The Rev. Prof. Stephen Noll, former Vice Chancellor of Uganda Christian University, will headline the University’s 2018 Public Lecturer Program at 2 p.m. Wednesday, October 24, at the Kampala Sheraton Hotel. His topic is “Secularism on the March: The Abolition of Marriage and Family.”
The guest of honor will be Justice Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza of the Ugandan Supreme Court.
Prof. Noll will explain the fundamentally opposed worldviews of religions, which see God as Creator of the world, and atheistic secularism, which claims that there is nothing that is absolutely true, good or beautiful. These worldviews, he claims, have profound effects on how a society values marriage.
For most religions, marriage and family are ordained by God. The Bible sees it this way, as Jesus says: “From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Atheistic secularism, on the other hand, sees “sexuality” as an end in itself, leading to short-term “hook-ups” and cohabitation, and easy divorce.
When the secularist worldview dominates a society, Prof. Noll argues, marriage loses its stabilizing role, and women and children are the greatest losers.
After returning to the United States in 2010, Rev. Noll was appointed Chairman of the “Task Force on Marriage, the Family and the Single Life” of the Anglican Church in North America.
He also has been a leader at the Global Anglican Future Conferences over the past decade. The “Gafcon” movement has opposed the same secularizing trends in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Last June, 2,000 Anglicans, including all the Ugandan bishops and their wives, met in Jerusalem and stated: “For some time our Communion has been under threat from leaders who deny the Lordship of Christ and the authority of Scripture.”
Prof. Noll will be accompanied by his wife Peggy, who served with him in Mukono from 2000-2010. He will be the Guest of Honor at the UCU Graduation on Friday, 26 October. The Nolls reside in Pennsylvania, USA.