Russell D. Moore, the former president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and the current editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, recently wrote an article for that magazine entitled “Don’t Pretend the Ugandan Homosexuality Law Is Christian.” In the article, he condemns both the recently passed anti-sodomy law in Uganda and criticizes Christians in the West that support the measure. Moore, to his limited credit, does state several times throughout the article that he recognizes that sodomy is a sin. But his piece has several errors that must be addressed, which I will lay out here by focusing on three points in which I think Moore’s errors are particularly egregious.
The first issue with Moore’s article is that he is unwilling to be forthright in what the law actually does. Although he dislikes almost all it, his biggest complaint appears to be the use of the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” What is meant by “aggravated homosexuality” is never discussed by Moore, he refuses to define it, leading a naïve reader to think it’s simply a term for any homosexual activity. However, it is not. While homosexual activity of all stripes is made illegal under Uganda’s new law, not all homosexual activity is considered “aggravated homosexuality.” Rather, that phrase refers to the most depraved acts – rape, child molestation, and deliberately infecting someone with HIV, an act that is all but murder in a region struggling mightily with the AIDS epidemic. By refusing to define what is actually going on here, Moore is pulling the wool over the eyes of his audience, and he knows it. He understands that if he makes it look like the Ugandan government is going to start rounding up every last homosexual and kill them, he can gain a lot more sympathy. It also acts as cover for rapists, pederasts, and murderers. Uganda has criminalized sinful actions and assigned the death penalty to the most disgusting forms of those acts. It has not criminalized same sex attraction, but Moore ignores this distinction.
The second issue is that Moore does not address why Ugandans are particularly offended by sodomy. Yes, all Christians are required to do so, but there are reasons rooted in the early history of Christianity in Uganda as to why Ugandans are particularly aggrieved. During the late 1800s in the region now known as Uganda, there was a kabaka (king) of the Baganda people named Mwanga II. Something that must be understood is that to the Baganda people, the kabaka held absolute power over his subjects and could dispense death with no checks on his power. It also meant that no Bagandan in good will could refuse a demand of his kabaka, this included sexual favors. This is, of course, a gravely evil situation, one that was challenged by the incoming Christian missionaries who were teaching that God’s law was greater than the law of any man; thus, sinful requests by the kabaka must be refused. This would have been true of a heterosexual kabaka, but to make matters even worse, Mwanga II of Buganda was a pederast who would frequently abuse young boys. The chief of the royal pages, a man named Charles Lwanga, converted to Christianity and realized he could no longer participate in Mwanga’s sin, taking steps to hide young boys from this monster. Enraged, Mwanga ordered Lwanga, and the boys he was protecting, to be executed. These martyrs were burned alive, embracing their deaths because they knew that they would soon be in the loving embrace of Our Lord. This was part of a larger war that Mwanga waged on the Christians in his kingdom. Eventually, there would be 45 Christians murdered in total: 22 Catholics and 23 Anglicans. They are the Uganda Martyrs. Oddly enough, St. Charles Lwanga and his companions died in June – June 3rd, 1886, to be exact. The same month that has been turned into “Pride Month.”
Sodomy is particularly offensive to Ugandan Christians because they know what the earliest Christians in their country died fighting against. To allow sodomy, let alone promote it, is to betray their forefathers, but Moore will make no mention of this context. Moore, though nominally a Southerner, condemns the Confederate Battle Flag and has encouraged Southerners to talk to African-Americans about the flag. But when it comes to Ugandans and why they find sodomy so disgusting, Moore refuses to do that. Southerners fly the Confederate Battle Flag and the other flags of Dixie because it is a symbol of their people, no different than why an Irishman would fly the flag of Ireland, or a Russian would fly the flag of Russia. To be a particular ethnicity is no sin, while sodomy is a grave sin.
Finally, Moore apparently does not understand just how harmful sodomy actually is. Moore states that not ever sin needs to be a crime, and in the abstract I agree. It is, of course, a sin to lustfully look at a woman, but there is no rational or justifiable way to legislate against that behavior. We are talking about a passing glance or late-night thoughts. But some sins must be a crime, and sodomy is not like other sexual sins. There is a reason why Christian societies have dealt with sodomy more harshly than other sexual sins. At the heart of why sodomy is so particularly wicked is because it is a revolt against nature, and sins that conflict with nature are considered worse. If an unmarried man and woman have sex, this is a sin – it’s called fornication. And, it is a serious sin that should not be taken lightly. But it is also one well established within nature, it is natural that a man and a woman would want to have sex with each other; there is a reason why God instituted marriage for the regulation of this natural desire. However, sodomy is a sin that goes against nature. It sinks lower into sin. But Moore refuses to address this history and, as such, misleads his audience from recognizing the severity of sodomy.
It is one thing for the secular media to lie about the Uganda law. It is quite another for Russell Moore to play along in this game. If Moore does not think that homosexual activity should be a crime, then so be it. Nevertheless, he should be at least intellectually honest about it. Tell your audience who will actually be executed under this new law. Teach your audience about the Uganda Martyrs. More importantly, explain to your audience why Christian societies have historically punished sodomy more than “just another sin.”
Ted Cruz has also shown his true stripes over the Uganda law:
https://turleytalks.com/new-ugandan-law-outlaws-lgbt-activism/
I have heard it said 2/3 of sub-Saharan African is HIV positive. One of the reasons why is the widespread belief that if a man is infected with AIDS and he has sex with a virgin the disease will leave his body and enter hers and he will be disease free. Another problem is that Black males do not consider themselves Gay if they are the dominant one in anal sex with another male. That is also a widespread belief among Blacks in prison. Sub-Saharan Africa is matriarchal, not patriarchal, and polygamy is a way of life with each wife in a separate hut. You can see the same pattern among Blacks in America which is proof is not caused by White racism or the social welfare system. “It takes a village to raise a child” is an African proverb. We can see why when we consider their culture. Westerners would respond with: It is not the duty of the village to raise your child. That is the duty of the parents!
Good article! I came across it at the excellent website, Real Jew News.
There may be some fire in the smoke Russell Moore is spewing. One often finds homosexuals in the Christian ministry. More so than in the general population. In my experience at least, when you hear someone denouncing “homophobia” and sometimes homosexuality, it often comes to light that they’re playing for the team.