June 10, 2014 |<\/p>\n
Dear Archbishops,<\/p>\n
We write to you today as members of the Chicago Consultation, a gathering of\u00a0Anglican bishops, theologians, clergy and lay leaders from across Africa and the\u00a0United States, that meets to pray, to study issues of gender and sexuality as they are\u00a0presented in the pages of Holy Scripture, and to learn how God is at work in each\u00a0of our unique contexts.<\/p>\n
As you may know, on June 12, a gay man and a transgender woman will go on trial\u00a0in Uganda for \u201ccarnal knowledge against the order of nature.\u201d Kim Mukisa, 24, a\u00a0market vendor and Jackson Mukasa, 19, a student, were arrested in January and\u00a0held for almost five months without trial before being released in May.<\/p>\n
Their prosecution will be the first since President Yoweri Museveni signed the\u00a0Anti-Homosexuality Act into law in late February. The legislation was supported\u00a0by Archbishop Stanley Ntagali and many other leaders in the Anglican Church of\u00a0Uganda supported. Nigeria passed a similar law with the vocal support of\u00a0Archbishop Nicholas Okoh and the leaders of his church. In both countries, the\u00a0publicity surrounding the legislation precipitated a wave of violence, extortion, loss\u00a0of housing, loss of employment and ongoing harassment against lesbian, gay,\u00a0bisexual and transgender people, many of them Christians.<\/p>\n
In Uganda, Human Rights Watch reports \u201ca notable increase in arbitrary arrests,\u00a0police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness\u201d since\u00a0the law was passed, and says that at least one transgender person has been killed in\u00a0an apparent hate crime.<\/p>\n
In the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi, police allegedly entrapped and tortured\u00a0four gay men to turn over the names of dozens of other gay men, of whom 38\u00a0have been arrested. State officials deny using torture, but the head of Bauchi\u2019s\u00a0Shariah Commission said 11 gay men had been arrested and \u201cwe are on the hunt\u00a0for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even social service agencies that work with LGBT people are in danger. On April\u00a03 Uganda police raided the University Walter Reed Project clinic, a non-profit\u00a0clinic run by Makerere University in Kampala and the U.S. Military HIV Research\u00a0Program, claiming that the clinic was “carrying out recruitment and training of\u00a0young males in unnatural sex acts.”<\/p>\n
The leaders of the Anglican Communion cannot remain silent while leading figures\u00a0in the Communion are complicit in acts of violence and widespread human rights\u00a0violations. What is the rest of the world to think when the Communion convenes\u00a0high-level panels to express their disapproval when a gay man is elected bishop in\u00a0the United States but makes barely a sound when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people\u00a0are beaten and imprisoned in Africa?<\/p>\n
We believe that Christians who read and reason from the same Bible can arrive in good faith at\u00a0differing conclusions about the moral legitimacy of same-sex relationships. But we also believe\u00a0that there is no religiously rooted justification for perpetrating violence against innocent men\u00a0and women who, whatever their sexual orientation or identity, are created in the image and\u00a0likeness of God. There is no legitimate Christian rationale for denying lesbian, gay, bisexual and\u00a0transgender people the human rights bestowed upon all of God\u2019s children.<\/p>\n
Whatever their political or theological opinions, faithful Christians are called to offer sanctuary\u00a0to the persecuted, not encouragement to the persecutors. We urge you to use the occasion of the\u00a0trial that begins in Uganda next week to speak out against the persecution of LGBT people in\u00a0the provinces of the Anglican Communion and in the wider world.<\/p>\n
Yours in Christ,<\/p>\n
Ms. Paula Abuor<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jennifer Adams<\/p>\n
The Very Rev. Brian Baker<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows<\/p>\n
Ms. Ruth Frey<\/p>\n
The Rev. Lowell Grisham<\/p>\n
Dr. Ragies Gunda<\/p>\n
The Very Rev. Gary R. Hall<\/p>\n
The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings<\/p>\n
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee<\/p>\n
Dr. Dora Mbuwayesango<\/p>\n
The Rev. Ernesto Medina<\/p>\n
The Rev. Emily Mellott<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Ruth A. Meyers<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Bonnie A. Perry<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jon Richardson<\/p>\n
The Rev. MacDonald Sembereka<\/p>\n
The Very Rev. Jane Shaw<\/p>\n
The Rt. Rev. Brian Thom<\/p>\n
Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett<\/p>\n
Professor Gerald West<\/p>\n
Steering Committee of the Chicago Consultation<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 10, 2014 | Dear Archbishops, We write to you today as members of the Chicago Consultation, a gathering of\u00a0Anglican bishops, theologians, clergy and lay leaders from across Africa and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagoconsultation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}