Uganda. LGBT activist and guest author Sean Sala talks about the film and saving Africa’s LGBT community from the downward spiral of Evangelical extremism.

I shuffled into a San Diego bar after the screening of the film “God Loves Uganda” to have some whiskey with its Oscar-winning director, Roger Ross Williams and the Reverend Albert Ogle. Both were tired but ready for a drink after a long day of preparation and a successful night. Williams, a tall filmmaker from New York sat next to the much shorter Episcopalian Reverend in full garb, collar and all. On the surface, I suppose they might seem to an outsider an unlikely pair, but these two men are on the forefront of what could help educate and save the LGBT community of Africa.


The producers of “God Loves Uganda” describe Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” legislation as “an American influenced bill to make homosexuality punishable by death,” and warn that as it wins “widespread support, tension in Uganda mounts and an atmosphere of murderous hatred takes hold. The film reveals the conflicting motives of faith and greed, ecstasy and egotism, among Ugandan ministers, American evangelical leaders and the foot soldiers of a theology that sees Uganda as a test case, ground zero in a battle not for millions, but billions of souls.”


With the lights in the bar dim, and whiskey poured, these two men laughed and shared about what else could be done and what was in store for the documentary. And with a few hilarious personal stories in between all of the serious talk, I listened and learned. After the screening in San Diego, I was helping tear down the trimmings of a successful night. San Diegans had come out in droves earlier that night and filled the Birch North Park theatre to see Williams and his latest piece. But it was people’s reactions after seeing the documentary that caused my heart to truly understand the purpose of this project. It can save Africa’s LGBT community from the downward spiral of Evangelical extremism.

Williams’ documentary is an exposé on what is happening in Uganda and in so many other nations in Africa to the LGBT community. To say the nation of Uganda is on fire with hate is an understatement. The entire continent is in peril! Just the other day the President of Zimbabwe called for the beheading of LGBT citizens. A prominent global activist’s body in Cameroon was found with severe wounds and seared with an iron. Africa itself is on fire with hate. A while ago I wrote an exclusive op-ed for this site, about how ministries such as the now folded Exodus International have played a role in the fruition of genocide on the continent of Africa. But “God loves Uganda” goes deeper into a much more “out there” and aggressive movement from a cultish Church in Kansas City, Missouri. This movement is lead by Lou Engle of the “International House of Prayer.”

read more at: http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/god-loves-uganda-how-an-oscar-winning-producer-and-a-fiery-reverend-may-save-africas-lgbt-people/politics/2013/08/03/72401