22 December 2009 | 09-1002 |

Peter Kenny

The Rev. Samuel Kobia. Stock phot: (c) Peter Williams / WCC

Geneva (ENI). The World Council of Churches has raised concerns about a proposed law in Uganda calling for the jailing and possible execution of homosexuals.

Current legislation in Uganda allows for people to be jailed for 14 years for engaging in homosexual acts and the new law being considered would raise that to life imprisonment though no one has ever been convicted of homosexual acts in the country.

"We are saddened and distressed to receive the news from Uganda regarding a proposed law against homosexual individuals … which also proposes the death penalty to be meted to homosexual individuals who are HIV positive," said the Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the WCC.

Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya, wrote a letter to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni on the issue on 22 December.

The proposed Ugandan law has drawn condemnation from church and political leaders in the West.

The WCC general secretary said, "It is my hope and my prayer that you will join the African church leaders and fellow people of faith, to abstain from supporting any law which can lead to a death penalty; promotes prejudice and hatred; and which can be easily manipulated to oppress people."

He also warned that "all the discussions, time, efforts and sometimes money, used on the issue of homosexuality distracts us from non judgmental and constructive discussions about the majority’s problems" and that such a bill, if enacted, "will leave a lot of room for manipulation, abuse […] and oppression of people".

Recently a group of pastors in Uganda upbraided evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who had prayed at the inauguration of President Barrack Obama, after he asked them to speak out against the country's Anti-Homosexuality bill.

A group of 20 heads of different denominations belonging to the Uganda National Pastors' Task Force Against Homosexuality had demanded that Warren "biblically issue an apology for having wronged us", Christianity Today (www.christiantoday.com) reported.

"Your letter has caused great distress and the pastors are demanding that you issue a formal apology for insulting the people of Africa by your very inappropriate bullying use of your church and purpose driven pulpits to coerce us into the 'evil' of Sodomy and Gaymorrah (sic)," said the pastors in a letter emailed to Warren.

• Full text of Kobia's letter from: www.oikoumene.org/

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