Uganda health minister linked to Bahati bill deputy Julius Oyet

Bruce Wilson at Alternet has much detail on this story, including background on the relationship of Oyet to the New Apostolic Reformation.
Newly appointed Minister of Health Christine Ondoa is also a minister in Julius Oyet’s Lifeline church. Oyet is a Ugandan proponent of the Seven Mountains teaching which calls Christians to gain dominion in a nation by gaining prominence in all domains of society, including the government.
Oyet prophesied Ondoa’s rise to the Cabinet. Oyet is well connected to the government via relationships with President Museveni and his deputy status with David Bahati (in 2010 Oyet was deputized to collect petition signatures in support of the anti-gay bill), author of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The Bahati bill co-sponsor, Benson Ogwal is a longtime friend according to this report.

Making reference to Revelation 12:11, finance state minister Fred Jacan Omach said Ondoa’s appointment is a sign that “we have a spirit-filled President”.
UPC MP Benson Obua Ogwal, a long-time friend of Ondoa, said having known her integrity and incorruptible character, her elevation did not surprise him.

Many Ugandan protesters would be surprised to hear that they have a spirit-filled President.
While this appointment may be more political favor than prophetic fulfillment, the elevation of ministers to government Ministry is in keeping with the Seven Mountains mandate.

College of Prayer’s Julius Oyet promises arrests after the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is passed

Apostle Julius Peter Oyet is a co-laborer with Martin Ssempa in the effort to pass Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Oyet is a leader in the Born Again Federation of Churches in Uganda and has championed the “7 Mountains” theology in Uganda and the United States. Essentially, Oyet believes that the church should infiltrate the government and the media and run them by the teachings of the Bible. He is also President of the Ugandan branch of the College of Prayer, a ministry run by Rev. Fred Hartley and based in the Lilburn Alliance Church in Atlanta. I have posted on the College of Prayer previously here and here.

Oyet was deputized by Parliamentarian and bill author, David Bahati, to collect signatures on a petition to Parliament to quickly pass the bill. Oyet was with Ssempa in the gallery when David Bahati sought permission from Uganda’s Parliament to introduce the bill as a private member’s initiative. Both Ssempa and Oyet were involved in the early stages of bill development. According to Jeff Sharlet, Bahati told him that Ssempa was on the phone with Bahati nearly every day during the early stages of bill writing. In a interview to be released as a part of a film by Dominique Mesmin in September, Oyet elaborated on his role:

I was there. I have been part of the brains behind it. We worked on it. We planned who should propose it. It is the Ugandan’s bill. It is the culture of Uganda to keep purity. It is everybody’s voice. I worked with Bahati on this.

Here you see Oyet sitting next to Ssempa during one of the infamous hard core porn shows:

Oyet, Ssempa and Bahati have worked closely together to move the bill along. Oyet, however, takes a different approach to his advocacy for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill than Ssempa and Bahati. Whereas Ssempa and Bahati have misled audiences by minimizing the scope of the bill saying that it is designed to remedy non-existent gaps in child abuse law, Oyet is more forthcoming about the bill’s effects. He is also candid about his beliefs in relationship to what penalties should be enacted. For instance, watch this trailer from Mesmin’s upcoming film, Killing in the Name. At 2 minutes into the clip, you will see Oyet preaching and giving an interview where he invokes Mosaic law:

I was told by Mesmin that Oyet was acting in a more public role in March because Martin Ssempa was out of the country (at Canyon Ridge Christian Church, we now know). A bit later, in May, Oyet was interviewed for the British documentary, Africa’s Last Taboo. In this video, you can see the forceful advocacy of Oyet and the promise that once the bill is passed, gays will be arrested.

As noted, Oyet is pretty clear about the purpose of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Those who suggest that the bill only pertains to child abuse or sexual assaults will have a hard time explaining Oyet’s advocacy. Oyet cannot be dismissed as an outsider; he is a major player working for David Bahati and a colleague of Martin Ssempa.

His advocacy for the College of Prayer is signficant. He told Dominique Mesmin that he has an offices in London, South Africa, Kenya and Atlanta. I suspect the Atlanta office is the College of Prayer office in Lilburn Alliance Church in metro Atlanta (the church and the COP share the same phone number). Here Oyet speaks about his admiration for the work of the College of Prayer in the Parliament of Uganda. David Bahati and Nsaba Buturo are Parliamentary leaders for this ministry.

According to the organization’s 990 form, the College of Prayer paid $11,350 in 2007 for Oyet to travel to Atlanta. He was scheduled to speak at a COP leadership training conference in March, but the conference did not take place.  Director of the College of Prayer, Fred Hartley, told me that he did not support the bill but declined to make a more public statement. If there has been any distance between Oyet and the COP, Oyet does not seem to be aware of it.

Have gays been arrested in Uganda? Ssempa says no, Mbale says yes

In his appearance on Michael Brown’s Line of Fire show, Martin Ssempa said that homosexuals have not been arrested or killed under current law. Canyon Ridge Christian Church provided a transcript of a short portion of the show (oddly calling it an “unedited interview”) where Ssempa responds to charges from Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin:

Brown reads a written challenge from Jim Burroway posted on Box Turtle Bulletin, and Martin responds regarding death penalty provision and allegations of gays being killed or imprisoned.

One aspect of Burroway’s challenge was for Martin Ssempa to post the bill. Ssempa told Brown he would do it but did not. Ssempa goes on to discuss his view of government and says that his pastor’s group does not favor the death penalty. He calls the bill “a draft” which is not true unless you think of all bills as drafts. The bill published in the Uganda Gazette is a bill, which can be amended but it is clearly more than a draft. Drafts cannot be read in Parliament, drafts are not sent to committee where they await committee report. Bills can be amended, but they can also be voted on. But I digress.

Ssempa ends his placation of critics by saying this:

I just want to let you know in the history of Uganda for the last 50 years we’ve had this law, since we’ve had a law against homosexuality, no homosexual has been arrested or killed for homosexuality.

Ugandan activists have contested this claim and said that often they are brought in on trumped up charges as a pretense to harass them for their sexual orientation. I have been tracking a story from Gulu of a woman who was burned to death because she made a pass at another woman but cannot as yet offer conclusive evidence. However, this clip from a recent British documentary, Africa’s Last Taboo, documents in detail the arrest and detention of two gay men in Mbale under the existing sodomy law.

Please note that this situation is ongoing and was initiated prior to Martin Ssempa’s statement that such things do not happen in Uganda. I have another clip where Julius Oyet tells a homosexual that he will be arrested when the law takes effect. Martin Ssempa told Line of Fire there would not be a witch hunt. When it becomes a criminal offense to remain silent if you know homosexuals, what do you think the effect of that will be? If this can take place under current law, what could happen under this new law?

Additional footage showing the attitudes of the crowd toward the Mbale gays.

The last half of this clip features the appearance by Lou Engle. I will have a brief post about that soon…

Trailer for upcoming documentary on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

This looks like it will be an important documentary regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In this trailer you see Julius Peter Oyet defending death for gays with his Bible and a Muslim cleric preparing squads to hunt down gays. Thanks to producer Dominique Mesmin for sending along notice of the film.

In the screen capture below from Missionaries of Hate, you can see Julius Oyet sitting next to Martin Ssempa during his porn show.

 

Oyet was also a main component of the recent The Call Uganda and spoke in favor of the bill just prior to Lou Engle’s speech. Oyet is President of the Ugandan College of Prayer campus. Oyet was also in the gallery with Martin Ssempa and Stephen Langa when the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was authorized from introduction by Parliament.

For all posts on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill and related issues, click here.

David Bahati: Lou Engle expressed support for Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill – Guest Post by Jeff Sharlet

[Author Jeff Sharlet (The Family) recently returned from Uganda where he conducted research for an upcoming book. While there, he  interviewed most of the key promoters of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, including David Bahati and Julius Oyet. He also attended The Call Uganda and heard Lou Engle speak. After reading Lou Engle’s recent statement about The Call Uganda, Jeff sent along the following observations which he offers in this guest post. Jeff has some important information and perspective to report here.]

David Bahati: Lou Engle expressed support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Jeff Sharlet

Either Lou Engle isn’t telling the whole truth, or some of his key allies in Uganda aren’t. I attended his rally in Kampala in the company of Member of Parliament David Bahati, the author of the bill. After the rally, I rode with Bishop Oyet and Bahati in Bahati’s car to the Sheraton hotel, where I interviewed Oyet for about 45 minutes, recorded. I’ll be writing about what I learned in Kampala in my forthcoming book, but Engle’s latest statement prompts some points worth making in the meantime:

1. Both Oyet and Bahati were ecstatic at what they perceived as Engle’s strong support of the bill. They felt his rally and his statements would be a turning point for the bill, reassuring their Ugandan allies that they had support abroad.

2. Both Oyet and Bahati told me that Engle had explicitly expressed his support for the bill, telling them that he had to lie to the Western media because gays control it. They said he said one thing to the BBC and then walked over to Bahati and said that he really supported the bill. Either Engle isn’t telling the whole truth, or Oyet and Bahati aren’t. I tend to believe Bahati here, since Engle didn’t mean anything to him until he met him that day. He hadn’t heard of him and decided to attend the rally only after I’d told him a few things about Engle. In other words, he left the rally thrilled with Engle based on that encounter with Engle alone. Clearly, Engle did something to please him.

3. I spoke with Engle briefly–also recorded–and he said the following: “To this nation the pastors, the leaders, they’ve said they don’t want that agenda but it’s coming in, getting pushed by NGOs, UN, Unicef and other organizations so we’re just trying to take a stand to encourage them in their stand.” That certainly sounds like he’s supporting the bill, which is the only Ugandan stand to which he could be referring.

4. Engle says in his statement last week that Christian leaders in Uganda are working to soften the punishments. But both Oyet and Bahati, at least, strongly support the death penalty. For Bahati, author of the bill, that goes without saying. It’s worth noting that Oyet is now formally working for Bahati – according to Oyet and Bahati, Bahati used his [Parliament] office to empower Oyet to gather signatures in support of the bill AS a government official.

5. Here’s Oyet on the death penalty: “There is not the death penalty at the end for everybody. There is the death penalty at the end for aggravated homosexuality.” He explained that the death penalty already applies for four crimes in Uganda (child rape, treason, murder, and causing death by female genital mutilation) “So I want the world to understand,” Oyet continued “that homosexuality is not the first death penalty in Uganda. I think that U.S. journalists should make that known. It is not the first one, it is going to be the fifth one.”

His rationale for the death penalty? “If the Bible supports the death penalty which is true and then you call yourself a Christian nation, listen. If I would be killed because I am dying scripturally I can repent to God before I am killed but [if] I am [eliminated] from the Earth that’s ok… if the victim confesses or repents, we can waive it off. Something like that…. In my view, homosexuals should be grateful. But instead they are not. Why I’m saying they should be grateful is because in Ugandan culture if you go and rob someone, if you go and rape a child and people find you, they will kill you.” [Here he is echoing a point made to me by many leaders of the anti-gay movement — that the bill is for the benefit of the gays in that it protects them from mob justice, replacing it with the rule of law and a death penalty they can appeal.]

6. Oyet seems to be quite confused about what homosexuality actually is. After he explained that he was engaged in spiritual warfare with homosexuality, I asked whether he believed homosexuals are demonically possessed.

Oyet: “Um, because it is abnormal. It is abnormal sex, you would say yes. You would say yes. Because one drives you to that. Because homosexuals, they would now eat their own feces. They would eat their own waste. That is what they call golden shower where you lick the anus of someone. Isn’t that demonic?”  [For Warren’s more conservative readers: Yes, there are a few people, heterosexual and homosexual, who do such things, but they are A) not linked to sexual orientation; B) not harmful to anyone who minds their own business. Also, as one might guess, “golden shower” means something else.]

7. Last but not least: Oyet insisted that there are American church leaders who are supporting the bill privately but lying to the American media about it. When I asked why it was ok for them to lie, he said “I do not judge these kind of people.” True enough; he reserves his judgment for other people’s sex lives.

[End of guest post]

Although I [Throckmorton]have reasons for doubting David Bahati’s word on some matters (e.g., what the bill actually says), I can understand why Jeff thinks he is speaking accurately here. If not a deliberate effort to mislead and instead a misunderstanding based on terminology, it is an understandable one. Lou Engle says he supports “the stand” taken by the Ugandan leaders. “The stand” in Uganda means the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. However, Jeff is reporting something more than a misunderstanding. He is saying that the Bahati and Oyet – the men praised by Lou Engle – accused Engle of misleading the press. 

I cannot know what the truth is but I would like Mr. Engle to speak clearly on this topic. Are Bahati and Oyet mistaken? Did they mislead Sharlet? Does Engle support the AHB? Does he support it with lesser penalties? Does he support the criminalization of homosexuality in Uganda? In the USA? Given Engle’s recent rise to prominence among religiously conservative political figures, these questions have important implications for American politics and policy.