A Christian
leader in Kaohsiung praises the recent signing of laws in Uganda that impose
life imprisonment for homosexuals. And he wishes the Taiwanese government could
be as ‘courageous’
Really, the
fundamental Christians in Taiwan never cease to impress. Every week now, one of
them somewhere does or says something that, had he not purportedly ascended to
heaven, would have made their Lord Jesus turn in his grave — or his grotto, or
whatever. Their favorite target, of course, is other people’s sexuality,
especially when it concerns two people of the same sex.
In the lead-up
to the reprehensible events of 1130, those groups already gave us a flavor of
their thoughts by conjuring a variety of lies to make their case that allowing
gay unions would destroy family values and society in general. In the weeks
after the protest, my investigations uncovered worrying links between the
Christian organizations here and extremist Evangelical groups in the U.S.,
chief among them International House of Prayer (IHOP). The deeper I looked into
the matter, the more evidence I found that IHOP and likeminded organizations, many of them advocating Dominionism, were slowly recruiting and infiltrating Taiwanese preachers and churches, while
helping orchestrate mass “Asia For Jesus” events this year (which according to
some of them should be the year of the “rise of the Christian family”).
IHOP, of course,
made the news in recent months for its advocacy of laws in Uganda
that, in the extreme, would impose the death penalty for homosexuals, or long
prison sentences if such measures could not be passed.
I’d already
uncovered the existence of a IHOP center in Taoyuan, and exposed some preachers
who had gone through the process of indoctrination, sometimes with the
financial assistance of a wealthy Taiwanese female entrepreneur (herself a devout Christian) whose brand of
cell phones I shall never buy again.
As it turns out,
there is also a Kaohsiung House of Prayer (KHOP), and Pastor Van Weng,
described as “young” and “charismatic,” has made it clear to us all that his
views on homosexuality in Taiwan are as Precambrian as are those of IHOP elsewhere.
In a post this week, Van Weng, or PVW, as I choose to call him, praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for his “bravery”
in signing the anti-gay bill on Feb. 24 that imposes life sentences for gay sex
and same-sex marriages. It also criminalizes the “promotion” of homosexuality,
which means that gay activists, or even their heterosexual defenders, will be
subject to imprisonment. (Since then, the Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper has released a list, with some pictures, of the top 200 suspected homosexuals in the country, sparking a renewed with hunt that so far has caused one death.)
Using (or as I’d
argue, abusing) his freedom of speech, Pastor Van Weng went on to argue that he
hoped Taiwanese society and its government would be as brave as Ugandans in
their efforts to “protect the family.” The actual quote, which appears on the KHOP Facebook page and on a fan page for PVW:
為烏干達政府的勇敢和台灣的政府禱告～
台灣能表達其對於性別意識的主權嗎？如果主權表示我們可以表達一件事的意見，我相信台灣的百姓可以選擇我們對於家庭價值的立場！
No surprise
here: PVW went through his own rounds of indoctrination with IHOP Atlanta, and
brought his family along with him.
Encountering criticism,
PVW lamely claimed, as they always do, that his comments were taken “out of context” and that of
course there were differences between Taiwan and Uganda. After all, he said, the African
country had just recently emerged from an AIDS crisis. So PVW digs his hole even
deeper (ironically one of KHOP’s slogans is “go deep”) and unscientifically links
AIDS epidemics to homosexuality, one of many rhetorical tools used by extremist
groups who oppose legalizing same-sex unions. The implicit threat, I suppose,
is that if Taiwan does not combat homosexuality, it risks going the way of
Uganda and face its own AIDS crisis.
The pastor is
right to claim that sovereignty grants the people the right to express their
views about “internal matters.” But freedom of expression runs into a wall when
it seeks to impose the views of a minority upon the majority by blocking legal
amendments in defiance of the majority opinion, particularly so when their
arguments are based on lies, pseudoscience, and bigotry — and forgive me for
saying so, but praising dictator Museveni for enacting laws that blatantly
violate human rights, and wising similar “wisdom” in Taiwan, isn’t speech of
the type that deserves protection. It’s hate speech, pure and simple, and some
Western democracies, such as my home country, have laws against that.
The alliance
against same-sex marriage will come out again in March. As you encounter them
in the streets, when they force their silly little pamphlets on you, and as you
listen to their purported message of love, remember that in their midst there
are people like PVW and others in positions of authority in their world of
frantic isolation who went to the IHOP school of hatred.
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