The report — “Colonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa” — was presented by the Political Research Associates of Boston, a think tank that describes itself as “progressive” and focusing on what it calls attacks on civil liberties by the political and Christian right.
Some of the Africans cited in the report as heading African organizations set up by the U.S. religious right maintain that they are just using funds from foreign friends who share similar beliefs.
Among them is Joseph Okia, nephew of President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, where proposed legislation would invoke the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
“Definitely there is a link between conservative Christians in America and conservative Christian leaders in Uganda,” Okia confirmed to the report’s researchers. Okia spoke of “a close intellectual and mentoring relationship.”
Several Africans and Americans named in the report could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for Pastor Rick Warren said he was too busy to comment.
The report’s main author, the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, said that while such evangelical groups are in the minority in the United States, they are able to punch way above their weight in Africa, where many oppose homosexuality. Here, many believe the religious right’s contentions that gay men are “recruiting” in schools, Kaoma said.
“Those kind of lies, when presented in Africa, become factual, so we need to worry that they are misleading people with these lies,” Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia, said in a telephone interview from Boston.
And conservative groups have access to powerful politicians, including the presidents of many countries.
Kaoma’s report identifies groups belonging to a loose network of right-wing charismatic Christians. They include Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Catholic Church’s Human Life International (HLI) and the Mormon-led Family Watch International. All have launched or expanded offices in Africa over the past five years.
Robertson’s organization has spawned the Zimbabwe-based African Center for Law and Justice and the East African Center for Law and Justice in Kenya.
“By hiring locals as office staff, ACLJ and HLI in particular hide an American-based agenda
This article originally appeared on: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/report-us-christian-right-presses-anti-gay-anti-abortion-laws-using-front-offices-in-africa/2012/07/24/gJQAZg6S6W_story.html