Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Indifference Toward Imprisoning and Executing Gay People
When it comes to taking a position on Uganda's proposed "Anti-Homosexuality Bill," which would punish gay people with jail terms and possible execution, Rick Warren would like to let his followers know that his spiritual compass points toward neutral and apathy.
On "Meet the Press" this week, Warren said that he doesn't like to interfere "with the political process of other nations," and would not join the growing chorus of world leaders denouncing Uganda's homosexuality bill as a violation of human rights. For Warren, it seems, the thought of innocent gay people being slaughtered or jailed is a boring enterprise.
The connections between Rick Warren and Uganda are tight. To find them, look no further than a man named Martin Ssempa, one of Uganda's leading religious leaders and one of the strongest champions for brutal homophobic legislation that would wipe out Uganda's gay population. What is Ssempa doing when he's not scheming to institute laws that will kill gay people?
He's being welcomed by Rick Warren at Warren's own Saddleback Church, and being embraced openly by both Warren and his wife, Kay, who said publicly that Ssempa was her brother and that she loved him. Yes, Rick Warren and his wife Kay helped build the career of Martin Ssempa, who is now saying that gay people should be put in jail or killed.
And the best Rick Warren can say about all of this is that Ugandan politics aren't any of his business? Talking about a spiritual leadership FAIL.
A few weeks back, Rick Warren released a milquetoast statement distancing himself from Ssempa, without mentioning anything about Ssempa's work targeting gay people. That's just not good enough. If Rick Warren really wants to sever ties with a man like Ssempa, he should do so in the political arena by saying outright: "God would not want gay people to be imprisoned or executed. I don't support Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill." Now that would be disassociation.
But staying neutral is just a sign of cowardice or ignorance (or both). What's that line about neutrality? Oh yeah, it goes something like this, courtesy of Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Yet nothing is all that Rick Warren offered on "Meet the Press," during his most public chance yet to denounce Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill.
Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Rick Warren offered something. He offered a big fat dose of ambivalence, saying that what happens in Uganda should stay in Uganda, no matter who gets slaughtered, imprisoned or arrested. Meanwhile, Rick Warren continues to run quite the ministry in Uganda. And for some, including Box Turtle Bulletin's Timothy Kincaid, that makes Rick Warren's neutrality on this homophobic piece of legislation all the more troubling.
"The truth is that while Rick Warren speaks of loving gay people, he doesn’t care if they are executed in Uganda for being gay. Or, at least, he doesn’t care enough to make the slightest effort to stop it," Kincaid writes. That's some smoking (and well-deserved) criticism.
American conservative religious leaders who have embraced Uganda's current political leadership own a piece of this anti-homosexuality legislation. Though Warren might not see it this way, his unwillingness to condemn the legislation is a huge indicator that while his appeal might be large, his spiritual depth is quite shallow.
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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