Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Sen. Ted Cruz
When Pastor Rafael Cruz (father of GOP presidential contender and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz) was
quoted last week saying that the "next thing" on the LGBT agenda is "to try to legalize pedophiles," he was attending a little-known conference called the
World Congress of Families, held in Salt Lake City this year. The
global gathering of pro-life, virulently anti-gay organizations includes U.S.-based groups like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council, but it is usually held outside the U.S., often in places where homophobia is alive and well and people are hungry for the message. In fact, since the mid-1990s, WCF has been providing U.S.-based groups that are losing the battle against LGBT rights at home the opportunity to take their fight abroad.
"The World Congress of Families acts as a networking operation," explains Tarso Luís Ramos, executive director of Political Research Associates. "As groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Watch International, the National Organization for Marriage and others move into new countries to pass laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ people and reproductive freedom, it is frequently WCF who opens the door by holding these international gatherings that connect U.S. Christian-right organizations with foreign political, religious, and cultural leaders."
One of those points of connection was Theresa Okafor, a regular WCF attendee and director of the anti-gay Nigerian group the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage. Political Research Associates was able to obtain video of Okafor explaining how missionaries from the U.S. helped spread homophobia throughout Africa. On camera, Okafor notes that gays have "always existed" in Africa, but that WCF actually helped Africans "spring into action" and pass anti-gay laws that criminalize gay relationships.
What this boils down to is fresh evidence that, far from being an isolated incident, the Scott Lively push to demonize homosexuality in African countries and other areas is still being facilitated by a broad and active set of groups here in the U.S.
Keep reading below to watch the video.
In the video below, Okafor notes that WCF and an Arizona-based outfit, Family Watch International, helped Africans "spring into action and get our government ... to act." (It's unclear here whether she's referencing Uganda or Nigeria.)
In this video, Okafor explains that homosexuality has "always existed" in Africa but that Christian missionaries taught them it was sinful behavior.
Video highlights:
• 0:25: "In the 19th Century, we had homosexuality. It's always existed in the pagan society in Africa."
• 1:30: "If homosexuality was in our pagan society, what is progressive, what is new about it? It was there! And it was the missionaries who came and changed all of that."
• 2:25 (Note the use of U.S. Christian-right talking points): "When it comes to homosexual activities, we have to make a distinction between the person and the deed. Whilst we love the person, we must condemn the deed."
• 2:37: "[Homosexuality] is the wrong use of sex. In the same way we condemn abortion, adultery, pedophilia, all those things that misuse the sexual faculty."