Homosexuality: They stood ready to cast stones

Introduction

I have consistently laid out my stall on the matter of human rights as they pertain to the way society, religion, culture, values or laws fail to protect, enshrine and pursue the primary secular tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

It is for that reason that I did not need any persuasion to put my total support behind the petition to Help stop Nigeria's anti-gay bill - SIGN NOW which I posted as a Facebook Status on my wall.

As it transpired, one of my friends who from times past earns my gratitude and respect during a time of serious life issues decided to make his views known on the matter which draws its foundation first from some radical Christian perspective and that disingenuously merges that with some concept of African values that on scrutiny are really not ones we should espouse.

Whilst, I will invite you to read the whole thread of the exchanges that ensued on my Facebook page, I have taken the parts that have written creating a blog for purposes of recording for posterity my views. The audience for this is without apology the perfect Christians who have sided on the part of accusers of other with the premise that they God either rightfully or arrogantly – A good number of them are Nigerians or fundamentalist religionists and basically, it is war against intolerance from this time on.

African values and Christian diktat

My first response went to the heart of my friend’s attack, his surprise at my stance had to be routed with a clearly addressing what informed his flawed premise, that of extreme religious piety pretending to moral untouchability and that vague but explored concept of African values in detail.

I am saddened that your stance on this reeks of bigotry and hatred that exudes what has become modern day Christianity but nothing of relevance to the gospel of Christ.

What African values are those that you so espouse and celebrate to the hurt of your fellow man because they are different?

Our land because it is yours, mine and that of homosexual Nigerians too has a right to not only protect all its citizens, it is incumbent of its leadership to raise the bar beyond the ignorance that pretends to false moral rectitude.

Misplaced priorities

The more important issues like corruption, sexual violence against women, human rights for kids that affect the majority of Nigerians are all left unsolved for an issue - gay marriage - that hardly has the hope of reality in the country but engages the idle mind in mass mob hysteria - if not for the so-called whites, we will still be killing our twins, selling our enemies off to slavery, burning our widows, using our albinos in fetishes, worshipping idols with bizarre sacrifices and eating ourselves for supper - and those were all once great African values.

I have nothing to apologise for, the law is wrong in Nigeria, in Africa and anywhere else humanity exists.

Views that promote societal discordance

In response to my niece’s question about how people become gay and in the light of the drift of the conversation, I averred.

But @Grace, how many gays in Nigeria are really thinking of marriage if we are honest at all? Even in the Netherlands, gays are not trooping down the aisle in "unholy" matrimony, the matter of commitment and love is still a strong issue regardless of pairing of sexes.

This, for me is a human rights issue, the religious slant to it excites all the agitation of the mob for blood and never for healing and reconciliation - it breeds fear, negativity, terror and hate - none of which are the core tenets of the religious decency we all assume we have.

Putting today’s Christians in context

In response to my friend’s further comments along with others that were made, it was important to home in on the core attitudes that give homophobia it’s oxygen by showing the historical parallels between the gospel times of Jesus and modern day religiosity.

I think I had already made my point at the beginning of this thread about unChrist-like Christians who like are all read up on the law, the jot and tittle but have no compassion, mercy or heart - they were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Scribes who continually withstood Jesus at every point of His ministry.

Jesus and the notorious

They could not bear to see Jesus heal the sick on the Sabbath [they would rather follow tradition than see the relief of the oppressed] or mix with the sinners (See what was said in the NLT version of Luke 15 1-2), they were ready to cast the first stone, they would rather sacrifice humanity on the altar of their long held traditions, principles, values and what not; the same people who plotted to have Jesus killed because they feared they will lose the political power of their religious influence. (See John 11:47-48)

(Luk 15:1 NLT) Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

(Luk 15:2 NLT) This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that He was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

It is important to note that Jesus had something to say that made as it were notorious sinners draw near to listen to Him, and it is interesting to see how the religious people hated the idea – the parallel is in the fact that there are very few Christians if any who have any words to speak that can attract notorious sinners – one might conclude they have more in common with opponents of Jesus Christ in the day than they have with the Master.

(Joh 11:47 KJV) Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.

(Joh 11:48 KJV) If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

The parallel today is how politics and religion is used to oppress a minority whilst galvanising the majority to unfounded moral outrage – the crowd cleverly corralled under the power and spell of their leaders.

Devoid of compassion

Indeed, there is much to see in the Book of the Law [with literally impossible rules for modern day], in the Prophets [whose prophecies of doom and gloom suited theocracies than democracies] & in the Acts & Epistles [all off-shoots of the ministry of Jesus Christ] but when you return to the gospel [the story of Jesus Christ amongst men, His message, His lifestyle and His sacrifice], the greatest challenge the devout Christian faces today is to minister love to humanity like Jesus did to the vile sinners, the demon possessed, the ostracised from society as the woman with the issue of blood, the Gadarene or the lepers amongst the many miracles of Jesus.

There was need for Jesus to die, however it was facilitated by the hardness of heart of the core religious people of that day, the same core religious people would have today strung Jesus up on the cross because He most definitely would NOT have condemned the homosexual just as He did not condemn the woman caught in adultery - it is what this law does too and as much as the "holier than thou" people who fulminate on my timeline - you might be Christians but you have NOT the love of Christ in you.

Loving and hating – choose one

After this, there was a lull in activity until one came with that mantra of loving the sinner and hating the sin. To which that can only have been the following response.

‎@Ola When you produce the bible chapter and verse of “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” you will have a point.

If you are using a saying which has become the tradition of men to make the effective power of the gospel of Christ of none effect and excuse unChrist-like behaviour, then you have hated the sinner more than the sin.

(Mar 7:13 KJV) Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

The fact is no such reference in the holy books about loving the sinner and hating the sin, a parallel analogy would be to be complaining of the darkness in a well lit room, not only is it plain stupid, people might wonder about the sanity of the person.

However, there are many instances of colloquialisms and sayings that have become common place watering down the truth of the Scriptures for the convenience of people seeking to express the worst of their humanity in a show of contemptible piety – it is to those people and many who stray into this cachet that I address this blog.