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News & ArtsFriday, July 2, 2010
Life What Do You Think When You See the Words "Uganda Evangelist"?
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Slog tipper Emily saw the words on this church readerboard in Silverdale recently and thought we should investigate.
After all, thanks to the work of American evangelicals—who helped teach Ugandans to fear "the gay agenda," and in doing so helped produce a recent Ugandan effort to to kill all homosexuals by hanging—the words "Uganda evangelist" are now a warning sign.
So we ran the name Frank Butyai by Jim Burroway, editor of the Box Turtle Bulletin, which has been closely tracking Uganda's "deadly embrace of hate." Burroway told us:
I'm afraid I've never heard of this guy. Uganda is crawling with evangelical pastors. All it takes is a white shirt and a tin-roof shack somewhere and suddenly you're a pastor. And in some cases you don't even need a shack. Just a street corner will do. And if one of them can finagle a trip to the US where Ugandan pastors are very fashionable, they've hit the motherlode.
We also spoke with Dennis Taylor, deacon at Silverdale's Clear Creek Baptist Church. He said Butyai is visiting from Uganda on a month-long visa and preaching at a bunch of different American churches, mostly in Washington State, while trying to raise money for his mission.
Butyai won't be addressing homosexuality or gay rights, Taylor said, because that would quite literally be preaching to the choir.
“He’s not going to waste his time talking about that," Taylor said. “None of us are in favor of gay rights, so he automatically wouldn’t be. He’s going to be raising money for his mission."
And does Butyai's mission—like the mission of this American-church-backed Ugandan evangelical—involve support for killing people because they're gay?
"No," said Taylor, though he also admitted he was completely unaware of the threatened violence against homosexuals in Uganda.
"Christians don’t have violence toward homosexuals," Taylor continued. "I assure you, he is not part of a movement like that. Or we wouldn’t be sponsoring him at all. We don’t condone any kind of violence like that at all.”
Taylor said it's his understanding that any money Butyai raises will go to help an orphanage Butyai started for survivors of the Ugandan civil war.
2
It doesn't surprise me at all that he (Taylor) was not aware of the recent situation in Uganda. These fundies can be remarkably selective when it comes to their sources of information. Anything that even so much as attempts to portray Christianity in a less-than-overwhelmingly-positive light is just ignored, written off as the devil poisoning people's minds or some rubbish like that.
And then, after he claims ignorance about Uganda's anti-gay movement, he swears that this visiting preacher isn't a part of it. How would you know, dumbass?
And then, after he claims ignorance about Uganda's anti-gay movement, he swears that this visiting preacher isn't a part of it. How would you know, dumbass?
3
"Anything that even so much as attempts to portray Christianity in a less-than-overwhelmingly-positive light is just ignored, written off as the devil poisoning people's minds or some rubbish like that."
Oh, you mean sorta like the way some of the idiots here go into apoplexy whenever someone links to FoxNews or The Drudge Report?
They're not the only ones with blinders on.
Oh, you mean sorta like the way some of the idiots here go into apoplexy whenever someone links to FoxNews or The Drudge Report?
They're not the only ones with blinders on.
4
He certainly deserves to be taken to task for being unaware of the situation in Uganda. But....30,000 people died at the hands of the LRA, many of them Child Soldiers. There are now 2,000,000 orphans in the country. 2 million! It certainly seems credible that he'd want to be focusing on that problem, regardless of what he thinks about homosexuality.
7
"Christians don’t have violence toward homosexuals," Taylor continued.
In other news, I ride a yellow unicorn to work, flying monkeys protect me, FoxNews isn't a propaganda outfit & Matt Drudge has integrity.
In other news, I ride a yellow unicorn to work, flying monkeys protect me, FoxNews isn't a propaganda outfit & Matt Drudge has integrity.
8
Is it lame that I'm this psyched to have a tip published on Slog? Cause I'm totally geeking out right now.
10
As someone who has personally known Frank Butyai for a little over a year now, I can say he is no evil man. His ministry is in helping educate the children of Uganda and provide housing for a limited number of orphans along with other efforts to promote stronger families, etc.
Over 10 people from my very close family (and many more from my church and others) have traveled to Uganda and helped build Frank's latest orphanage, met with the kids, etc, etc.
Over 10 people from my very close family (and many more from my church and others) have traveled to Uganda and helped build Frank's latest orphanage, met with the kids, etc, etc.
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