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Credit: The Atlantic

Peter Waldron is a Bachmann staffer

Uganda has been a hot bed of extreme religious view points against gays for years and Rachel Maddow has been covering that story relentlessly. Christian organizers have been traveling around the world to spread their word on their religious views. It's one reason why recently deposed leader Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast was being supported by Pat Robertson and his merry men. Now it's being revealed that he helped organize Bachmann's win of the Ames Iowa straw poll:

Garance Franke-Ruta

The evangelical organizer who helped Michele Bachmann win the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa Saturday was previously charged with terrorism in Uganda after being arrested for possession of assault rifles and ammunition in February 2006, just days before Uganda's first multi-party elections in 20 years.

Peter E. Waldron spent 37 days in the Luriza Prison outside Kampala, where he says he was tortured, after being arrested along with six Congolese and Ugandan nationals for the weapons, which were described variously in news reports as having been found in his bedroom or a closet in his home. The charges, which could have led to life in prison, were dropped in March 2006 after a pressure campaign by Waldron's friends and colleagues and what Waldron says was the intervention of the Bush administration. He was released and deported from the east African nation, along with the Congolese. On Saturday, Waldron told The Atlantic in Ames that he was a staffer for Bachmann and responsible for her faith-based organizing both in Iowa and South Carolina. But he also declined repeatedly to give his name.

Asked about Waldron's role and background, Alice Stewart, the press secretary for the Bachmann for President campaign, replied in an email: "Michele's faith is an important part of her life and Peter did a tremendous job with our faith outreach in Iowa. We are fortunate to have him on our team and look forward to having him expanding his efforts in several states."

And the Uganda story just gets weirder and weirder.

Waldron, a Republican operative since the late 1980s, had been in Uganda since 2002 and was at the time of his arrest working for the "Africa Dispatch" newsletter and, according to reports in 2006, working on a pilot study of a new health-care information technology management system.

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This just cheered me up. Some youthful activists are sitting in at Tom Coburn's office until he allows the Uganda Recovery Act to pass the Senate. (Boy, the Senate really is the place where good ideas go to die - or get obstructed.) Go sign the petition, donate money for coffee, and cheer these guys on!

The momentum is building and more people just keep coming to join dozens of activists refusing to leave Senator Tom Coburn's office in Oklahoma City until he allows the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act to pass the Senate. Click here to help from wherever you are.

Here's the low-down: After impassioned lobbying from tens of thousands of activists, historic legislation aimed at ending Africa’s longest-running war is on the verge of passing the Senate unanimously. In fact, the bill has more bipartisan support in Congress than any bill focused on sub-Saharan Africa in American history. But Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, nicknamed “Dr. No”, is single-handedly blocking this landmark legislation because the bill authorizes new funds to assist victims of the violence (you can read more about why in the Campaign FAQ).

As Senator Coburn prevents this bill from passing, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorizing communities across three countries in central Africa. In the past two months alone, Joseph Kony's rebel army has massacred hundreds of people and abducted hundreds more, including children who are forced to become soldiers.

That's why we are holding the Oklahoma Hold Out, and we're not going home until Senator Coburn agrees to a compromise.

The most committed activists - who know that Senator Coburn's obstructionism is preventing the action needed to end this senseless violence - are "holding out" outside Senator Coburn's office in downtown Oklahoma City until the Senator allows the bill to pass.

People are driving and flying from all corners of the country to join in person.

We invite you to join as well, or if you can't join them in person, we need your support from right where you are.

The Scottish Episcopal Church says that being a practicing homosexual is no bar to becoming a priest, a stance which puts it at odds with the Anglican Communion in other parts of the world.
...
It is believed to be the first time the Scottish church has publicly declared their position on gay clergy and blessings of homosexual couples, which have long been unwritten but commonly held acceptances.

The announcement comes at a delicate time for Anglicans worldwide and is in contrast to the Scottish Episcopal Church's sister body, the Church of England, which will ordain homosexuals only if they are not in a physical relationship.

At last month's crisis meeting of Anglican leaders in Northern Ireland, the issue of homosexuality threatened to split the international Anglican Communion.
Anglican leaders, meeting near Belfast, asked the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) for three years a move some fear could be the first step toward a permanent split in the communion.

Meanwhile, the Ugandans are behaving like idiots:

A gift of more than $350,000 to fight AIDS in Uganda has been rejected by an Anglican bishop because the Episcopal diocese which offered it supported the election of a gay bishop in New Hampshire.

Uganda has one of the highest per capita rates of HIV/AIDS in the world.

Jackson Nzerebende Tembo, the Bishop of South Rwenzori in Uganda, said the money was tainted.