God Loves Uganda: Examining the Price of The Gospel
This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Jess Gonzalez
There’s a God problem in Uganda, but whether the country suffers from a lack or an overabundance thereof depends on whom you ask. Director Roger Ross William’s GOD LOVES UGANDA seeks not to answer the question, but rather to explore both sides of the argument. It’s been chopping its way through the festival circuit with its often brutal honesty, and it touched down at DOC NYC on Tuesday night.
GOD LOVES UGANDA is a deep exploration of the effects of the American Christian evangelical movement in sub-Saharan African countries. The International House of Prayer, a mega church based in Kansas City lead in part by Lou Engle, is at the forefront of spreading the gospel. These proselytizers believe that Uganda, with its current sociopolitical climate, is a particularly ripe field on which to sow an army of God.
Every year, young Christians travel to Uganda with the wide-eyed hope of saving as many souls as they can. But while it’s all a big adventure to them, many Ugandan spiritual leaders, such as Reverend Kapya Kaoma (who can’t return to his homeland at this point for fear of his life), believe they are blind to the snowball effect they’re setting off.
Uganda is a nation of people who take their beliefs very serious. When introduced to hateful ideologies such as homophobia, they are willing to take those beliefs into their own hands. This has spiraled not only into the introduction of extreme anti-gay legislation currently making its way through Ugandan Parliament, but a rise in opposition and violence against the LGBT community.
“I heard about what was going on in Uganda; I went there and the first person I met was David Kato,” Williams said, referring to a prominent activist who was bludgeoned to death in 2011 after a newspaper released the names and addresses of hundreds of LGBT community members. “He told me, ‘You’ve got to make a film about the damage fundamental evangelical Americans are doing.’”
The film has screened across the world and has been met with varying degrees of approval and outrage. Many of the evangelicals featured in the film were not pleased with the outcome, but some have expressed embarrassment over the effects of their mission work. And while the film has not officially screened in Uganda, according to Williams and producer Judy Goldman, pirated copies have been making their way around the country.
“I get hate mail from [Pastor] Martin Ssempa, who’s in the film, who shows porn in church,” Williams said with a chuckle. “He just tweeted something to me today!”
The anti-LGBT legislation has not yet become law in Uganda, but other African countries are beginning to follow suit. Williams and Goldman hope that GOD LOVES UGANDA will open the dialogue about the potential human rights issues that could follow.
“It’s really a call to action that even conservatives shouldn’t look the other way when someone’s being arrested and put in prison because of their sexuality in the name of the Bible,” Williams said. “Silence kills.”
