So who are the martyrs of Uganda? Now, that's a story you won't hear in these times, at least not from Fr. James Martin, SJ.
I'd never heard it from anybody, but even left-leaning Wikipedia agrees on the details.
When preparations were completed and the day had come for the execution on 3 June 1886, Lwanga was separated from the others by the Guardian of the Sacred Flame for private execution, in keeping with custom. As he was being burnt, Lwanga said to the Guardian, "It is as if you are pouring water on me. Please repent and become a Christian like me."Twelve Catholic boys and men and nine Anglicans were then burnt alive. Another Catholic, Mbaga Tuzinde, was clubbed to death for refusing to renounce Christianity, and his body was thrown into the furnace to be burned along with those of Lwanga and the others. The fury of the king was particularly inflamed against the Christians because they refused to participate in sexual acts with him.
I suppose it's a sort-of equality to recognize that homosexuals can be just as bad as anyone else. In any case, today is the feast day.
In some societies it is apparent that some men are considered so powerful that they can screw whoever they want: multiple women, children, other men. It is true in a prison mentality. I have always considered it ambiguous whether these things constituted a society's approval for homosexuality, pedophilia, or adultery. It is an "approval" of power being absolute. Once someone has tasted that absolute power they feel a narcissistic injury having anyone deny it, and become infuriated.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I hadn't considered that aspect of things, which is quite alien to me. I come from a place where, formally at least, the powerful demonstrate their power by self-control over lusts; the Bill Clintons (or Donald Trumps) are looked down upon for giving into them, even if they are positively regarded on other grounds. The Epsteins of the world are regarded as monsters.
ReplyDeleteYet you're right that an American prison might host an ethic quite similar to this Ugandan one.
Well.........noteworthy is the continuing forceful resistance to homosexual practices in Africa, to the extent that the African Bishops' Conference told Pp. Franny1 to stick his "Blessing of Homosexual couples" right where the sun never shines.
ReplyDeleteSome African states are also foregoing US and/or European aid, which is usually conditioned on legalizing homosexual practices.
Yeah, the State Department loves that stuff. I can readily recall being under General Order #1 and having to forgo beer for large portions of three years running “so as not to offend our Muslim hosts,” who drank themselves and loved Jack Daniels; but meanwhile the State Department was throwing Pride parades and hosting drag shows in the Embassy.
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