Bishops Demand Dominican Republic Censure Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador James ‘Wally’ Brewster

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Dominican Republic has written a strong public letter demanding the Dominican government protest the personal and political conduct of openly gay U.S. ambassador, James “Wally” Brewster, an LGBT advocate.

In their letter, the bishops complain of the “deep concern and malaise” caused among the population by the actions of the Ambassador ever since his arrival in the country in 2013, especially through his gay advocacy and overt exhibition of his gay marriage, which is illegal in the country.

Brewster served as the National LGBT Co-Chair for the Democratic National Committee as well as sitting on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign fund, which calls itself “the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.”

Brewster and his husband, Bob Satawake, worked to raise money for Obama’s 2012 election, after which the President named Brewster U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic in fall 2013.

The bishops accuse Brewster of overstepping his functions by pushing the gay agenda, disparaging the customs of Dominican society, and violating both the State Constitution and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“Mr. Brewster presents himself as a victim,” they write, “labelling all opinions contrary to his own as ‘hate,’ while boasting the support of his government in his systematic violations of national and international laws.”

The prelates say that the present case is symptomatic of the “ideological colonization” that Pope Francis has protested about, which is so “unhealthy for families.”

“The Ambassador and his partner present a family model to children that is incompatible with what is enshrined in the Constitution,” they declare, which states that the family is established on the “free decision of a man and a woman to contract marriage.”

“They are trying to confuse our youth and children by presenting them with a distorted model of family, and disparaging in this way the authority of our laws,” they state.

The bishops claim that Brewster comes to children’s school events “parading Mr. Bob Satawake as his husband,” which has caused “great distress among parents, who have the right to determine how their children will be educated and feel that these visits are an imposition of values contrary to what they are trying to instill in their children.”

In their letter, the bishops also accuse Brewster of suggesting that “USAID will make money available for political candidates who support the LGBT cause,” a proposal they find “troubling.”

“Offering money to finance candidates who are willing to promote their agenda is a violation of national sovereignty and its electoral laws and represents a serious act of blackmail towards national policy,” they write.

“These and many other actions have been creating a climate of unrest and unease in a majority of the country, because we are seeing meddling in the nation’s culture and its internal affairs. It is increasingly difficult to accept this interference by the Ambassador,” the bishops state, referencing diplomatic norms of the Vienna Convention, which declares that foreign diplomats are obliged “to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They are also obliged not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”

“We hasten to note that our rejection is not directed to the person of the Ambassador and his partner, or his homosexual condition, which we respect. What we reject is the abuse of power in his way of acting, which is contrary to his competence as an ambassador and as we have said, violates domestic laws of the country and the international laws of diplomacy,” they write.

This isn’t the first time that U.S. politicians have come under fire for pushing the gay agenda around the world.

When President Obama visited Africa last summer, he made the LGBT agenda one of the centerpieces of his message, comparing discrimination of gays in Africa to the treatment of blacks in America prior to the civil rights movement.

“As an African American in the United States I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently under the law,” the president said.

Obama’s comment earned him the opprobrium of many black leaders who had been involved in the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

Those who marched for civil rights “never thought they would see this day that gay rights would be equated with civil rights,” said Rev. William Owens of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP).

“President Obama is a disgrace to the black community,” Owens said.

According to an article in the New York Times, the U.S. government has invested more than $700 million into supporting the gay agenda globally and that more than half of that money has targeted sub-­Saharan Africa.

Immediately after Obama’s visit, a number of African bishops as well as other leaders lashed out at the president for his western “cultural imperialism,” and requested that the president learn to respect Africa’s values rather than imposing his own.

Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese in Nigeria, said that the position of Catholics against homosexual behavior is irrevocable and that the Church will continue to maintain its stand against gay marriage.

“Unfortunately, we are living in a world where these things have now become quite acceptable but for the fact that they are acceptable doesn’t mean that they are right,” he said. “The Catholic Church considers itself as carrying the banner of the truth in the world that has allowed itself to be so badly deceived.”

“In the same way that we don’t try to impose our culture on anyone, we also expect that people should respect our culture in return,” said Theresa Okafor, a Nigerian activist.

Similarly, in their letter, the bishops of Santo Domingo call for the same respect for Dominican culture and its time-tested values in their protest against what they see as the cultural imperialism of the LGBT agenda. The Brewster affair is “not a trivial issue,” they write, since the “sovereignty of the nation and its traditional values” are at stake.

The bishops close their letter demanding that state authorities address this matter responsibly and immediately.

“An offense against our country without a proper reaction would send the message that foreigners can abuse their position without consequences. For this reason, we urge the Government to use the mechanisms offered by diplomatic norms to file a formal protest to the U.S. government regarding its ambassador’s excesses on Dominican soil,” they wrote.

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