This past week, PBS' "Independent Lens" has been airing "God Loves Uganda," a documentary that premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival and explores the relationship between the American fundie movement and the recent surge of homophobia in Uganda. Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams followed several missionaries from the International House of Prayer to Uganda, and was also given extensive access to IHOP leaders. One of them was Lou Engle, whom he filmed giving a speech to supporters of the odious Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The unwelcome attention IHOP has received from the film has prompted IHOP to cry foul in an official statement. IHOP claims that it never supported the Uganda law--which before being heavily amended raised the prospect that gays and lesbians could be sentenced to death for homosexual acts. But that claim doesn't look believable when put next to this statement:
We have very little to do with Uganda as an organization; we do not have missionaries in Uganda and do not send a dollar of our budget to Uganda. Our primary mandate as an organization is prayer and humanitarian action; it is not political. We are not involved in US politics, let alone politics in another nation.
Anyone who has monitored the religious right in recent years, including yours truly, would fall down laughing at this statement. IHOP is one of the fountainheads of the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that seeks to bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world. It has a very close relationship with Engle, who was one of IHOP's cofounders. According to Political Research Associates'
dossier on IHOP, several members of IHOP's board also serve on the board of Engle's group, TheCall, and the two groups also have a close tax affiliation as well.
Most recently, IHOP's founder and director, Mike Bickle, was the emcee of "The Response," a 2011 prayer rally that served as the launch for Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign. Bickle also helped recruit several dominionist and NAR leaders to speak at the event and lend support. Additionally, Pam Oslen, the head of IHOP's branch in Tallahassee, was co-chairwoman of Perry's Florida leadership team. Olsen, like her NAR compatriots, has claimed that God will punish this country for legalizing gay marriage with natural disasters. She has also preached "Seven Mountains" dominionism, the idea that Christians must take over the seven spheres, or "mountains," that influence our society--government, business, media, arts and entertainment, family, media, education, and religion.
Charisma magazine's Jennifer LeClaire was no less apoplectic, saying that IHOP has cast false "aspersions" on Engle and IHOP. LeClaire must have a short memory. Engle is one of the most virulently anti-gay leaders out there--indeed, the film includes footage of Engle speaking at a pro-Prop 8 rally in which he claimed legalizing gay marriage would unleash spirits that were "more demonic than Islam." Simply put, IHOP and LeClaire's response may persuade those in the Christianist bubble, but we in the reality-based community know better.
I hate that I'm probably gonna miss seeing this movie--it was never shown in Charlotte during its film run, and the PBS stations in my neck of the woods run it late at night, and my VCR's on the blink. But it was just released on DVD ... hopefully I can get my hands on it.