Canyon Ridge Christian Church has partnered with a minister in Uganda, Pastor Martin Ssempa, who has advocated for passage of a bill known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This bill would institute the death penalty and harsh prison sentences for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Uganda, and it would also institute jail terms for straight people who do not disclose their gay friends, relatives or neighbors.

Canyon Ridge is among the few U.S. religious institutions that has not condemned the Anti-Homosexuality Bill or the work of Pastor Martin Ssempa to pass the bill. They continue to list Martin Ssempa on their web site as a "prophetic" minister, and support him financially and institutionally.

Add to this that in June of this year, Canyon Ridge leadership told their congregation that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill only sought to criminalize the molestation of minor boys by men and the intentional spread of HIV, glossing over the fact that the death penalty and harsh prison sentences for homosexuality were still intact. Canyon Ridge's position here is misleading in a number of ways, particularly because molesting boys is already illegal in Uganda, with equal punishments for that crime as crimes against girls.

Meanwhile, in an article set for the next issue of Harper's, reporter Jeff Sharlet notes that while the Anti-Homosexuality Bill has fallen off of newspaper front pages, it is still a dangerous bill. Sharlet interviewed the legislator who authored the bill, David Bahati, who notes that it is his wish to see all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Uganda killed.

How could Canyon Ridge Christian Church stand by and be idle on this issue, while financially supporting ministers who back the Anti-Homosexuality Bill's passage? Already, their support of this pastor has cost them partnerships with two public health organizations in Nevada, and has positioned them as one of the only major U.S. religious institutions not denouncing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Send this Church a message today that they should be honest with their congregation about the contents of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and that they should rescind their support for work in Uganda that would kill or imprison people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.