Hope, Hope, Hurray! But Not in Uganda October 20, 2009March 16, 2017 HOPE FOR THE FUTURE DEPT. James Musters: “Brilliant! Roof Tiles Change Color to Save Energy.” They turn white when it’s hot, black when it’s cold. Time will tell whether they can be made sufficiently rugged and cheap. HOPE FOR THE FUTURE DEPT. – II Could we be just half a decade from a treatment for cancer – even cancer that’s metastasized? In case you missed it Sunday, Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” report gives real hope. SOCCER BALLS FOR KIDS DEPT. If you like kids – or photography – or Sting – check out this clip from The Power of the Invisible Sun. If you wind up buying it as a holiday gift for someone, you’ll also be providing an indestructible soccer ball to a youngster via the Hope Is a Game-Changer Project. AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY GONE GROTESQUELY WRONG DEPT. So a bunch of evangelical U.S. senators and congressmen have helped lead Uganda to legislation that would crack down on same-sex intimacy, already punishable by life in prison. If it passes, Wayne Besen reports, just making a pass could buy you seven years in prison, while failure to snitch on someone within 24 hours would be punishable by up to three years in prison. What version of the New Testament do these fundamentalist senators and congressmen read? I prefer this Saint’s point of view: “Jesus Christ to me, is probably the most compassionate and revolutionary thinker of all time. Look at his teachings. Look at what he preached. He would not endorse any type of inequality, this type of inhumanity. He would not be on board with that. . . . By and large in this country the issue of gay rights and equality should be past the point of debate. Really, there should be no debate anymore. . . . ” – New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita And this from retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong: I have been part of this debate for years, but things do get settled and this issue is now settled for me. I do not debate any longer with members of the “Flat Earth Society” either. I do not debate with people who think we should treat epilepsy by casting demons out of the epileptic person; I do not waste time engaging those medical opinions that suggest that bleeding the patient might release the infection. I do not converse with people who think that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as punishment for the sin of being the birthplace of Ellen DeGeneres or that the terrorists hit the United Sates on 9/11 because we tolerated homosexual people, abortions, feminism or the American Civil Liberties Union. I am tired of being embarrassed by so much of my church’s participation in causes that are quite unworthy of the Christ I serve or the God whose mystery and wonder I appreciate more each day. Indeed I feel the Christian Church should not only apologize, but do public penance for the way we have treated people of color, women, adherents of other religions and those we designated heretics, as well as gay and lesbian people.