Several days ago, RAW STORY reported on a proposed law in Uganda that would execute homosexuals thought to be HIV positive, or for repeat “offenses.” According to U.S. author and Harper’s contributing editor Jeff Sharlet, a secretive group of American politicians are supporting the Ugandan lawmakers who are leading the charge to see the draconian bill become law.

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Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday, Sharlet revealed even more about the connections between The Family, the secretive religious group which runs the C Street house in Washington, D.C., to the Ugandan officials. Specifically, Sharlet claimed that the nation’s president and his ethics minister, both key players in pushing the vicious legislation, are official members of the powerful fundamentalist Christian group.

The man who introduced the legislation, Ugandan ethics minister and member of parliament David Bahati, was has strong ties to the U.S. religious right through a group called the African Student Leadership Program. In other words, he is “one of [The Family’s] key men in Uganda.”

Maddow couldn’t help but wonder: “Why is The Family interested in Uganda? Why are they interested in operating there and what are their goals there?”

“The Family has always viewed its religious outreach, it’s ‘Worldwide Spiritual Offensive’ as they describe it, in very clear geopolitical terms. Uganda right now is an incredibly important country for world politics. It’s functioning in many ways as a U.S. proxy with Sudan, with Congo, with Rwanda. There’s oil in that general region and The Family needs to have a presence out there, and they have in Uganda since 1986, when they sent over a man to recruit [Ugandan President Yoweri] Museveni, then the new leader who then looked like a bright, democratic spot in African leadership. They recruited him to be one of their ‘main brothers,’ as they put it, for the whole continent.”

This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Nov. 30, 2009.

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