UK: Minister who said she won’t preach ‘anti-gay message’ in Uganda rallied against gay marriage

A Baptist Union minister who said she had no intentions of preaching any “anti-gay message” at a Ugandan religious rally previously urged Christians to lobby against same-sex marriage.

Reverend Jacqui Green of Stony Stratford Community Church in Milton Keynes yesterday said she had “NEVER preached an anti-gay message nor would I endorse any form of homophobic intolerance being preached.”

But a recording published by the campaign blog ‘Stop Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ paints a rather different picture.

It apparently shows Rev Green rallying Christians to speak out against the legalisation of same-sex marriage in England and Wales.

Rev Green reportedly said: “We need to ask ourselves the kind of questions about how we are living our lifestyle. I’m just going to give you a few questions to think about so you can take them away and do what you want with them this week.

“But we are called to speak out about injustice. Are we prepared to do it? When God asks us to speak… and it’s going against what other people in our society are saying – are we going to speak out?

“Am I considering how to love people in need even when it’s costly? Am I taking responsibility for things in our society like lobbying the MPs over the marriage issues?

We’ve had lots of things coming through about that. But it’s no good us moaning as Christians when the law has changed and saying ‘oh this is terrible’ if we are not prepared to do something now when we have the chance to speak out and marriage is just one of those issues”.

Rev Green is due to attend Uganda’s Annual National Prayer Day, held in the capital Kampala, on 31 December.

At last year’s event several preachers, including Ugandan Pastor Joseph Sserwadda, delivered homophobic sermons in front of thousands of cheering worshipers.

The 24-hour event is hosted by Bishop David Kiganda, who is part of the National Task Force Against Homosexuality.

He has said that homosexuality should be “condemned”.

Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the country’s Anti-Homosexuality law in August, ruling that the law had been passed without the necessary quorum of MPs.

Human rights campaigners welcomed the move, but also feared it would only represent a brief respite before new anti-gay legislation is introduced.

Signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, the act called for ‘repeat offenders’ of homosexuality to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and made it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.

Same-sex sexual activity is already illegal in Uganda.

• Nov 29 2023

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