{"id":16383,"date":"2013-07-17T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T19:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=16383"},"modified":"2014-09-10T00:42:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T04:42:36","slug":"four-things-that-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/07\/17\/four-things-that-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Four things that happened"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here are four things that happened, one after the other, over the course of the past three weeks. The sequence is undeniable. Whether that sequence means anything in terms of causality or of culpability I will leave for the reader to decide.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> This happened:\u00a0Remarks by President Obama<\/a> and President Sall of the Republic of Senegal at Joint Press Conference, June 27, 2013, Dakar, Senegal<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT OBAMA:\u00a0 Well, first of all, I think the Supreme Court ruling yesterday was not simply a victory for the LGBT community, it\u2019s a victory for American democracy. I believe at the root of who we are as a people, who we are as Americans is the basic precept that we are all equal under the law. We believe in basic fairness. And what I think yesterday\u2019s ruling signifies is one more step towards ensuring that those basic principles apply to everybody.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Now, this topic did not come up in the conversation that I had with President Sall in a bilateral meeting. But let me just make a general statement. The issue of gays and lesbians, and how they\u2019re treated, has come up and has been controversial in many parts of Africa. So I want the African people just to hear what I believe, and that is that every country, every group of people, every religion have different customs, different traditions. And when it comes to people\u2019s personal views and their religious faith, et cetera, I think we have to respect the diversity of views that are there.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally. I don\u2019t believe in discrimination of any sort. That\u2019s my personal view. And I speak as somebody who obviously comes from a country in which there were times when people were not treated equally under the law, and we had to fight long and hard through a civil rights struggle to make sure that happens.<\/p>\n

So my basic view is that regardless of race, regardless of religion, regardless of gender, regardless of sexual orientation, when it comes to how the law treats you, how the state treats you \u2014 the benefits, the rights and the responsibilities under the law \u2014 people should be treated equally. And that\u2019s a principle that I think applies universally, and the good news is it\u2019s an easy principle to remember.<\/p>\n

Every world religion has this basic notion that is embodied in the Golden Rule \u2014 treat people the way you want to be treated. And I think that applies here as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

2.<\/strong> And then this happened: \u201cAfrican religious leaders reject Obama\u2019s call to decriminalize homosexuality<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

"

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) Religious leaders in Africa strongly rebuked President Obama\u2019s call to decriminalize homosexuality, suggesting it\u2019s the reason why he received a less-than-warm welcome during a recent trip to the continent.<\/p>\n

In a news conference in Senegal during his three-nation tour, just as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on same-sex marriage, Obama said African nations must grant equal protection to all people regardless of their sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

\u2026 But Obama\u2019s words rubbed religious and political leaders the wrong way. In Senegal, the West African nation where Islam is the predominant religion, homosexuality is a crime.<\/p>\n

Christianity and Islam are growing fast on the continent, and religious leaders in both faith communities responded with vehement denunciations.<\/p>\n

Indeed, some clerics said Obama\u2019s statements on gays spoiled the welcome religious leaders and their followers could have accorded the first African-American president.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3.<\/strong> And then this happened: Politically conservative Christians in America cheered African religious leaders for their rejection of Obama\u2019s call for \u201cequal protection to all people regardless of their sexual orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few of many such examples:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAfrica bristles at Obama\u2019s same-sex marriage \u2018morality\u2019 lesson<\/a>,\u201d World<\/em> magazine said.<\/li>\n\u201cThank God for our courageous African counterparts who aren\u2019t capitulating but are instead standing strong amidst this moral storm,\u201d wrote Larry Tomczak in Charisma<\/em> magazine<\/a>, \u201cThirty-seven nations there outlaw homosexuality.\u201d<\/li>\n*\u201cOh, to be Senegalese,\u201d said Christian talk radio host Janet Mefferd<\/a>.<\/li>\nSelf-proclaimed culture-warrior Bill Muehlenberg<\/a> congratulates those African religious leaders for \u201cfalling down in subservience to [Obama\u2019s] deviant demands.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n***

4.<\/strong> And then this happened: \u201cCameroon\u2019s Eric Lembembe: Gay rights activist murdered<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

"\n

<\/a>***
** Eric Lembembe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
** Prominent Cameroonian gay rights activist and journalist Eric Lembembe has been killed in the capital, Yaounde, a rights group says.<\/p>\n
** Mr. Lembembe\u2019s neck and feet appeared to have been broken and his face, hands, and feet burned with an iron, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.<\/p>\n
** The cause of the killing is not known, but Mr. Lembembe is the latest activist to be targeted in Cameroon, it added.<\/p>\n
** Homosexual acts are illegal in socially conservative Cameroon.<\/p>\n
** \u2026 Mr. Lembembe, the executive director of the Cameroonian Foundation for Aids, was a courageous activist who campaigned for equal rights, despite severe discrimination and violence, HRW said.<\/p>\n
** His friends discovered his body at his home in Yaounde on Monday, after being unable to reach him by phone for two days, it said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
** This happened. And then that happened. And then that happened. And then that happened.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
** ***Here are four things that happened, one after the other, over the course of the past three weeks. The sequence is undeniable. Whether that sequence means anything in terms of causality or of culpability I will leave for the reader to decide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[120,17,53,52,77,28],"class_list":["post-16383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-charisma","tag-equality","tag-gay-rights","tag-homosexuality","tag-justice","tag-religious-right"],"yoast_head":"\nFour things that happened<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are four things that happened, one after the other, over the course of the past three weeks. The sequence is undeniable. 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