The UC did respond in 2012.

"Crimes against humanity lawsuit against anti-gay evangelist Pastor Scott Lively, of Springfield, advances in federal court."

Oh, and I just came across another series by Stephen Fry, where he travels the world, trying to grok homophobia...

my favourite quote so far:

"there are some people who are so rabidly homophobic...its as if you met someone who...spent all their life trying to get rid of red telephones..."

talking aboot activism, here is seth rogen talking to a us senate hearing...such wonderful humour and humanity...

Time for national atheist associations to be stepping up to the plate and lobbying against this as well.

http://centreforinquiry.ca/tag/uganda/

The largest atheist group in Canada has a 15 month head start on the UCCan when it comes to denouncing this bill.

Also, the bill was written by Christians, so maybe the Ugandans would be more receptive to other Christians opposing it.

I think everyone should be opposing this bill, but I don't think that Ugandans would be more receptive to other Christians.  The typical response I've seen of more extreme Christians to opposition from other Christians is simply to say that they aren't REAL Christians.  The other day I saw an article about Carrie Underwood supporting marriage equality and there were a bunch of comments about how the devil got to her and how she wasn't a real Christian, etc.  Those comments were made by people who just want to prevent gay couples from getting married.  I don't imagine that a country that wants to imprison or kill homosexuals would be likely to listen to liberal Christians.

I wish there was a clear cut answer here for how to solve this problem.  The only thing I can think of is to cut off all trade and aid to Uganda, except for accepting refugees from Uganda.  That should be stepped up as much as possible.  Even international pressure won't solve the root of the problem, though.  Let's say it's finally defeated and homosexuals are no longer being imprisoned for being gay.  There's still nothing to stop harassment of homosexuals there; they will be thrown in jail for other things, or they will be beaten or killed and the perpetrators will get off because the police and courts will be biased in favour of people who take on the "gay problem."  

one of the places that stephen fry visits is uganda...so i actually get to hear what some ugandans think...

it's a great bit of empathic filmmaking

its amazing who he gets to meet:

in uganda with the State Minister for Ethics & Integrity in the Office of the President (what he says is flabbergasting...)

in Russia with the head guy responsible for the anti gay propaganda law

i'm glad that he is able and willing to do this;  hates thrive in ignorance...light, openness, education (which is what this globally-connected world is giving) causes it to wither...

(in case anyone is interested, here is a link to the russian anti gay propaganda law)

For one short but exciting Freudian slip moment I read the title of this thread as: "Uganda kills the gays bill."

What is most disturbing about this gross violation of human rights is the involvement of American Christian fundamentalists! How low can they go!? This is outright criminal activity! Is there no law in the United States that prohibits criminal activity by US citizens abroad?

Arminius,

well, one of them, Pastor Scott Lively, is currently being charged with crimes against humanity for his involvement with uganda...

dang, i wrote a post, and lost it.  let me try again.

I remember from way back the churches renoucning this item, and I am sure there were posts and threads from various friends and through churches renouncing it...way back.

I was surprised to see that it had passed (haven't seen the news as focus has been on other items, but did see posts and retweets from church friends).

One thing, chansen, is you presume that the churches aren't responding, when often their responses just aren't making press anymore.  (you know, it is one of those things, where the churches lack of power in influencing behaviour is markedly showing...life is not what it used to be...which is good for all the bad stuff, but, bad for all the good stuff such as speaking out on justice issues which you happen to agree with)

Good to know. Thanks, Inna!

This situation is not caused by Christianity, atheism, hinduism, islam etc....This situation has nothing to do with religious beliefs at all. This situation is caused by ignorance and fear. Some may use whatever it takes to satisfy their own personal agenda and that may include religion, but the real culprit is someone trying to lay blame on another group in order to avoid issues that certainly have other causes. People don't like looking at themselves to fix things, gov't knows they can divert attention away from their own responsibilities by putting the blame on a group and make them the "hated ones".

Nero knew this, Bush knew this and so does this government.

Re: chansen's comment "The largest atheist group in Canada has a 15 month head start on the UCCan when it comes to denouncing this bill."

All this tells me is that it's not only the UCCan that the media is ignoring on this issue. If you believe the whole issue is about "who's first to protest this", I don't see how that would actually improve the lives of gays in Uganda.

But thanks for pointing out the existance of this group. It's the first time I had heard of them.

BTW, why are Russian atheists so opposed to (afraid of?) gays?

Chansen, minor question.

Where did the 18month measure come from?

Stardust posted a link from Dec 14, 2012 from the United Church: http://www.united-church.ca/communications/news/general/121214

and again, the Observer responded , keeping the item in the news, and the church and kairos have continued to bring it forward.

You posted a link from Nov 29, 2012 from the site: http://centreforinquiry.ca/tag/uganda/

Where is the 18month calc?

i think a helpful lens through which to look at all things aboot Russia is that Russians are historically slaves to all the various divine-power-given tsars that have come and taken over, wave after wave, and rewritten history (and myths and legends etc)

Stalin rewrote the laws of his country so that no one can ever not be committing a crime.  Russians are still dealing with that reality

this is the country where really smart scientists can think now that Stalin wasn't so bad after all

Simple. I missed that post. My apologies to Stardust and the UCCan. I'm not used to them responding in ways that I would hope.

no problem regarding missing, just was curious.

The topic of uganda and other social justice issues has been on the radar for a while.

Check out http://www.kairoscanada.org/who-we-are/  for some of the current concerns in the world today

This is one more example of malicious acts for which we have very limited influence.  However, even if we feel temporarily powerless, it is important to refuse to be indifferent, choosing instead to develop relationships which can help increase our influence.