CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Conservative U.S. Christian groups are setting up fronts in Africa to fight for anti-gay and anti-abortion legislation to promote their convictions, a report by a Boston-based think tank said Tuesday.
It accuses evangelical stars such as Pat Robertson and Rick Warren as well as Catholic and Mormon groups of setting up institutions and campaigns in Africa that are “fanning the flames of the culture wars over homosexuality and abortion by backing prominent African campaigners and political leaders.”
The report — “Colonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa” — was presented by the Political Research Associates of Boston, a think tank that describes itself as “progressive” and focusing on what it calls attacks on civil liberties by the political and Christian right.
Some of the Africans cited in the report as heading African organizations set up by the U.S. religious right maintain that they are just using funds from foreign friends who share similar beliefs.
Among them is Joseph Okia, nephew of President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, where proposed legislation would invoke the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
“Definitely there is a link between conservative Christians in America and conservative Christian leaders in Uganda,” Okia confirmed to the report’s researchers.
Several Africans and Americans named in the report could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for Pastor Rick Warren said he was too busy to comment.
The Christian groups’ have not been as successful in pushing anti-abortion legislation, the report said.
Illegal abortions are performed without hindrance across most of sub-Saharan Africa, and no efforts are made to prosecute those involved, the report found.
