Theocracy Watch

The Ugandan government is undertaking policy discussions about gays in their country, basically outlawing homosexuality and making being gay a crime punishable by death. Andrew Sullivan calls this potential law "almost genocidal." In the post to which I linked, there is a quote from Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn, where he comes out in opposition to Uganda's stance, on the grounds that it undoes the work Uganda has done over the years to curb the spread of HIV in their country.

Coburn's opposition follows the public opposition of the policy by pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. Some of the people sponsoring this legislation in Uganda are proteges of Warren, or have at best cited Warren as an influence in the way they see the world. Warren, wisely and to his credit, came out against this policy today, calling it "extreme, unjust, and un-Christian towards homosexuals."

I titled my post "Theocracy Watch" for a specific reason: while I welcome Warren's and Coburn's public statements about this horrible development in Africa, which could lead to more such statements by American Christianists in the public and private sectors and actually save lives in Africa, I am watching to see how these initial statements will lead to more from Christianist elected officials and/or media personalities. With Warren taking the lead here, an abundance of condemnations of Uganda's anti-gay law, plus House and Senate resolutions following suit, would look to me like American elected officials taking their cues from a religious cleric. Given that the Obama administration has already come out against Uganda's laws, one could argue that Obama is actually taking the lead here. But no Republican said a peep until Warren spoke up.

In what way does such a supposed cascade of morality led by a cleric not resemble the way things are run in theocracies like Iran?