SALON

Thursday, Aug 26, 2010 7:36 PM UTC

Second AIDS group breaks with Nevada megachurch

More fallout for Canyon Ridge's financial support of one of the chief backers of Uganda's "kill the gays" bill

By

Topics: LGBT, AIDS,

Second AIDS group breaks with Nevada megachurchMartin Ssempa

The largest AIDS service organization in Nevada has severed its ties with a Las Vegas megachurch over that church’s financial support of one of the chief backers of Uganda’s notorious “kill the gays” bill.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Aid of AIDS Nevada (AFAN) said that it is dissolving its relationship with Canyon Ridge Christian Church immediately. The church has refused to disassociate itself from Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan pastor whom Canyon Ridge has designated as a mission partner. Ssempa has become the international face of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill and has said that gays have no place in Uganda’s AIDS programs.

“After evaluating Canyon Ridge Christian Church’s backing of Pastor Ssempa of Uganda and his support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, we feel that it is in the best interest of our clients, supporters and staff to dissolve our relationship with the church immediately,” AFAN’s statement read.

For the past five years, Canyon Ridge has organized a team, officially recognized by AFAN, and marched in the AIDS group’s annual AIDS walk.

AFAN’s decision makes it the second AIDS organization in two months to break with the Nevada church. In July, the Southern Nevada Health District announced that the church would no longer be a site for its AIDS testing program.

As Salon first reported on July 2, Canyon Ridge has supported Martin Ssempa since 2007, paying for staff salaries at Ssempa’s Makerere Community Church in Uganda. Canyon Ridge officials met with Ssempa in March of this year and expressed concern over some of his methods of supporting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which have included showing hard-core gay pornography in various church-related venues. But they decided to maintain their support for Ssempa, claiming that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill had been misrepresented in the media.

Despite language in the bill calling for life in prison for HIV-negative gays and the death penalty for “repeat offenders” and HIV-positive gays, the church said that the bill’s penalties only applied to child molesters and the intentional spread of HIV.

When Canyon Ridge’s Ssempa connection was first brought to its attention, AFAN refused to comment. But when a petition from Michael Jones at Change.org generated over 200 signatures and activists began speaking up, the organization launched an investigation, leading to Wednesday’s announcement.

Warren Throckmorton, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Grove City College (Pa.). He blogs regularly about religious and mental health issues at www.wthrockmorton.com. More Warren Throckmorton.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
277 points278 points | 60 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
255 points256 points | 10 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
194 points195 points | 1 comment
vote
Today in How Did I Miss This: Iowa GOP is pushing to cut the pay of the remaining Supreme Court Justices that voted for legalization of gay marriage.
85 points86 points | 10 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
54 points55 points | 8 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations