Far right evangelist Lou Engle is highly influential among the social conservative wing of the GOP (which is pretty much the entire GOP); he has hosted “prayercasts” attended by top Republican politicians including former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and is involved in many other high profile political activities.

And this “man of God” who has the ear of the GOP leadership believes homosexuality should be criminalized; the nation he admires for their “principled stand” is Uganda.

Where they’re trying to pass a law that would execute gays.

As I discussed here last week, Jeff Sharlet, guest-posting on Warren Throckmorton’s blog, reported from Uganda on how supporters of the Anti-Homosexuality bill there understood American evangelist Lou Engle’s statements there as supportive of their efforts to get the bill passed. The role Engle might have played in offering American support for the bill is of intense interest, given that Engle has become an increasingly visible figure in the religious right — among other things, hosting a rally on the National Mall that included former presidential candidate and now Fox News host Mike Huckabee and the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins; appearing in a “prayercast” against health care reform with Republican members of Congress; and playing a prominent role in the recent Freedom Federation Summit held at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Engle’s anti-gay rhetoric is no secret, and in an interview with me on Friday, he supported criminalizing homosexuality, although he insists that he did not support the Ugandan bill because he believes the penalties are too harsh. But, as Michael Wilkerson reported for RD last month, at his Kampala The Call rally Engle did not contest the support for the bill of the speaker who preceded him, self-styled Apostle Julius Oyet. What’s more, Engle stated at The Call, “We know that Uganda has been under tremendous pressure—the church. We felt that same pressure. But I felt like The Call was to come and join with the church of Uganda to encourage you that in the nation who are showing courage to take a stand for righteousness in the earth.”

Engle now is splitting hairs and claiming that this statement wasn’t supportive of the bill, but rather of the bill’s promoters’ efforts to prevent the “homosexual agenda” from taking over the country.

Oyet and David Bahati, the parliamentarian who authored the bill, met with Engle before the rally and were, according to Sharlet, “ecstatic at what they perceived as Engle’s strong support of the bill. They felt his rally and his statements would be a turning point for the bill, reassuring their Ugandan allies that they had support abroad.” As Wilkerson reported, Engle’s speech at The Call was followed by James Nsaba Buturo, Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity, and a well-known supporter of the bill, who unequivocally supported it at Engle’s rally (something Engle claims he has apologized for).

Engle insisted to me — as he has in his public statements posted on his website — that he did not support the bill’s penalties. He also maintained that he did not know who the speakers at The Call were going to be, because the arrangements were handled by a Ugandan ministry (although he admitted meeting with Buturo beforehand). But he also made absolutely clear that he supports the criminalization of homosexuality, believes there could be a biblical basis for a death penalty, that the United Nations has promoted the “homosexual agenda” to Uganda’s detriment, and he lauded the bill’s promoters’ efforts to take a “principled stand” against that.

Read the whole thing…