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.

Editorial: Mrs Adewole, Christianity is more than a pair of trousers

The bad example of Christians

Sometimes you wonder about how much Christians act to bring Christianity into disrepute and public ridicule.

Their conduct in trying to exercise rights of expression based on some obscure passage of scripture rarely does much for the message of the gospel and there can be no correlation with the meekness, selflessness and example that Christians are to demonstrate.

The real message of Christianity flows out of the gospels of the apostles which are in essence the narration of the life of Jesus Christ, a ministry that brought radical change to the way the religious and political systems were run at that time.

Looking out from the gospel

The need to display a Christian outlook that emanates first from the example of the gospels is pertinent because every other session of the bible is an image and reflection of the living example that Jesus Christ showed.

Whilst the Mosaic Laws prepared a people for the service of God, they are hardly the bedrock of Christian faith and a good deal of the prescriptive rules, creeds, laws, traditions and customs have been done away with as the new testament and covenant replaced the old.

Most important of all for any adherents of the Christian faith is to live peaceably with all mankind being an example of love, compassion, care, understanding, modesty, courage and goodness.

The clothes are still different

A midwife offers a great service of care and love to humanity in helping the delivery of babies, hospitals however do have codes of conduct and there are reasons why certain types of apparel make the working in a hospital more comfortable and manageable.

Culturally, there in some places there might be a strict separation between what menswear is and what womenswear is, there are other settings where apparel is more or less unisex, the matter of trousers in many societies is down to the cut and the fit; men’s trousers are rarely ever for women just as women’s trousers are rarely for men.

An ancient practice superseded

In the UK especially, you have to be so absorbed in the Levitical priesthood pulling off heads of pigeons and turtledoves, sacrificing scapegoats outside the camp and shedding blood over all sorts of religious paraphernalia as vividly depicted in Mosaic books to suddenly happen upon the literal instruction of Deuteronomy 22:5 which in the New International Version from the news story states that “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does.”

In those times and in that community, that was as prescriptive as it got including the admonition not to wear clothes of mixed material and other exacting minutiae needed to separate the Israelites from the other races and tribes that will eventually surround them when they arrived in the promised land.

A poor reflection of the mission

If Christianity has now been reduced to the externalisation of apparel to the point of wanting to look different and be a disruptive influence within the workplace, one would be left with the unfortunate needless death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection would have been a stunt without any particular spiritual significance; we might well follow the regime of a diet and be happy.

That I am afraid is where the recalcitrance and unreasonableness of one Mrs Hannah Adewole has brought us; a midwife whose sense of community service in the employ of Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex has been lost to a radically fundamentalist and irrational adherence to a single decontextualised verse of scripture on wearing trousers at work which she terms men’s clothes and she is taking her employers to court for religious discrimination and harassment.

There might well be a case for the idea that those of other religious persuasions are somewhat more favourably treated and it could well be that they have taken time to negotiate their concerns better than to take offence and go confrontational.

Laugh her out of court

Now, it is her prerogative to sue but I pray it must not be done in the name of Christianity and it is not that I failed to notice in her picture that appears to the whole wide world that through fundamentalist eyes, she has forgotten an essentially chaste and modest looking dowdy head scarf.

This a la carte selection of scriptures of convenience must stop and I would hope to all that is good, seemly, honest, true, just and fair, she is laughed out of court and really, if she hates her job, she should just quit and find some backwater hospital with Mosaic Law guidelines in which to ply her trade.

Acknowledgement

The Daily Telegraph under the Health News section runs the story - Christian midwife sues over order to wear trousers.

A selected comment

Going from the line of thinking she has adopted, the best rated comment posted by philantony goes thus and it puts this whole ruse into context.

• I do hope those outfits she wears are not of mixing wool and linen (Leviticus 19:19)?
• And that she avoid coming in to work during her period or indeed allows any women into the hospital who are menstruating as this would clearly be a health risk (""When a woman has a discharge of blood, which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening." -- Leviticus 15:19-20
• And I hope she doesn't swear or joke... "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place...." -- Ephesians 5:4
• And the same for gossiping. "Do not go around as a gossiper among your people..." -- Leviticus 19:16
• And of course hospitals should shut down on the Sabbath at risk of violating Exodus 20:8.
• Or does she believe in excluding children of unmarried parents from church? And for 10 generations thereafter!! "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the lord." Deuteronomy 23:2
• And I do hope she doesn't eat oysters or prawns or shrimps or the like. (Leviticus 11:9-12 and Deuteronomy 14:9-10)

Editorial: Tenth of May 2011

Mona Lisa Philistines

There is a sense that fundamentalist religious practices today hark back to medieval times and worse in a century that we wishfully think accords equality of sexes after all the emancipation and progressive rights advocacy of the 20^th Century.

Israel is one country that is delusional with pretence suggesting their apparent Western democracy and liberal values have permeated every representation of people as portrayed by the excuse of a free media.

One picture that has had global viewing is the White House Situation Room photograph taken when Osama bin Laden was being exterminated in Pakistan.

The prominent view of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with hand over mouth and a senior female staffer standing at the back seem to have disappeared from that picture when it was published by two orthodox Jewish newspapers.

It is was a teaching time for me in that it would have been safer not to include the picture at all in the story than to allow for parallels to be drawn with another scholarly and fundamentalism group known as the Taliban.

It is argued that maintaining the chastity of women requires they may not appear in publicly viable material just as it saves the men from the lure of the lurid and sexually questionable – you will just have to view the picture as it is published.

Service must be above party

There are some to whom the newly elected President of Nigeria will not find respect, adoration, praise or deference. That is their prerogative.

The ruling party has in terms captured a majority of elective offices and that means it would take a tsunami of evidence to overturn what we can safely assume will be the de facto government for the next 4 years.

The job of running the country is not going to be an easy one and even if there is to be an opposition to the government one would hope that they are constructive, assertive and most of all reasonable.

The real concern is getting competent personnel to fill in the positions necessary to help Nigeria achieve its potential regardless of party or political affiliation. Nigeria cannot afford politicking and party recalcitrance for another four years when there is much work to be done.

Party hierarchies can continue to oppose and object as they wish but those called to the service of our dear fatherland should be allowed the privilege and given every assistance and blessing to perform to the very best of their ability and for the good of all Nigerians.

Thought Picnic: Analysing the Cultism in our Religion

Between religions and cults

An article titled When Does a Religion Become a Cult? [1] In the Wall Street Journal inspired this blog and whilst the main thrust of the write-up offered the signs that make religious cults evident, there was a possibility that certain of those perspectives were not necessarily all-encompassing.

Being on expert on the subject I have however witnessed first-hand people who have joined up to religious organisations seeking some solution to life’s problems and ended up becoming people with altered personalities, narrowed views of life, extreme fundamentals and spewing out doctrinal teachings that border on blasphemy to evident apostasy looking like new revelation.

Effective Controls

It is instructive that analysts of cult phenomena suggest a number of criteria that define cults as behaviour control, information control, thought control and emotional control. Beyond this are two other categories defined as financial control and extreme leadership.

What apparently indicates as control is different for different cultures and one can suggest that in open and freer societies the elements of control are probably more obvious and directly impacting on the adherents of such cult followings.

In this sense, one could be deluded into thinking that cults rarely exist in African cultures because the controlling forces do not appear to be enforced in a seemingly policed environment rather people tend to abdicate the free moral agency they have and submit themselves to the controlling influence of their leaders and then flock together with the false sense of safety in community.

Indirect but controlling nonetheless

There are many elements of behaviour control masquerading as religious creeds with interminably long lists of dos and don’ts of with absurd logic pandering to ancient rites that have long been superseded by modern ways that are conveniently ignored.

Information control usually presents as doctrinal diktat breeding anti-social forms of extremist and intolerant attitudes encouraged by the laziness of congregations to review criticisms no matter how constructive those views might be.

With a plaint and fawning audience, thought control is easy, people who are brought up in patriarchal societies might not be disposed to inquisitiveness or questioning the basis of the tenets they adhere to. There is a self-censorship in place that automatically kicks-in when a “Man of God” speaks, acts or commands as some vague dread of the supernatural instils the fear that allows for bling-followership and no critical assessment of the circumstances the person is in.

The aspect of emotional control is easy, as humility is confused with accepting humiliation and the guilt complex is exacerbated by painting scenarios that leave adherent apparently eternally grateful for the succour the leadership appears to provide.

In the pocket of the mind

Financial control is almost as innocuous as it is diabolical, holy texts are trotted out to convince, persuade, cajole, tease and in the extreme defraud as people are first convinced of a monetary key to blessing and almost compelled from the pulpit to give everything to the point of pain; whilst mind-control is quite difficult to assess, the beholden are already taken.

The religious leader regaled in the best flaunts this luxurious appearance as something to aspire to but only available through deeper financial commitment as hopes and desires are played and teased with the eventual promise of success which is almost within grasp – the spur is captivating to keep the people striving. The message gets perverted to “Use God and Love Money”.

By which time extreme leadership does not look that extreme any more, people who have willingly and freely associated that they have been subsumed and the leader either by design or unwittingly earns a cult following of almost sycophancy at some presumed closeness to God.

The slide to a cult

In any event, very little needs to be done to exercise absolute control as varying degrees of control as pertains to the earlier criteria could have inadvertently created a self-sustaining cult environment, the participants so completely oblivious of the fact that they have also stuck so close to a commune they cannot cut loose.

The sad thing is many are already in cults thinking they are fervent followers of some religion, the distinction between the terms almost impossible to distinguish. The analysts however conclude that every coercive religious group harbours the telltale trait of untoward secrecy – however, secrecy might well be hidden in everyday language, a lot being said but a dog whistle to those who know.

If members experience impediments in relationships, ideas or travel and the group’s finances are suspect and non-transparent, one might just say, following the money will just take you deep into the grotto of a cult.

Sources

[1] Mitch Horowitz: When Does a Religion Become a Cult? - WSJ.com

Thought Picnic: Me and Mr Long

Did he do it?

It could almost be mischievous if it was not true or it had the semblance of truth just as we are made to understand that there is no smoke without fire.

The countless children that had fun at Neverland Ranch which turned out to be either a lifetime experience of glee for some and a ruinous assault on the person of others left us reeling with incredulity.

The power of means to attract the young into the enclave of mentoring or support and then use that influence to procure sexual gratification still shocks beyond words.

In those cases, settlements were reached but nothing proven beyond reasonable doubt that the events our imaginations had carried well beyond the incredible really happened.

The accusations could die out but the truth might never materialise because beyond having confused the sexuality of the “victims”, their characters will be assailed to the point that they might become suicidal if they are not already so from their supposed ordeal.

Me and Mr Long

Me and Mr Long seems to be the chorus from four young men who were groomed, feted, lavished and kept by the pastor of a mega-church whose pulpit and activism against homosexuality is publicly strident, fundamentalist, intolerant and persuasive.

There might well be enough resources to make this all go away but it would not go away easy, if what they have stated did not happen it must make one wonder what act so despicable Bishop Eddie Long might have committed or abetted for these men to concoct these long tales.

On the balance of probability one might be swayed to point fingers but let us put that aside and deal with a more pertinent issue, the merciless, heartless and dispassionate assault on homosexuality from the pulpit.

In black churches there seems to be this idea that homosexuality is a white man’s thing, where black men appear to exhibit this “trait” it is viewed as an affront to masculinity which is most expressed with machismo and a lascivious heterosexual sexual appetite with overflowing testosterone apparently curtailed by religious instruction.

Accommodation and intolerance

Adultery and fornication even though abominations by fundamentalist appropriation find better expression and tolerance in the church than homosexuality could ever dare to dream of.

The mantra of loving the sinner and hating the sin usually gets conflated into hating the person and closing the doors to the church to them except where they subscribe to gruelling psychological-reorientation called counselling which is a kind of aversion therapy to make albeit homosexuals apparently heterosexual.

It creates another more complex person, a secret homosexual and a public heterosexual, someone on the down-low whose appetite for homosexual copulation is sated whilst pretending to be a devoted and committed husband with loving wife and kids.

One expression with another lifestyle

It is well for some to have nothing against homosexuals but to rail against their lifestyle when no one asks about a heterosexual having to live a heterosexual lifestyle – maybe Bishop Eddie Long knows seeing that the documents entered in court show he was about to use scripture to sow his wild oats in strange fields.

At the end, the advocacy against gay marriage is interesting because it is not gay marriage that affects the institution of marriage but the infidelity and untruthfulness of people in the traditional institution of marriage that undermines its foundations, principles and sacramental values – all that gay marriage is seeking is just the right for partners in those relationships to find significance in the face of the law.

The words of Bishop Long’s predecessor Reverend Kenneth L. Samuel are foreboding as they are insightful on this matter as he said, “Whether it’s true or not, the church has an issue of duplicity, hypocrisy and denial in terms of human sexuality that the church has to deal with. Unfortunately, I think Bishop Long is emblematic of a culture ... that causes pastors and parishioners to preach and testify one thing and practice something else.”

Me and Mr Long – the refrain

Bishop Eddie Long would no doubt fight this to the bitter end but I cannot help but hear the song ringing incessantly in my head.

Me and Mr Long
We got a thing going on
We both know it is wrong [At least Mr Long should if the boys don’t]
But it’s much too strong to let it go now.

References and other reading

Men allege sexual coercion by prominent Atlanta pastor - CNN.com (Includes PDFs of lawsuits filed)

Fourth lawsuit filed against Georgia pastor - CNN.com

Bishop Eddie Long | Powerful pastor’s ministry put to test | ajc.com

Why black church culture rejects homosexuality - CNN.com

Me and Mrs. Jones: Lyrics from Answers.com

Thought Picnic: The warped doctrine of 72 virgins

An attack on people

As the world gathered to watch the greatest spectacle on earth in unity of mind and purpose some to whom any sense of enjoyment or community gathering is anathema wreaked havoc with two bomb blasts in Uganda killing scores.

It is suspected that Al-Shabab, an Islamic fundamentalist group linked to Al-Qaeda is behind this carnage because of the peace-keeping efforts in Somalia by Ugandan contingent of the African Union forces.

It remains a thing of outrage that any human-being would scheme to kill scores of innocent people to make a political or religious point and one wonders about whether the perpetrators have any conscience, a sense of retribution, an awareness of a so-called afterlife or even an element of faith.

A harem of 72 virgins

So warped is their theology that it is amazing that it gains any traction at all in the thinking of an sane being. Suicide bombers have been offered the promise of paradise, paradise painted in the basest elements of sexual lust – a harem of 72 virgins.

One does wonder if the sexually repressed male who has lived an unnecessarily ascetic life with no ambition or goal in life whose existence has been coloured with pain, suffering and a lack of prospect could in anyway be prepared in his naivety for the highly libidinous task of taking away the virginity of 72 damsels.

A virgin obsession

An untested claim, an unverified existence and a pie in the sky that makes one question the whole concept of faith and an afterlife but seems compelling enough for those impressionable men under the control of evil and nasty religious patrons to be persuaded of the joys of copulation to the exclusion of any other purpose to give up their lives for the cause.

In a culture that is so virgin-obsessed that women regardless of status have to be presented as chaste, covered, concealed and chaperoned as virgins even if they have long been dispossessed of their virginity there is need for more anthropological insight.

The sexually obsessed men are the ones who always appear to lack the self-control in managing their urges but they are never the ones caught committing adultery, the burden of guilt lies with the woman who generally is not able to fight off the advances, who is the victim twice for having been abused and then murdered for having “besmirched” family honour.

Only for the men

The paradise seems only to be made for men on earth and beyond, they have no responsibility to be well behaved or honourable but are ready accomplices in seeking heinous retribution against their womenfolk, no provision seems to have been made for women in general and especially those who become suicide bombers, and it is unlikely they would be recreated virgins but there is probably a story of bliss prepared for them too.

A bliss is that very obtainable on earth if the leaders allow for the conditions to exist for a fulfilled life on earth before that so-called paradise is populated with novices, idiots and easily lead fools to their own destruction.

Once those 72 virgins are exhausted, one could only imagine whether the tale has any legs, if the virgins would the replenished or paradise would end for that is the only reward beyond which the management of a 72-person harem becomes an eternal hell.

The 72 houri

There are references to 72 houri (could translate to virgins), in the Hadith and this constitutes the minimal reward for people of heaven along with 80,000 servants – which in general terms would a logistical organisational nightmare for people who have been followers only and never had an inkling of leadership.

Surely, servants would want to be gainfully employed in the service of their great master the suicide-bomber who just arrived from earth – no, it just does not compute even from an irrational perspective.

The houri however are described in terms that appeal more to the men and expect the women to conform to some code, which is fair enough for those societies but does the pool of 80,000 servants also get populated by persons who once lived on earth and would this servant-hood have benevolent masters or harsh task masters whose masochism on earth is rewarded with opportunities of sociopathic sadism they once experienced from others before heaven?

Silencing the apostles of hate

As for the apostles of hate and death whose power of persuasion belongs to the primitive and pre-human instinct, none of what they do on earth now can justify any sense of bliss in the afterlife, their existence now is one that calls for them to be hunted down as prey and eradicated as vermin.

The whole purpose of religion should always be in service of humanity, where it harms our humanity it is no more religion, it has become terrorism and worse – justice will only be served when all those whose lack of passion for life are taken out of the circulation of those of us who believe there is more to life and probably something more exciting to the afterlife than the satisfaction of our sexual expression.

It is time for well-meaning and true Islamic scholars and leaders to address this matter with urgency provide the context, the reasoned teaching and the framework that honours the cause of Islam as a religion of peace with possibility of happiness and joy on earth and the hereafter and blow into smithereens the warped doctrine of 72 virgins.