It’s being subject to both popular and academic scrutiny. Some analyses by the neo-liberal media range from ludicrous and ahistorical accounts. They are entertained even by media gatekeepers simply because it’s the prevailing discourse on the subject.
Some of us that fight against it, especially the binarization and a-historization of the debate, still must fight to find media space against this homophobic hegemonic narrative. This will be important later as I address claims of recruitment. On February 9, the Church of England’s general assembly, the synod, voted in favor of same sex unions after what The Guardian termed as an impassioned debate.
Justin Welby the archbishop of Canterbury and Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, said they hoped the decision marked a new beginning for the Church of England saying, “it’s been a long road to get us to this point”.
This signaled the divisiveness of the church on the debate. The decision of the church was received with mixed reactions, but I am more concerned with that of archbishop Dr Kazimba Mugalu who told faithful of intention to begin the formal process to severe ties with the Church of England. Mugalu stated that the church was asking people to go sin some more. He furthered added ‘God can’t bless what he calls sin’.
He called Christians to desist like the Uganda Marty’s who he said refused to engage in homosexual sex with their leaders. His comments are in sync with those of his Kenyan counterpart bishop Jackson Ole Sapit who even said the Church of England will lose its relevance and the church of Kenya will not respect the decision of the Church of England.
Following naturally were spats and outbursts against the Church of England from commentators most if not all stating that the church has been secularized by homosexual groups with big moneys. Of course, dear reader the church has always kowtowed the line of those in power and little wonder it was significant in slave trade and processes of colonization hence attracting the famous aphorism ‘Gun followed the cross’.
For the philosopher Karl Marx religion is part of what he termed as the super- structure which is meant to justify the economic base. Constituent in the super-structure are ideas, religion, and philosophy.
This is what Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci theorized as ‘hegemony’. Its more concerned with perceptiveness that dominant social classes develop over others hence justifying existing social order as natural, normal, inevitable and of advantage to everyone. I will proceed to analyze the gay recruitment claims akin to those of ‘gays secularizing the church’.
Implicit in the recruitment discourse is the notion of universality i.e., that its ‘common sense’ and natural that we are all the same. ‘It benefits us all’ mantra is scattered all over the place.
The underlying logic is that there is a militia or group of converts that are seeking to ‘change’ or force others to drop heterosexuality and adopt homosexuality. Such baseless claims obviously evaporate when subjected to scrutiny. If anything, it’s the homophobic evangelical church that sponsors conversion therapy.
The watch word is ‘of course’. History and ways of being are invoked by homophobes as natural and knowledge is treated as natural, normal, and not historical. For example, ever imagined why parliamentarians among others summon common sense, logic, and culture.
They also without any statistical data claim to be speaking for a monolithic homophobic Uganda. This is despite that they are many happy LGBTQI Ugandans and those that are supportive or the indifferent lot among others that don’t fit in the homophobic straitjacket.
By summoning homophobia as an irrefutable common-sense logic of Ugandans the parliamentarians and their media stooges mobilize and manufacture consent of the Ugandan public sphere.
The process is also used to censor what gets in the public sphere but also differentiating the queer from the heterosexual. This process of differentiation enacts difference and justifies existing oppression against the queer. We are aware that discriminatory “isms” such as racism have their epistemic and ontological edifice steeped in differentiation. For example, the black is adjudged from the white.
No wonder the recruitment claims are also supported by notions of racism i.e., that it’s the white body that’s sexually liberated and seeks to export this culture to the most periphery of the worlds has a logic which I hope I have exposed.
I remain relentless in my quest for the respect of the rights and freedoms of all those that have been othered.
The author is a Human Rights and Peace Advocate
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