What follows is audio and a transcription of a speech given by Hon. Dr. Nsaba Buturo at The Call Uganda, May 2, 2010. He spoke just after Lou Engle spoke. The audio was provided by Michael Wilkerson. The first sentence of Hon. Buturo’s speech was not recorded. Hon. Buturo’s speech is interspersed with translation into what I assume is Lugandan. Words I am guessing at are underlined.
Text:
Because of the changing circumstance we have in our day, we now feel that the laws we have are not adequate to deal with this situation we face. I know Bahati’s heard the voice of God and is now spearheading that bill in Parliament. We want to pray for the Bahatis. It is your business that you pray for him. It is your business that you pray for members of Parliament. That on the day appointed for voting, that there will be no member of Parliament who will be absent, and after there will be no debate anyway, that the bill will be passed into law without any debate. This is an opportunity that Ugandans have now to tell the whole world that our business is to do what God wants us to do, not what somebody out there says we should do. This is an opportunity for Ugandans to tell the whole world that our allegiance is not to man, whoever that man may be; our allegiance is not to nations, however powerful, our allegiance is to God. Uganda will not accept that nonsense that says that homosexuality is a human right. It is an abomination. We are not going to accept that. We are going to tell those who care to listen that this is not a matter we put before God’s word. That our dignity is not for sale, that our love of God is first and foremost. My brethren, you have a duty to support Honorable Bahati, to support Parliament, to support those all those Ugandans who say that homosexuality never ever in our land. We don’t oppose or hate homosexuals; actually we love them. But they are lost. We have a duty to bring them back to God. Let me remind you brethren to let your government know and pray for them anyway that we have the golden opportunity to lead the world. We have the opportunity to show the rest of the world that Uganda is right because we are for God and those out there who are forcing us to do what is wrong are actually wrong. And Uganda will not accept any intimidation. We cannot accept any threats because if God is for us, who can be against us?
But why is your country where we are now? Why is the issue of homosexuality, when two, three years ago, it wasn’t? What has happened? Why is it that witchcraft, idolatry, human suffering, prostitution, pornography, all these suddenly are impacting on our faith today? Why is corruption the topical issue in every home? Something has gone wrong and it is the duty of believers to find out what it is that has gone wrong. Answer is that we have broken that covenant that we made with God. And so we see rebellion in the making; Ugandans choosing to distance themselves from God. And immorality is a consequence of that choice we are making. Yet God is giving us advice. He’s telling us that we are able to roll back these evils if we do one thing. 2 Chronicles, you heard it several times mentioned is the key to what we should do in order for God to heal us.
So let me take the opportunity to appeal to you to do what God is saying we should do. Do what God is saying we should do on behalf of Uganda. You and me who are called by His name. Let us humble ourselves. Let us pray. Let us turn from evil. Let us seek Him. And then He is going to make this land one of milk and honey as you have never seen before. You heard at the end the problem we are having in this nation. Those we have called to be our leaders are acting timidly. Both the church and believers who we are, are acting timidly. And so there is a crisis of confidence among those who are called by His name. The Church is on the defensive everywhere you go. In America, its about to lose the battle. In Uganda, the church is not handling this battle in the way it should. But these are dangerous times. But we need not lose this battle. So let me use this opportunity to implore you citizens. The government of this country is not the responsibility of his Excellency and the President alone. Through prayer and direct participation in politics, we can do a lot to change this nation. Let me also tell you, the government of President Museveni needs you so much. Government needs your hand. Unfortunately, you and I are not sufficiently playing our role. It is essential that we stop complaining. It is appropriate that we take appropriate direct action as we have seen today. That is why I want to commend Rev. Dr. Mulinde and his team. I want to commend you for what you have done this afternoon. Let me remind you citizens that God will give us victory if we will go to the fight. The world cannot destruct us when Christ is able to attract us. Finally, I ask you to pray for Uganda. That Uganda will be able to stand up to any nation around the world. That Uganda will not be intimidated by any nation around the world. That Uganda will be able to use our enormous resources for the benefit of our people. Let us pray that Ugandans are set free. Let me ask you also to pray for his Excellency the President, the man God has put in that position for this time we are in. that he will remain fearless of anybody around the world, except God. God bless you, God bless Uganda.
correction, should read
……..that does NOT imply that the greater majority (who span the whole spectrum from outright hostility and hatred to those who are indifferent) are by default pro-bill………………………….
Maazi N.C.O,
You make several assumptions and/or presumptions. I am not being optimistic, it’s you who is being intrasingently pessimistic. You make an assumption that any Ugandan who does not “endorse”, “recommend” or is not “comfortable” with LGBT orientation is for the bill. I will admit that those who fully agree and endorse the LGBT orientation are in the minority, but make no mistake, that does NOT imply that the greater majority (who span the whole spectrum from outright hostility and hatred to those who are indifferent) are by default against the bill.
The problem does not lie with the poor and uneducated masses, many of these live side by side to gays. Even the “good” pastor Ssempa picked his trophy “convert” to heterosexuality from the slums(PS: last I heard, the trophy convert has “reverted” to his original orientation).
Was his orientation a secret to his neigbours? Absolutely not!
Did the neighbours organise an angry mob and carry him off to the stake? Hell no!
The only people obsessed with this issue is us the indoctrinated elite and our indoctrinaires, problem is that many in this class have an influence either because of wealth, power or patronage. There does not exist a bottom up fervor for this bill.
While the Bahati’s and Buturo’s remain obsessed with the bill and their apparent voyeurism into all Ugandan’s bedrooms, their colleagues in parliament have rightly moved on to things that really matter, and they are many.
And that “devious fox” as you call him is all too predictable, any bill that gathers dust in committee is in the Ugandan experience doomed to the abyss. There’s also another thing el presidente’ is banking on, Ugandans have very short memories and attention spans(an attribute which has come in handy all too often), soon no one will remember that there even was a bill, but not for a lack of trying by our friends across the pond, the conservative evangelicals, who keep coming and putting it on the front page.
This legislation is doomed, the president already has a fall back, the colonial era penal code we inherited, all he has to say is that we already have laws on the books for the same purpose, and then it will be back to the status quo preceding the debacle of the bill, to the chagrin of a few people, I imagine!
Warren, several factors could have led to low turnout.
1. Lou Engle is relatively unknown in these parts
2.There was no concerted effort by his endorsers to publicize the event.
3. The message simply did not resonate with many and just didn’t stir the interest or fervor that many of these things normally do. The ones that fire up the masses over here have to do with prosperity gospel intertwined with promises of miracles.
4.Also what didn’t help, Engle was not here at the invitation of a local church/pastor, normally the congregation of the host pastor/church serve as a free advert mechanism.
Icearc,
you are quite optimistic, which I am sure gives comfort to Euro-American Gay Lobbies. What makes you think that “numero uno has pronounced himself on this matter?” He merely said all should “go slow”. If you really know the devious NRA fox called Yoweri .K. Museveni then you will know that your intepretation of his heavily coded statement is super- optimistic. The number of Ugandans who attend the rallies of bible-bashing fundamentalists is not a function of the number of Ugandans who support the bill. So I am not so sure why you think the number of people that went to The Call is an indicator of whether the bill has lost support among the masses. If you want to truely assess public mood on the matter, then why not tell elements from the Ugandan subsidiaries of Western Gay Lobbies to hold a press conference to demand “their freedom”. If there is no response from the people, then I will agree with you that the public has lost interest and that the only interested parties remain Bahati, Buturo and Ssempa. But the question is: “will your gay buddies want to take a risk that will draw a public reaction stronger than what any White American man can ALLEGEDLY incite?” Anyway, if your over-confidence that “the-bill-will-never-pass” allows you and Mr. Throckmorton to sleep soundly at night then I guess that is okay to be super-optimistic.
icearc – Why do you think the turnout was low?
That bill has absolutely no chance of passing as long as Museveni is president. For those who may not understand how the Ugandan government works, once numero uno has pronounced himself on a matter, that’s it. And considering that only less than 2000 turned up for the Call, this in a country where evangelists routinely fill stadia and parks, that speaks volumes in itself.
what is scary is that this thing may very well pass; what is equally scary is that there are some very prominent people in the US who want to do the same thing here. These folks in many aspects are no better than the Taliban.
Just what does Buturo think the people he is talking to should do? Sit by idly and pray and let Museveni spend his countries future monetary needs on baubles of war from Russia?
Interesting that he lies about homosexuality not being an issue some three years ago in Uganda. BTB has been following the problems gays and lesbians have indured in Uganda for some time even before that.
Yep, Buturo wants a theocracy devoid of real democracy for Uganda. But I have of late been getting the idea for reports out of Uganda that some thing Buturo is being ‘overbearing’ (maybe clownish?) when it comes to the Bahati bill. We’ll see.