Amidst International Pressure, Anti-Gay Ugandan Pastor Resigns from College Board

by Michael Jones · 2010-12-01 09:00:00 UTC
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For several weeks now, there's been a stepped up effort to call attention to the fact that Oral Roberts University, the stalwart Christian college in Oklahoma, has an anti-gay pastor from Uganda on its prominent Board of Reference. That pastor? Martin Ssempa, a leading anti-gay minister in Uganda who has traveled the country showing graphic pornography to people in attempts to whip up violent anti-gay sentiment.

Ssempa is a pastor who believes that homosexuality is an import from the west, and that anyone guilty of being gay in Uganda should be thrown in jail for life, or killed.

Pretty extreme values for Oral Roberts University to lift up, right? Well, today Oral Roberts University sent a message through its communications office that Pastor Martin Ssempa has resigned from the school's Board of Reference. That's after close to 500 Change.org members, as well as numerous members of an Oral Roberts University alumni group of LGBT folks (OUT), put pressure on the school to condemn Ssempa's violent ministry.

It's a solid victory, and yet another example of a U.S. organization or entity having its reputation tainted by a relationship with Martin Ssempa. First came Pastor Rick Warren, who distanced himself from Ssempa last year. And the Southern Nevada Health District actually cut ties with an evangelical church in Las Vegas -- Canyon Ridge Christian Church -- after it became apparent that Canyon Ridge was financially supporting Ssempa's ministry in Uganda, and referred to him as a "prophetic minister."

Yet, for much of the past year, Oral Roberts University has remained quiet about Ssempa and the work in Uganda to criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty of life imprisonment. The statement from the university's press office announcing Ssempa's resignation is the first comment the school has made that even remotely comes close to touching on the political situation in Uganda.

Still, it's a welcome development. Last week, Ssempa took to the pages of a Ugandan publication to say that he wants a war with gays, else they will enter Uganda and recruit high school students to homosexuality.

Clearly, someone espousing those beliefs doesn't belong on the board of any institution of higher learning.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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