Lessons to be learnt from the report on Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia

The report Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia by Political Research Associates (PRA) Project Director Reverend Kapya Kaoma presents evidence of the relationship between the domestic conflicts and culture wars being waged by US conservative evangelicals and the growing criminalisation of homosexuality and the infringement of the human rights of LGBT people in Africa.

The findings of the report have serious implications for the campaigns being fought across the Anglican Communion, including those groups and individuals campaigning against the blessing of Civil Partnerships and equality in ministry for LGBT Anglicans.

Key findings of the report include the following:

Conservatives have successfully recruited a significant number of prominent African religious leaders to a campaign seeking to restrict the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The campaign has had the effect of slowing, if not stopping altogether, the recognition by the Anglican Communion of the full equality of LGBT people.

As a direct result of the campaign, homophobia is on the rise in Africa— from increased incidents of violence to antigay legislation that carries the death penalty.

Conservatives are in the minority within Anglican Provinces in the west and are depending on African religious leaders to legitimize their positions.

It is the intensity of the conflicts created by the conservatives which promotes the very real threat of schism in the Anglican Communion.

A radical reversal of positions has taken place. The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a neoconservative think tank that opposed the African liberation struggles is now one of the main organizations promoting homophobia in both Africa and the United States.

Conservatives present mainline denominations' commitments to human rights as imperialistic attempts to manipulate Africans into accepting homosexuality—which they characterize as a purely western phenomenon.

The report finds that conservative evangelicals have built relationships with African bishops and Provinces to oppose progress on LGBT issues —sometimes through deception but always through substantial financial incentives.

Traditionally, evangelical African churches have been biblically and doctrinally orthodox but progressive on such social issues as national liberation and poverty, making them natural partners of the politically liberal western churches. However, their religious orthodoxy means that Africans resonate with the denunciation of homosexuality as a postcolonial plot. Their homophobia is as much an expression of resistance to the West as a statement about human sexuality.

Right-wing groups have enticed African religious leaders to reject funding from mainline denominations—which require documentation of how the money is spent—and instead to accept funds from conservatives. This money usually goes to individual bishops without accountability or oversight for how it is used.

Christian Right activists use rhetoric about "family values" to foment homophobia in Africa with disastrous consequences, such as the proposed antigay legislation in Uganda.

Conservatives have engendered an insidious, inverse relationship between LGBT rights in the West and in Africa. Evangelicals portray victories for equality for LGBT people as evidence of the encroaching gay conspiracy, exciting bigotry and violence among their African audiences.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including:

Progressives should confront major figures in the conservative campaigns and call upon them to stop their promotion of homophobia.

African activists and scholars should be given support to lead the struggle for LGBT rights and the study of sexuality in Africa.

Work on LGBT issues in Africa should be led by Africans themselves.

Western scholars and journalists should promote research by Africans into sexuality.

Progressives should build relationships with the next generation of Anglican African leaders. We should seek out, support, educate, and network with young church leaders committed to human rights, rather than focusing on dialogue with the entrenched reactionary leadership.

Disseminate reliable information and continue the research. The destructive campaigns of conservatives against LGBT people are not widely known. A robust and sustained research and communications effort is needed.

Changing Attitude England will continue to work with out partners in Australia, Canada, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, UK and the USA, in building church in which equality of place in church and society is granted to LGBT people. We will follow the commitments made by Lambeth 1.10 and the Windsor Report to oppose all legislation which criminalizes and dehumanises LGBT people.

News of the new Kenya constitution from Michael Kimindu, Changing Attitude’s Kenya contact

Changing Attitude supporters in England have responded with great generosity to the request for money to enable the gay Kenyan Anglican who was attacked and driven from his home with his partner four weeks ago. We have sent them nearly £200 to enable them to recover their belongings and begin to create a new life elsewhere. With Michael, they thank everyone who responded so quickly and generously.

Less positively, Michael Kimindu reports that the Bishop of Nairobi seems to have grown cold feet. The Bishop had offered Michael an appointment to meet him last week, but when Michael arrived at his office on the agreed day he was told the Bishop was away on a pastoral visit. Michael was asked to return last Monday. He called the bishop’s secretary before leaving home. She talked to the bishop who said Michael should wait for an appointment on another day, which will be communicated to him later. Michael is still waiting to hear.

In the same vein, a reporter from The Nation newspaper who interviewed Michael has withheld from publishing the article until, as Michael says, ‘God knows when’. The media in Kenya supports the evangelical stand against homosexuality.

New Kenyan constitution rejects gay marriage

Michael directed my attention to the draft of the new constitution which is now being discussed in Kenya and which has so far failed to respond to the needs of LGBTI Kenyans.

Same sex marriages will not be allowed if proposals in the harmonised Kenyan draft constitution become law. Only marriages between opposite sex will be recognised despite attempts by the gay community to have their relationships legalised. Those wishing to marry partners of the same sex still have to seek countries where such marriages are allowed.

The proposal by the committee of experts comes a month after two men became the first Kenyan gay couple to openly wed in London, sparking a huge debate on morality issues in the country. It elicited sharp responses from religious organisations, who described the union between Chege Ngengi and Daniel Chege Gichia as “unacceptable and unnatural.

During the drafting of the proposed law, Otiende Amollo, a member of the committee had revealed that they had rejected suggestions by British MPs to recognise and protect the rights of homosexuals in the draft. “We told them that such a thing cannot happen because if we did so, a majority of Kenyans would reject the draft during the forthcoming referendum,” Otiende Amollo told journalists last month.

Michael told me that he called the General Manager of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition this morning to find out what they are doing. He told Michael they are going to have a meeting with a constitutional expert to decide on the way forward. Pray for us, says Michael.

US Catholic Bishops are a danger to LGBT people and to the health, happiness and holiness of human society

US Conference of Catholic Bishops have issued a pastoral letter warning about the dangers of same-sex marriage and partnerships, saying they will affect everyone. The letter restates the church's opposition to gay rights, contraception, cohabitation and divorce.

The letter says that legal progress to recognise gay relationships poses

"a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve."
"Such recognition affects all people, married and nonmarried: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.
"To promote and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman is itself a matter of justice. In fact, it would be a grave injustice if the state ignored the unique and proper place of husbands and wives, the place of mothers and fathers and the rights of children, who deserve from society clear guidance as they grow to sexual maturity."

Well excuse me, Catholic bishops of the US, but you are totally, 100% wrong. The attitudes expressed in your letter are a threat to the health and well-being not only of LGBT people but to marriage, family life and Christian communities.

Bishops, you are completely wrong in thinking that same-sex marriage and relationships are dangerous. Heterosexual people are perfectly capable of sabotaging the well-being of marriage and the health of children.

LGBT people are born of heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents. We grow up in families, some of us become parents, all of us continue to be woven into family life. Same-sex relationships do indeed affect everyone in society, and ignorant church attitudes such as those paraded by the bishops also affect everyone.

So, we are a multifaceted threat, we strike at the source from which society and culture come, do we? Our unions affect the intrinsic dignity of every human person? We affect religious freedom? Promoting and protecting marriage is a matter of justice? Protecting the lives and dignity of LGBT people where we are persecuted, humiliated, killed – this isn’t a matter of justice?

I feel incredible rage reading the Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter and want to write words which are appropriate to the ignorance and prejudice of the bishops but not appropriate to the blog. Oh boy, do we have a lot of work to do to change church attitudes. Sad that those who should be holy and wise are the purveyors of homophobic and dangerous teaching.

Day of Prayer about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda

Today, Tuesday November 17th has been designated as a day of prayer about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposed in Uganda.

Changing Attitude is encouraging people to follow the request sent by Andrew Marin and Warren Throckmorton to take at least 30 minutes to pray for the following:

1. That this legislation be thrown out

2. For protection and peace for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters living in this oppression in Uganda and around the world

3. That the Ugandan Church realize this legislation is not morally or Scripturally correct – as there has been disturbing news recently coming from some of my contacts in Uganda and Parliament that the Ugandan Church is starting to make official statements in favor of this bill. I will be posting those as soon as they are official.

The world will feel this impact! This is a virtual gathering, so let your prayers reign from where ever you are located around the world. I know that on the evening of November 17th I have assembled a large group gathering in Chicago that will be focusing our time in prayer for the aforementioned three requests. If you know of others in your local area, feel free to get together with them as well.

Throughout the day, post on the Wall about your prayers, thoughts and events to encourage others doing the same around the globe.

Thanks again.

Much love,

Andrew Marin
Warren Throckmorton

Hope in God, despair at the conservative mindset

Reading the Church Times and Church of England Newspaper (CEN) on Saturday morning, an article by Harriet Baber offered sanity when I had been reading madness.

Let’s start with the madness, and first the Church of England Newspaper, which reports that the Rev Graham Taylor, former vicar of Cloughton, Scarborough is converting to Roman Catholicism. Commenting on why he is leaving the CofE he says that if more preached a gospel of salvation “that would cure the ills of this society overnight if properly embraced.” Note that – “cure the ills of society overnight.” Overnight? Do people like Graham Taylor really believe that more preaching according to his understanding of truth and reality will achieve this dramatic result? Madness.

In a letter to the Church Times a Mr Duncan Reeve writes about opposing world-views – he presents a polarity – is the Bible reliable or do modern scientific fads have more authority than the Word of God? He says: “It hard to imagine how the Bible could have been written to make it more clear that Genesis contains a historical account of recent six-day creation.” More madness.

Back to the Church of England Newspaper which reports that the rector of the Sunyani Polytechnic Institution, Prof Kwasi Nsiah Gyabaah, warned that the Anglican Church is losing members to the Catholic and independent churches, blaming the Communion’s divisions over gay bishops and blessings, though he admits that the Church also competes with sports, popular culture and other recreational activities in vying for the attention of people. He admits that a return to an authoritarian model of church governance is not the answer. Instead, he urges the church to be both culturally relevant as well as firmly tied to the unchanging word of God. There it is again, that unchanging word of God, the ‘plain teaching of scripture’, which justifies ignorant attitudes about both creation and human sexuality.

Lastly to the Church Times once again, where Harriet Baber, Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, California, writes about the Pope’s recent approach to Anglicans.

She asks is: “How will the ongoing realignment of religious identity play out? For now, conservative churches are growing. Religious belief and practice thrive in “traditional cultures” — in developing countries, among immigrants, and within the American working class. There, churches that promote gender roles and “family values” provide a refuge from modernity. But, whatever the short-term benefits for conservative churches, in the long run they will lose.”

“Conservatives have bought time for Christianity by identifying it with a conservative social agenda that still sells, but, in the end, they will lose out for the very same reason: because Christianity is not a moral agenda or social programme, but a revelation of the nature of God, beside which all social arrangements are parochial and trivial.”

Conservatives think they are defending God and protecting Christianity whereas in reality they are doing exactly the opposite, in the UK and North America as well, ultimately, in Africa, Asia and South America. The world does not need more biblical fundamentalism, back to basics or ‘the clear Word of God’ which will transform society overnight. It needs people with prophetic vision and a passion for truth and love, people whose lives are rooted in prayerful awareness of the revelation of God in Scripture, through Jesus Christ, and in myriad, mystical, tender ways in creation and the practice of the presence of God in daily life.

Islington couple campaigning for gay equality in marriage and civil partnerships

Two civil servants, Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, both heterosexual, living in Islington, are campaigning for full equality in civil partnership and marriage, whether people are straight or gay. They plan to give "notice of their intention to form a civil partnership" at Islington Town Hall on November 24 as part of their campaign for equality. They have been together for nearly four years, want the same legal rights as a husband and wife – but do not want to enter an institution that is closed to lesbian and gay people.

They say that marriage and civil partnerships are exactly the same, duplicated in law, with identical effects, legal processes, rights and obligations. In all but name civil partnerships are equal to marriage– so why not have equality? They do not believe in marriage because they say it is "an apartheid" that segregates straight and gay people.

The implication of their campaign, which the article I read doesn’t refer to, is that the law should be changed to allow lesbian and gay people to marry, and that includes allowing gay marriages and civil partnerships to be contracted in church. If or when that happens, civil partnerships would become redundant (and so might the work of Changing Attitude).

Tom and Katherine believe that Civil Partnerships are an insulting compromise for lesbian and gay couples, forced on the state by the attitude of Christian conservatives “who feel offended by having gay people in their precious institution.” "Marriage is patriarchal. The whole idea of dressing up in a big white dress and being given away by your father and taking your husband's name is a bit old fashioned."

Peter Tatchell is supporting them, and has said: "The ban on heterosexual civil partnerships is heterophobic. It is discriminatory and offensive. I want to see it ended so that straight couples like Tom and Katherine can have the option of a civil partnership. I applaud their challenge to this unjust law." That has been Peter’s line from the start and he believes equally passionately in marriage for lesbian and gay couples.

The Reverend Andy Pakula, minister, and the congregation of Newington Green Unitarian Church, is so disgusted by the “abhorrent” way that marital law discriminates against same-sex couples that the church refuses to carry out any weddings in protest until the law is changed to allow gay couples the same religious marriage rights as heterosexual couples.

Dr Pakula says that: “It is illegal to hold same-sex partnerships in a place of religion and they can’t involve religious language. It’s outrageous - how can I explain that to gay couples in my church?” The church leaders are now looking toward a plan to take their protest one step further - by challenging the law on the basis that it contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

I hope they are serious about this and that they succeed. The law must be changed one day to allow lesbian and gay couples either to contract civil partnerships or to get married in church.

PRESENTS A PUBLIC DIALOGUE ON

THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2009

Date: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009

Time: 1pm-5 pm

Venue: Faculty of Law Auditorium

SPEAKERS:

Hon. David Bahati, MP Ndorwa East and Sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Assoc. Prof. Sylvia Tamale, Coordinator, Law, Gender & Sexuality Research Project, Faculty of Law.
Rev. Canon. Aaron Mwesigye, Provincial Secretary of the Anglican Church of Uganda

Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS Activist