Simply Christians or Simply Terrorists: The Violence of Christofascism Comes Home To Roost

Both Progressive and Regressive Christians (aka Religious Right or Christofascists) are still reeling with the news about "Hutaree", its zeal, its militarism, its expanse and the fact that it views itself as 'Christian'. 

From Right Wing Watch:

"Many mainstream media outlets, like ABC and CNN, are irresponsibly reporting that those arrested in Michigan in the alleged plot to murder law enforcement officers are 'Christians,'" said Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. "Even if they identify themselves as Christians, what they were allegedly planning is absolutely contrary to Christianity. They may have illicitly co-opted the Christian faith to justify their murderous intentions, but it is defamatory for the media to keep referring to them as Christians. They are simply terrorists."

So, were the knights of the Crusades 'simply terrorists'? Is Repent Amarillo really a terrorist group? What about Rev. Rod Parsley? Where is the dividing line? 

Dr. Cass is, of course, grasping at straws in attempting to distance himself and others of his Religious Right flock: it's rather counter-intuitive (much less, hypocritical) to say that anyone who identifies themselves as Christians are not Christians. Christians around the country have been saying that everyone should have the right to call themselves Christians. Also, a strange parallel of intolerance shows itself in the Christian view of the organization known as NAMBLA - National American Man-Boy Love Association. Christofascists point to it as an accepted and almost typical gay rights association - which it is not. They also extend its premise to all gays. What Cass is avoiding is this: militarism and potential violence exist in  today's American Christian landscape. Hutaree is an extreme (but real) version of Rod Parsley's vision of Christian soldiers. It's tone and rhetoric are equivalent to Repent Amarillo. It's hatred of non-Christians (Jews, "pagans," Muslims) is just as bad as Fred Phelp's hatred of gays or Father Charles Coughlin's anti-Semitism seventy years ago.

 

The dividing line, America seems to think, is between words and action. Christian pastors can spout all the military rhetoric they want. They are protected twofold: freedom of speech and separation of church and state. They have nothing to do with the actions taken by fringe groups. 

This is obvious, inane self-deception. Actions are almost always the result of words, especially when they take effect in the brains of an illiterate: the Elmer Gantrys egging on the Elmer Fudds.

HUTAREE

"Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment," Hutaree.com reads. "The only thing on earth to save the testimony and those who follow it, are the members of the testimony, til the return of Christ in the clouds. We, the Hutaree, are prepared to defend all those who belong to Christ and save those who aren't. We will still spread the word, and fight to keep it, up to the time of the great coming."

Compare this statement to the one put out by Repent Amarillo:

A soldier for Christ wants to leave no man behind. We will fight unto death for the cause of eternal life through Christ Jesus. We will wage a good spiritual warfare until our King calls us home. May we leave this earth desperately clinging to one more lost soul.

The arrogance of today's Christofascists make them lax in regards to monitoring and censoring fringe groups like Hutaree. That inability to expel groups from more mainstream Christianity before violence starts may lead to a long period when Christian groups spend too much time and effort defending themselves, telling people what they are NOT than focusing on their real goals. This may seem a boon to secularists like myself. The problem with that is that people will have to die to achieve it. 

"Hutaree" is evidently a made up name which means nothing. It may, however, come to mean "violent but stupid Christofascists."


Just a thought.

Publish Post

Sorry Billy, We're Looking For Christians With Good Taste

...Like CNN

“Gangs of machete-wielding Muslims have been blamed for the weekend slaughter of hundreds of Christian villagers in Nigeria, but analysts say it would be wrong to assume the conflict was rooted in religion.”

Remember Charlie the Tuna? He was the mascot for Starkist Tuna who was always trying to lure Starkist into thinking that he had "good taste" when a God-like voiceover said "Sorry Charlie, we're looking for tuna that tastes good." So twist that sentiment around the latest scream of "PERSECUTION!"  that Bill Donohue of The Christian League is ratcheting up about 50 decibals. Twist it in another direction: we need to have Christians who have dignity, consideration and good taste. But Donohue exhibits the opposite. Consider his take on the same incident:

According to The Australian, “dozens of bodies lined the streets” of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria. “Other victims of the weekend’s Muslim fury jammed a local morgue, the limbs of slaughtered children tangled in a grotesque mess.” Children were scalped, “most had severed hands and feet,” and “officials estimate that 500 people were massacred in night-time raids by rampaging Muslim gangs.” According to one eyewitness media account, “They then set homes on fire and attacked men, women and children. Many were decapitated.”

 It was later found out that the attack could have been a response to a massacre in January of the Hausa Muslim Community resulting in 150 deaths. Christian mobs in Kuru Karama were said to blame.

When people started criticizing Donohue, he answered:

Back to CNN. It cited an ugly Muslim-Christian incident in 2001 in the same area. What started the Muslim massacre back then? “A Christian woman had tried to cross the road through a group of Muslims during Friday prayers.” Yeah, that’ll do it every time. 

It’s time to stop viewing Muslim-Christian violence through the lens of moral equivalency. 

Perhaps it's time for Bill Donohue to stop viewing any form of violence through a veil of blood. His style of "journalism" is more than yellow, it's red in the extreme. He conjures in me visions of my old nuns (very, very old nuns) who recounted in nauseating detail Roman orgies, (more bachannal than orgy), savagery of the Goths and the Vandals in sacking Rome, the cruelty of Ghengis Khan, the blood sacrifices of the Aztecs. Of course, their demeanor always changed when mentioning the Crusades (Western Civilization's first genocide along with the Albigensian Crusade), the Pilgrims of Massachusetts (who, after presenting the Massachusetts Indians with a translation of the Bible promptly wiped them out) or Father Junipero Serra (who, along with the California Missions established slavery of non-converts). 

It's time for many proselytizing Christians to own up to the annihilation of so many millions of people in history. And the ones who scream about the supposed atheism of Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot are usually the ones who disavow any knowledge of wrongdoing by Christians in history. Or at least chop history's witnesses down to a few Catholic heretics who minimally staged the auto de fes of a few thousand old women. They seldom mention Torquemada, and while we had to memorize "Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492" we never heard about forced conversions of the Moors and the Jews and ultimately the mass exile of those two populations by good Queen Isabella.

"Moral equivalency" may be the only true lens we have. CNN has better taste than to run down a gory list of atrocities. Their viewers are smart enough to envision the bloodletting without detail.

Bill Donohue, however, believes in shock and awe.

Not A Laughing Matter: The Fudds Are Besieging Amarillo, Tx. And There Will Be Bloodshed - Eventually

WEPENT AMAWIWWO!

Always remember:

There are two different kinds of Christofascists: one is the Elmer Gantry and the other kind is the Elmer Fudd. The one to watch out for is the Elmer Fudd. After all, he's the one with the gun.

About 35 years ago, I had the occasion to meet one of my boyhood cowboy icons. I had seen him on the 14-inch screen in black and white, but his portrayal of a Mexican cowboy with a sidekick named Pancho was colorful enough for the imagination. The actor's name was Duncan Renaldo and he played The Cisco Kid. When I met him he was in his sixties and was much shorter than I had imagined him. But his white hair was still as thick as it had been twenty years before and he still had a kind of benign intensity. He was promoting a friend's book of poetry. He talked to me about his early days in movies, when sound was in its infancy. He was in Africa for almost two years filming the classic Trader Horn. He told me that the movie made almost no money at the box-office, but the extensive footage of the Serengeti and its animals was a goldmine in studio rentals. I was anxious, however, to get to the subject of The Cisco Kid."You know, I had Hopalong Cassidy wallpaper when I was a kid," I said. "And I know there were dozens of other promotional toys and whatnot for different shows, but I don't recall seeing anything with The Cisco Kid on them."

He turned very serious. "That's because they wanted me to promote Cisco Kid six-shooters and I wouldn't do it."

"Why not?"

"Because every time you point a gun at someone, even a toy gun, it means 'I want to kill you.'"

I've never forgotten that exchange. As The Cisco Kid, he was totally fearless. In reality, he was compassionate and peaceful. I then realized that his character's quick wit and rather sophisticated temperament was due to his own persona and not just a scriptwriter's attempt to inject something more meaningful into an early TV kids' cowboy program.

"I want to kill you."

Amarillo, TX is under siege. The group called Repent Amarillo is openly targeting businesses, clubs, establishments it considers immoral and/or evil.

The following description of a "soldier for Christ" sounds routinely innocuous, but put it on a website that features gunshots and bullet holes and you have the makings of a hate group armed with guns as well as Bibles. This group will start with extreme intimidation, but only time will tell what it will end up with.

Let's look at the inconsistencies in their description of a "soldier of Christ":

A soldier for Christ fights a spiritual battle. The enemy is not our fellow man but the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12). (History tells us that a soldier is trained to kill whomever he perceives as the enemy. Flesh and blood humans are painted as evil incarnate by pastors.) Our mission is to do battle with the lies of the enemy. To do battle with the corruption of this world. We do this by personal evangelism, one heart at a time. (Not when you target whole groups for extreme intimidation) The first century church went out into the streets and house to house being personal witnesses for Christ. This we do as well. (No, they did not intend to intimidate, harass or threaten blackmail) The Christian soldier has three weapons in his arsenal, prayer, praise and worship, and the Word of God. (Using Scripture as a weapon in any way is not Christian is it?) The Christian soldier must have the courage to stand where others will not and to go where others fear to tread. If God the Father regarded every person’s value as to be worth sending His only begotten Son to die for then why do so many Christians think that some are not worth preaching to? (Intimidation is not preaching) Regardless of the risk, regardless of the cost, regardless of the place, Christians are called to preach the Gospel to every creature. (Not to animals, since that would be putting animals on the same plane as humans) There is no excuse for cowardice in the face of the enemy. (Again, who is the enemy - how about that guy who runs the porno shop? Or the young couple in a swingers club? Or the gay couple down the street?) Jesus Christ was faithful unto death, obedient unto death and so shall we. The costs of cowardice and apathy are far too high. (Costs to whom?) A soldier for Christ wants to leave no man behind. (Easily qualified by a young soldier’s mind - if a man refuses to go, then what is the soldier to do?) We will fight unto death for the cause of eternal life through Christ Jesus. We will wage a good spiritual warfare until our King calls us home. May we leave this earth desperately clinging to one more lost soul.

"Desperately clinging." In the context of warfare, those words could be taken to mean that while the right hand is clinging to someone, the left hand is searching for a place to stab with the dagger - and turn it.

Of course, this article doesn't do justice to the website. Picture it pockmarked with bullet holes.

Yes, bullet holes.

That's what got to me when I looked at the site. No matter what they say about not targeting anyone, the bullet holes make everything disingenuous. The bullet holes are there to intimidate. The bullet holes are, in fact, very indicative of their modus operandi: intentionally ruining peoples' lives to further their agenda:


From How To Have Sex In Texas:

It was members of this "soldier" group that confronted, harassed, and smeared members of the Amarillo swinger's club, employing such apparently "Christian" tactics as posting names, employers, and license plate numbers of club attendees online, resulting in lost jobs and social ostracism--which, I guess, was the point--for several members.

While I call this ideology of religious militarism Christofascism, some have other names even more sinister. Dan Savage (Savage Love) calls Christofascists The American Taliban:

They're also going after churches they believe to be insufficiently Christian (Episcopalians, Christian Scientists, Unitarians), palm readers, people who practice witchcraft, and anything and everything that might create a "demonic stronghold" in Amarillo. And they're not just threatening to pray for people: Repent Amarillo's "actions" include prayer, according to Repent Amarillo's website, "but [also] may involve more aggressive use of soldiers and prayer warriors." Check out the group's locked-and-loaded website. (Please note: Repent Amarillo's website "is not designed for non-Christians," or the wrong kinds of Christians, so don't look long lest you defile the group's website with your eyes and turn into a pillar of salt.)

So if, heaven forbid, you are ever in Amarillo, remember that Repent Amarillo will be targeting these events:

1. Gay pride events.
2. Earth worship events such as “Earth Day”    
3. Pro-abortion events or places such as Planned Parenthood    
4. Breast cancer events such as “Race for the Cure” to illuminate the link between abortion and breast cancer.   
5. Opening day of public schools to reach out to students.   
6. Spring break events

7. Demonically based concerts.   
8. Halloween events.   
9. Other events that may arise that the ministry feels called to confront


If Repent Amarillo seems like a terrorist organization using God as a front, we should waste no time in monitoring it VERY closely. The Christofascist Right won't do it. Progressive Christians and the rest of us must do it. Someone's life may depend upon our diligence.

Update:

A very confusing investigation into the founder of Repent Amarillo and its "parent" ministry Raven International Ministries reveals that most of the "pastors" associated with its ministries matriculated at World Evangelism Bible College - the college founded by none other than disgraced evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Neither Todd Bohn's nor (brother) Troy Bohn's profiles state that they actually graduated from WEBC, although Troy's website does state that he received a "honorary doctorate" in appreciation for his work, but does not state the source of the honorary degree. Repent Amarillo's (pastor) David Grisham is not listed with any known theological seminary as far as we know.

The Blatant Bigotry At CPAC: The Anger, The Arrogance And A Distinct Lack Of Reasoning

It's over a week since this event happened. It went viral almost immediately. Millions have already seen it. Why am I writing about it? Simply to state this:

THERE  ARE  MORE  WHERE  RYAN SORBA  CAME  FROM

A young Right-wingnut disguised as a budding conservative ala William F. Buckley (who would NOT have approved) aroused anger, shame, boos, disgust and yes, a small amount of applause. No one had expected his arrogant tirade. He was very proud of it. With the first sentence, he proved that Republicans still have not mastered the art of vetting. The event is best told in short points:

• Alexander McCobin of Students for Liberty thanks CPAC for including GOProud as a sponsor...
• McCobin is booed by several members of the audience...
• Including (admittedly): Ryan Sorba, representing ...
• California Young Americans For Freedom ...
• Sorba is introduced next as the young man who appeared on Glenn Beck's show for the wrong reasons and ...
• Was supposed to tell his story...
• The first words out of his mouth...
• "I'd like to condemn CPAC for accepting GOProud"...
• It was met with a chorus of boos...
• To which he said "I love it!"

Forget the booing. It's PC. Yes, for once, booing was politically correct. A bunch of CPAC arch-conservatives would have cheered, but people were recording his sage words, so how should they have reacted? They also heard the boos for McCobin and didn't want to go down that path by cheering Sorba.

And the saga doesn't end with Sorba's words at the podium.

He gave TWO interviews.

One ended in an ugly manner and should be quoted verbatim by gay reporter Alex Knepper of Race 4 2012.

He [Sorba] said at around this point that he needed to go, and put out his hand to say goodbye. I stared at him, refusing to shake his hand, and he said “Well, I don’t really want to shake your hand, you’re intrinsically evil.”

When we reached the area near the escalator downstairs, he turned on his camera. I put out my arms, striking a mocking pose, but realized he kept holding the camera at me.

“Wait, are you recording or taking a picture?” He was recording.

“Ah! OK…Well, I’d like to say, then, that the person behind the camera is a Hitler Youth waiting for a fuhrer to sweep him off his feet into a grand national project so he can sacrifice individuals like stock-fodder to his own biases.”

He turned off the camera and approached me. I told him he should get his girlfriend to give him a blowjob so that he could experience the joys of sodomy. He put two of his fingers an inch from my face and said that he’d want to fight me if a girl wasn’t around. “Ah, the use of force!” I said again.

The full exchange can be read HERE. This was not the first time Sorba's speech caused a stir. Recall that he cited protesting lesbians at Smith College. He was referring to a three-year-old incident at Smith where he was supposed to speak on the "Born Again Hoax". The theme for his speech was supposedly culled from his "forthcoming" book of the same title. Protesters stormed the hall in which he was speaking and he was ushered out ("for his own safety"). He's been living on that story ever since, it seems.  

The irony here lies in the possibility that the "hoax" may be Sorba himself. The only available copy of his "book" is HERE. It is not listed in Amazon.com (which many times even lists out-of-print books). It was copywrighted in 2007. The first chapter and the last three chapters are labeled "tbc" presumably because they are not under copywright yet, but they are important chapters and are missing. But the biggest problems with this 95-page pamphlet/book: no bibliography and no index. Sorba thinks that his brain and his brain alone should be taken as the temple of truth. This man who prides himself on spewing pure Aristotilian rhetoric is himself unreasonable, expecting everyone to take him and his arrogance at face value simply because HE says he's using reason. He makes statements, then immediately storms off because he is cowardly. Bravado, it seems, is not his forte.
 

The second interview he gave that day is below. Again, his bravado does not extend to allowing himself to be photographed for some inexplicable reason. You are allowed to laugh at his statement "I don't hate anybody."  

Remember this message: Ryan Sorba is not alone. He may seem like a one-man hate group masquerading as an intelligent neo-conservative, but he has supporters out there - somewhere.

End of an Era: The San Francisco Faerie Portal Closes

Not A Human Interest Story,
But A Wonderful Story Nonetheless

AN ENCHANTING LOOK BACK

For years, the Faeries of San Francisco have had a portal to their world and to ours. And being the San Francisco portal, it was, of course, considered the Grand Central Station for faeries.

The other day, however, the portal was discovered in a terrible state: it had obviously been dismantled (with the exception of the actual doorway itself) and a note was tacked on to it. It read, in effect, that Oberon, King of the Faeries had closed the portal, distributed its plants and flowers (as well as the sparkly gemstones the faeries used to play with) and declared it inoperable. Why the King did this is not important since the faeries knew him to be a very strict but just King and they never questioned his purposes. They knew that he would somehow provide an alternate portal.

But it was nonetheless a loss. Such gay times they had there! You see, to the faeries, our world is exciting, in a rough and rugged sort of way. Even a sleek apartment in the sky is filled with adventure and exploration. The portal was therefore seen as a place to ...party! It was the last party for some and the first party for others.

It transcended anything we could imagine. For instance, it had a toll taker who took away their gemstones because humans valued them so much and would start poaching faerie communities if they ever found so much as a tiny ruby. But faeries being very sloppy (as faeries are wont to be), they littered the portal and the toll taker had to eventually pick up all of them.

Party Time! The light is white,
so they're... ah ... you know!

When they came through the portal into our world, they became progressively bigger in size and could actually be seen by some humans! And when they went back, they shrunk back to King Oberon's ordered size which was smaller than the head of a pin.

In the evening, they gave off rainbows of light and when they made love, they produced the purest and brightest of white lights. That's the reason white lights lit up the portal on moonless nights, faeries being exhibitionists and all.

They would also be met by Fiona, Faerie of the West Wind who, on her magic flute produced music so entracing that faeries felt very welcomed (or very missed). The problem with Fiona's music was that it was never sufficient warning for faeries wandering up the path to the Dark Forest. Faeries going in ... but not coming out.

So it's the end of an era for San Francisco. The King is allowing the doorway to be overgrown with wildflowers and weeds. It may not be discovered for a very long time. But as the faerie legend goes, anyone who discovers the doorway is destined to plant the bright flowers and plants to entice the faeries back.

It's The Last Night
and Fiona Bids You Farewell

Which Politician Will Target Buy?

OK. This is a personal matter. I happen to shop at Target quite a lot. For the most part, they've got good merchandise at reasonable prices.

It's Target Online that I'm writing about. It's about getting shafted by a loophole that Target Online has taken advantage of numerous times. It's about receiving an enormous package so decrepit with an item you know is so damaged beyond your belief that you're afraid to open the package. It's about loosening regulations on quality control. It's about who will Target Online contribute campaign money to ease the regulations even more?

I know that this line of reasoning is stretching well beyond the six degrees of separation, but it's all possible. When corporations start throwing unlimited amounts of money at politicians, this situation may happen a million times to consumers all over the country.

I'm in the process of moving. It's stressful. Everyone knows what it's like to pack away things you know you'll be unpacking in a matter of days. We all wish we had magic powers to zap our belongings to the new place in an instant. Where is Samantha Stevens/Elizabeth Montgomery when you need her? (I wouldn't even mind a visit from Endora/Agnes Moorehead). I've paid particular attention to any new items that would be needed in the new place. I placed an online order with Target Online for a new writing desk. Below is what I received:

Now look at the packaging inside:


Notice Target.com's information stamped on the carton.
Finally, the condition of the "writing table":


Oh forget it, Vojir! Just return the table and quit whining over it. It's a cheap table.

But wait, there's more! Target fully expects me to box this thing up, pay for shipping, after which I will be reimbursed: sometime after the next full moon, I think. I checked with UPS: $200 to package and ship (ground) to Minneapolis. I told Target "NO WAY!" They said "NO WAY" will they take the thing back without it being boxed, then picked up (arrangements which I have to make) then reimbursed upon receipt. Period.

Will they add on the cost of my time, labor and interest accrued for the time they decide I will be reimbursed? Don't bet on it. I checked the site page for my writing table. There was one great review. However, upon further reading, I found out that THE EXACT SAME COMPLAINTS as mine were posted by about twenty customers for the same brand/line of furniture! Target has definitely been shipping this kind of stuff out for quite a while, hoping that the consumer would just go away exasperated.

Bear with me, I'm almost there making my point. There is something that retail operations must have: quality control. But what if there were no quality control? What if companies like Target could send out items like the one above with impunity? Yes, it's a sketchy "what if" but if corporations have no conscience...

BTW: Target is based in Minneapolis - home turf to Michele Bachmann. If they throw in some slivers of the True Cross with the campaign funds, they just might be able to get rid of their whole "quality control" staff which, BTW, seems to reside in India.

Now Coming To YOUR Church: Evangelism and Gay Porn

Pastor Martin Ssempe's new tactic to see all gays killed reached a new low when he showed gay pornographic slides in a Kampala church. He hoped to get more support for the "kill the gays" bill.

Pam's House Blend

The screening was attended by around 300 supporters crammed into an evangelical church in the Ugandan capital after plans for a 'million-man march' were thwarted by police. 'We had planned to have a million-man and -woman march in Kampala but unfortunately we were told that we could not march because of security concerns," Martin Ssempa told the crowd. 'The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?,' the pastor asked. Ssempa then displayed a slide show of gay pornographic pictures. 'This one is eating another man's penis,' the pastor said, before going into even more graphic descriptions. 'Is this what Obama wants to bring to Africa?'

No, I don't think it is. He wants to bring something that Ssempa hasn't seen for years: civilization. I know that's harsh and some might say see the statement as racist, but just think how our own Christian Right is trying to drag us all (kicking and screaming) back to the Middle Ages. Christofascists see Africa as new meat: "there's redemption in them thar hills and we's gonna get us a whole passel of brand spankin' new converts. Yessiree!"

And people like Rick Warren are exporting homophobia as fast as possible. Of course, Warren has denounced the "kill the gays" bill, but only after a lot of pressure. And other high-ranking evangelicals are beginning to look like "Hitler's Pope," Pope Pius XII, who gave only a small, vague remonstration to Hitler and the Holocaust. For the Pope, it was a trade-off or rather, being on the side of the lesser of two evils: back Hitler, but not Stalin. And in the case of Uganda, gays, like Jews, are expendable. If killing gays en masse begets just one conversion, then so be it. It's like Rick Warren's motto: "Whatever it takes."

And yesterday's headlines concerning mass hysteria in Kenya will please a great many of the Christofascists.

365gay.com

The wave of anti-gay sentiment in Kenya continues to grow. The mob violence on Feb. 12 over the alleged wedding of two gay men has led to house-to-house searches for gays, attacks on gays in the street and the sacking of an AIDS clinic.

So now Martin's Seempa's homophobia (and by extension, Rick Warren's) has spread.

One of the questions I have for Pastor Ssempe: what video were your slides from? Was it "To The Last Man" by Raging Stallion? Was it the wonderful take-off on Tim LaHaye's novels called "Kiss My Left Behind?" Was it "Folsom Undercover?" Was it "The Bigger The Better?" The guys in those films didn't look gay at all. Or did you show something like "Castro Twinks Get It On." That one would have you marching in San Francisco like the angry villagers in Frankenstein. Wouldn't that be fun?

OK, so I'm flippant. Did you expect anything less? Some people deserve to be treated jovially but dismissively or they just don't get the point. OK, I'll cut out the flippancy because it's too be easy to dismiss Ssempa's mentality as one of a typical Central African tyrant whose problem-solving skills entail only jail sentences, torturde and executions. His reasoning is fed by the U.S. evangelical community which owns him. His leaders cannot accomplish anything without the sanction of people like Rick Warren and Franklin Graham. And so Ssempa targets Barack Obama.

Seempa never seems to realize that Uganda (and now Kenya) has to exist with more globalized societies. China realized it years ago. So did Russia. And if he and Musevene want to imitate capitalist democracies such as ours, he'll have to deal with certain ethical principals.

Theocracies are NOT democracies by any stretch of the imagination. But sacred cows like Ssempa would rather not have democracies standing in their way. Again, like his mentor's motto: "Whatever it takes."

Poor Uganda. Poor Kenya.

Poor Africa.