Imagine if you will ladies and gentlemen a country where a law was recently passed making it illegal for Christians to proselytize. More than that, the law made it illegal for Christians to speak favourably about their views. Any outward expression of their religious views, such as wearing a crucifix, was also illegal and subject to heavy fines and a prison sentence if convicted (and be sure there would be a conviction). Hell, you could be arrested and upon conviction be sentenced to years in prison even if you were not a Christian simply for voicing your support for the right of Christians to practice their faith.
Such places, such as Saudi Arabia, do exist. These countries are rightly condemned by human rights organizations for the gross and systematic violations of human rights (not just of Christians, by the way, but other religions as well as the Shia branch of Islam if we're going to continue to use Saudi Arabia as an example). Conservative evangelicals, people we here rarely agree with on this blog, also rightfully condemn the treatment of Christian minorities in these countries. So you could imagine our shock and surprise when REAL Women of Canada, a Christian evangelical and anti-feminist group, chastised the Canadian government for taking a stand supporting human rights and basic human decency:
"According to the culture and the religion of, you know, Uganda it's not
a human rights issue. You can't imply that every country has to take
our human rights issues and plunk it down in another country. And
particularly when you're spending all that taxpayers' money to implement
a standard which is not that of that country," [Gwendolyn Landolt] said.
What surprises us most is the moral relativism of the above statement, a philosophical point-of-view anathema to conservative Christians. That she would leave Christians in Uganda twisting in the....
Wait. Uganda?
Uhm, perhaps we should read the next paragraph?
When asked about reports that Uganda has considered the death penalty as
punishment for having homosexual relations, Landolt said, "It may be
unwise by Western standards, but who are we to interfere in a sovereign
country?"
Ah.
So the story isn't about the persecution of Christians in the Arab world, something that Ms. Landolt and REAL Women would undoubtedly be concerned about. It's about the persecution of homosexuals in Russia and Uganda by by Christians (Orthodox in Russia and primarily evangelical in Uganda) for which REAL Women are A-OK with.