A conservative Wisconsin lawmaker and congressional candidate complained that Secretary of State John Kerry's opposition to Uganda's anti-LGBT law had both lowered the U.S.' standing in Africa and upset God, Right Wing Watch reported on Friday.
"What we have is the Secretary of State going to Africa and educating Ugandans or saying he is going to send American scientists to Uganda to explain how normal homosexuality is," state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) said during an interview last week with In Focus, a talk show produced by Voice of Christian Youth America. "Think about that. I mean, what must God think of our country?"
Both Kerry and the State Department have compared Ugandan laws banning the "promotion" of homosexuality to Apartheid-era laws in South Africa and German statutes during the Nazi regime, and have threatened to cut the country off from U.S. financial aid.
Grothman, who has denounced the African-American holiday Kwanzaa for being "fake" and opposed the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, said Kerry's statements undermined the long U.S. tradition of sending Christian missionaries into African countries.
"I mean, what must God think of our country?" he repeated. "If now, rather than sending people to Uganda to explain better agricultural techniques, sending missionaries to Africa educating people on Christianity, we send scientists to Africa to say how wonderful the homosexual lifestyle is. It is just unbelievable what has become of our country."
Grothman, who is currently challenging for incumbent Rep. Tom Petri's (R-WI) House seat, also criticized religious conservatives for not speaking out against both Kerry's remarks and marriage equality as a whole.
"We're, quite frankly, losing the issue because the Republicans and conservatives and, quite frankly, too many church leaders are heading for the hills," he was quoted as saying.
Watch Grothman's remarks, as posted on Friday by Right Wing Watch, below.
[Image via Wikipedia]
