The Biden Administration’s March 29 announcement that Transgender Visibility Day would be officially recognized on Easter Sunday this year is one more example of the shrinking presence of Christianity in American society. The celebration of Christianity’s most fundamental belief, the resurrection of Christ, competed with one that openly defies traditional Christian precepts. The announcement epitomized the overt, aggressive secularized thinking and policies of an administration that increasingly compartmentalizes and marginalizes Christianity.
President Biden is beginning to inject this secularizing spirit into U.S. foreign policy in the developing world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The administration is working to advance LGBTQI+ rights in Africa through measures that would weaken and eventually subvert the role of traditional religion (i.e., Christianity) in its societies. The difference between these overseas measures and the announcement on March 29 is that the former are not a product of democratic processes. The measures represent external unsolicited pressures reminiscent of Western imperial practices from previous centuries. Like past manifestations of imperialism, these measures would inflict irreparable harm on African societies and their Christian identities.
Though many crises plague Sub-Saharan Africa, administration officials are convinced that the absence of progressive views on sex and sexuality is a major priority. Vice President Harris lectured Africans about the issue during her 2023 trip to the continent. Secretary of State Blinken punished Ugandan officials who oppose his department’s machinations. Jessica Stern (Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI)+ Persons) addressed the matter during a trip to Mauritius and South Africa in 2023.
Despite these measures, discussions persist in the administration about how to more effectively transmit, impose, and empower LGBTQI+ beliefs and lifestyles. Evidence of the methods under consideration emerged during a June 2023 talk and Q&A at the Atlantic Council given by the Biden appointee to administer the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power.
USAID is a creation of the Kennedy Administration, initially formed to combat communism by provisioning clean drinking water and providing other services to the underdeveloped world. More recently, the Biden Administration has used the agency as an instrument for social engineering in the developing world. For example, USAID published guidelines for teachers on how to instill progressive beliefs about sexuality among unsuspecting children.
During her talk and the Q&A, Power advertised work USAID is conducting in the developing world to advance LGBTQI+ beliefs and lifestyles. The majority of time centered on the issue of tactics. She mentioned the consideration of two provocative measures. One entailed the pressuring, guilting, or shaming countries into acquiescence. The second measure would seek to help weaken or marginalize indigenous opposition to the normalizing the LGBTQI+ beliefs and lifestyles.
The first tactic is a “get with the times” attitude. The failure to “get with the times” would impose costs on the country. In the underdeveloped world, costs entail compounding economic stagnation and thus human suffering. The USAID Administrator alluded to the forthcoming issues and the challenges of providing assistance in the developing world because of their unwillingness to promote LGBTQI+ beliefs and lifestyles.
“Well, what does it mean if the multinational companies that we and the Commerce Department and the State Department have been working with to try to encourage them to invest in these countries?” she said. “Their own anti-discrimination policies and values are not going to make that an attractive place for investment.”
Power insinuates that future international investment and assistance in the developing world will increasingly be contingent on shared values and beliefs. Multinational companies based out of the West will shun countries that contradict their self-proclaimed progressive principles and precepts.
The measure under consideration recalls 19th century gunboat diplomacy; where imperialists of yesteryear sent cannon-laden ships to bombard a city unless it capitulated to their demands, today multinational corporations lie offshore wielding dollars to leverage specific outcomes. In the 19th century, African societies suffered when Europeans attempted to impose their visions. Europe created fractured and turbulent societies. The results would be no different for the African societies of the 21st century.
The second measure emerged during the Q&A session. An attendee asked whether the Biden administration is considering how to hold accountable American Christians who encourage legislation in Sub-Saharan African countries affirming of Christian sexual ethics. These Christians are accused of promoting legislation in Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya that challenges the administration’s objectives.
Administrator Power responded by stating “there are others in our government, I think, who are working on the kind of conversation that was asked about.” She added that these American Christian communities are guilty of hypocrisy: While these religious communities accuse USAID of interfering in the affairs of African countries, they are complicit in similar action.
So, first, clearly, the administration is open to punishing American Christians who challenge President Biden’s cultural imperialism.
Secondly, it’s clear Power thinks the developing world would be more welcoming of USAID’s progressive endeavors were it not for the external incitement: interference by some American Christians.
European powers of the 19th and 20th centuries operated in a similar fashion. A colony was off-limits to the outside world. It was the colonizer who decided who could trade, interact, or enter the colony. Isolation achieved several objectives. It solidified a colonizer’s control. The colonizer could reap the benefits (i.e., economic) of its monopoly over the territory. It also helped to minimizing domestic confrontations to their control. Domestic opposition was challenged to receive external assistance against the colonizer since the area was effectively “cut off.”
Emulating historically problematic behaviors is not wise policy. The Biden Administration is considering forceful measures against African governments that would also offend an overwhelming majority of their populations. The discussed mechanisms become weapons for an assault on African cultures. A culture may be secular at the surface level but underpinning it is often traditional religious beliefs and values (i.e., Christianity). Tampering with the glue of culture which holds together already fragile states in Sub-Saharan Africa is a recipe for disaster. Societies would further fracture. Governance would worsen. Any semblance of order would unravel.
The measures under consideration by the Biden administration would work to compartmentalize, restrict, and marginalize Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike in the U.S. where elections have consequences, areas in Africa, eerily similar to their 19th and 20th-century experiences, are being increasingly targeted, pressured, and isolated to conform with the administration’s international LGBTQI+ crusade. The Biden administration’s Easter announcement is an omen for the developing world of where U.S. foreign policy is headed.