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Same Sex Marriage-The Church Is A Culprit

Feature Article Same Sex Marriage-The Church Is A Culprit
APR 30, 2018 LISTEN

Fears that same-sex marriages and relationships may take over Africa have become more of a reality than illusion. It is no more something to be ignored as it was few years ago. The pressure on African governments are increasingly taken new stand every moment. Recent development is the call by the British Premier Theresa May to end laws against same-sex marriages in the Commonwealth.

Theresa May, Prime minister of the United Kingdom, called for same-sex marriages in all countries within the Commonwealth. While speaking at the first joint forum at Commonwealth Head of Government Meetings in Westminster on Tuesday, April 17, 2018, the minister said there should be no laws criminalising same-sex relationships across the Commonwealth.

She said she understands that most of the laws against same-sex marriages in the Commonwealth were made by the UK, adding that those laws were wrong then, and are wrong now.

“Across the world, discriminatory laws made many years ago, continue to affect the lives of many people tens of millions of young people. Criminalising same-sex relations and failing to protect women and girls.

“I am all too aware that these laws were put in place by my own country; they were wrong then and they are wrong now.

“As the UK’s prime minister, I deeply regret that those laws were introduced… as a family, we must respect one another’s cultures and traditions, but we must do so in a manner consistent with equality, as it is clearly stated in the Commonwealth charter.

“Nobody should face discrimination or persecution because of who they are or who they love and the UK stands ready to help any Commonwealth member wanting to reform outdated legislation that makes such discrimination possible.”

The truth is that it was not the colonial masters, Great Britain, who commanded Africans not to practice same-sex marriage. It was a taboo and penalized by the elders and the gods, if any African indulged in that practice, long before the British arrived on the coasts of Africa. The traditional African society had never accepted the practice of incest, not to mention same sex. Theresa May’s admission that it was United Kingdom who stopped Africans from indulging in same-sex marriages by legislation is nothing more than a lie.

Prime Minister Theresa May strongly supported the legislation as Home Secretary, backing then-Lib Dem minister Baroness Featherstone’s attempts to put the issue on the table for the first time in UK.

British MPs were given a free vote on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which passed its second reading by a vote of 400 to 175 on February 5, 2013.

Five years on, on February 5, 2018, here was how May’s Cabinet voted:

MP

Role

Vote

Theresa May

Prime Minister

Yes

Philip Hammond

Chancellor

Abstained

Amber Rudd

Home Secretary

Yes

Boris Johnson

Foreign Secretary

Supported – not in Parliament

David Davis

Brexit Secretary

No

Gavin Williamson

Defence Secretary

No

Jeremy Hunt

Health Secretary

Yes

David Gauke

Justice Secretary

Yes

Greg Clark

Business Secretary

Yes

Damian Hinds

Education Secretary

Yes

Michael Gove

Environment Secretary

Yes

Dr Liam Fox

International Trade

No

Penny Mordaunt

International Development

Yes

Matt Hancock

Culture Secretary

Yes

Chris Grayling

Transport Secretary

Yes

Esther McVey

Work and Pensions Secretary

No

Sajid Javid

Communities & Local Government Secretary

Yes

Brandon Lewis

Minister without Portfolio

Yes

Karen Bradley

Northern Ireland Secretary

Yes

Alun Cairns

Welsh Secretary

No

David Mundell

Scotland Secretary

Yes

David Lidington

Minister for the Cabinet Office

No

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Lords Leader

Not in Parliament

Also attending cabinet

Andrea Leadsom

Commons Leader

Abstained

Liz Truss

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Yes

Julian Smith

Chief Whip

Yes

Jeremy Wright

Attorney General

No

Claire Perry

Minister of State for Energy

Abstained

Caroline Nokes

Minister of State for Immigration

No

Theresa May is a daughter of an Anglican pastor and therefore, she was born into a Christian home and had been taught Christian values. But she was the one who led the campaign for the same-sex bill and is currently pushing for a legislature on same-sex marriages and relationships in Africa and in the Commonwealth. So, this is not just a government issue, it is the issue of the church.

Why should Africans be afraid that the practice of same-sex marriages and relationships may overtake the continent as it has in Europe and North America? According to Britannia, 45% of Africans are Christians, 40% are Moslems and 10% are of traditional religions. That means, in principle, there is no way anyone should dream that the continent can become homosexual or the people turn into Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals or LGBT.

If even the matter is referred to the legislature or to the ballot box in a democratic decision, no one should bother, since in parliament or public, Christians, Muslims and Traditional Religious Practitioners form the overwhelming majority.

The issue of same-sex marriages and relationships is a matter of the people’s belief. In both United States, Canada, Australia, Bermuda and Europe where the legislature had made the way free for the practice, the people, parliament and the cabinet were given the chance to decide by their votes.

In all the African countries, the population, the parliamentarians and cabinet members are predominantly Christians, Muslims and traditional religious practitioners. Again, all the African leaders are either Christians, Muslims or traditional religious practitioners. So why should there be the fear of same-sex marriages and relationships receiving the votes to become a law in a black African country?

Muslims and traditional religious practitioners can be hundred percent trusted to vote outright against the practice. But Christians cannot be hundred percent trusted. The reason is that Christians today are morally decayed.

Legalization of same-sex marriages and relations in recent times emanated from the United States and Europe, two regions in the world that are typically Christian regions. It is the Christian political leaders from these same regions that are enforcing the practice on other predominantly Christian and Muslim nations of the world.

If the practice had come from the Arab world or championed by the Muslim political leaders, we could have blamed it on the Islamic region. And if it had emanated from Africa, the world would have got something to buttress their notion about Africa as really the Dark Continent, where every evil that befalls the human race originates.

But we thank God that this most dangerous practice that threatens the very existence or procreation of human race is not coming from Africa this time. Many fatal diseases that have threatened human existence, such as HIV and the recent Ebola, had been attributed to Africa. But same sex is the most dangerous disease that threatens the existence of human race on earth.

If all men turn to gays and every woman to lesbians, in hundred years time it is guaranteed that there would be no children to inherit us, as all humans would no more be existing. Because there would be no more procreation or children to continue the race after we all are gone. The primary essence why God gave a woman to the man to copulate was purely for the purpose of procreation

A man and man cannot procreate, so also is woman and woman. When the human society turns to Lesbians, Gays, Transsexual and Bisexual (LGTB), we risk procreation of our race. So we shouldn’t see the practice as just a godly issue, we should also see it as an existence issue.

But the whole blame is the Christian church, especially the American and the European churches. For the African church to avoid the menace, and the African continent to preserve its people, there is urgent need to educate the youth on godly and humanly sexual practices.

It is morally wrong and shame for the pastors, imams or traditional religious leaders to attack the government or blame the president for not denouncing it. The decay in the society is not the fault of the political leaders, rather it is the responsibility of the church, the Muslims and the traditionalists.

In Europe, the church has completely lost its purpose and existence. In UK, for instance, the Muslims are pushing for sharia laws to control the moral decay. Because the Anglican Church, which is the predominant church in UK, and the minority Catholics and the Evangelicals have embraced the sex-same marriages and relationships. It was therefore, not the government, but the Christians, who pushed for the same-sex marriages.

If the African church does not teach the youth sex education, they would learn it from the internet. And since they do not have any proper education on the subject or know the truth about sexual practices, they are likely to embrace or accept what they learn from the internet as the truth or as a free lifestyle choice. They may not know that they are improper choices or practices that are unchristian or unacceptable religiously.

The African youths are already indulging in various immoral sexual practices, such fornication, masturbation, lesbianism, gayism, group sex or sex with multiple sexual partners, instead of one, and many other sexual vices that are ungodly. The African adult man is polygamous, and the youth have copied sex with many partners already from the traditional society.

Unlike the Europeans, the African man is adulterous and has several sex partners or he indulges in extra-marital affairs or marries more than one woman. In Africa, fornication and adultery by men are not considered as a menace. The men, including prominent politicians and clergies, who are role models of the youth, even publicly and shamelessly boast of their sexual prowess and multiple sexual activities.

There are prominent African pastors who openly confess or are accused of sexual immoralities, and all what the public say is that it is a human weakness. The Africans have already lost the sexual discipline, and so it’s a matter of time for the worse to overcome the continent.

In Africa, masturbation is viewed as a spiritually detrimental practice by Christians. So the churches preach against it. In the Western world, masturbation in private or with a partner is generally considered a normal and healthy part of sexual enjoyment. In normal circumstances, therefore, it is a shame to mention same-sex among Africans.

Fighting the same sex menace with hatred is senseless. The use of hate or abusive language or any form of untoward attack on a person should be condemned or prosecuted. No one should hate or abuse anyone in this matter whatsoever. It's a personal choice that should rather be discouraged in a reasonable argument.

The African governments, the executives, the legislatures or the judiciaries, should also not enforce the practice on the people, as the American and European governments have done. If they do, then it is no more a human right, but a legal right. The European and the American legislatures and judiciaries have made same-sex marriages and relationships more of a legal right than human right. This is what the African legislatures and judiciaries should avoid; the governments should exclude themselves from the matter of people’s sexual choices if they are truly democratic. Neither should any Christian or religious clergy attack people who indulge in it in any way.

The Christian churches would be exposing their weakness as ineffective body in the communities if they attack the governments or demand that the governments should denounce the menace or if they attack the practitioners of the habit. It will be a shame for any Christian church to fight the political leaders on this matter. Instead, they should educate their members, especially the youth.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. The country is almost equally divided between Islam and Christianity. The number of the non-religious population is also growing, they form 5%. According to Pew Research Centre Report in 2010, Christians in Nigeria were 46% and Moslems 52%. Others pitch the ration at 50-50. Christians in Nigeria are more than 85 Million in 2011, mostly in the central and southern states. About a million of Nigeria Christians are of Muslim background or Muslim converts.

Whatever the ration may be, Nigeria has the largest population of Christians than any African country.

71% of Ghana’s population are Christians, 17% are Muslims, according to 2010 Pew Research Center Report. Traditional religious and non-religious populations form the rest. In Ghana, traditional religious folks are even more stringent on same-sex marriages and relations than Christians and Muslims. They view same-sex relationships and incest as curses and taboo punishable by the ancestral gods.

The population of DR Congo is 97% Christians and that of Angola is 95%. Benin Republic has 43% Christians, 24% Moslems and 33% Traditionalists.

Other predominantly Christian African nations are (%):

Central African Republic (80)
Republic of Congo (86)
Equatorial Guinea (93)
Sao Tome and Principe (97)
Reunion (85)
Rwanda (94)
Seychelles (93)
Uganda (84)
Zambia (87)
Lesotho (90)
Namibia (90)
Swaziland (90)
Zimbabwe (84)
Cape Verde (85)
Liberia (86)
These black African countries are predominantly Islam (% of Muslims to Christians):

Burkina Faso (61-29)
Chad (52-44)
Comoros (98-2)
Mayotte (97-3)
Gambia 90-9)
Djibouti (94-6)
Somalia (99.8-0.2)
Sudan (97-3)
Guinea (85-10)
Guinea-Bissau (45-30)
Mali (90-5)
Mauritania (99.9-0.1)
Niger (80-10)
Nigeria (49.2-49.1)
Senegal (94-5)
Sierra Leone (60-10)
These 3 Black African Countries are predominantly traditional religionists. The % of traditionalists-Christians-Moslems are as follows:

Madagascar (52-41-7)
Mauritius (51-32-16)
Togo (51-29-20)
The chances of black Africa therefore, becoming LGBT are unrealistic, especially in predominantly Muslim and Traditionalist African countries. The Christian youths are rather at danger of sexual decay.

The African church should therefore, desist from exploiting their members and deal with the increasing moral decay among its youth, if the clergies are really concerned about the danger of same sex marriages and relations in the Continent.

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