Posted by By Francis Ekeanyanwu on
IN recent times, the glamourisation and legalisation of gay marriages have been on the upsurge in the developed world.
IN recent times, the glamourisation and legalisation of gay marriages have been on the upsurge in the developed world. It all started with the recognition of homosexuality as a socially acceptable lifestyle unlike in the past when it was viewed with revulsion by refined minds. Emboldened by this social acceptability, the homosexuals now started agitating for gay marriages recognised by law.
Netherlands reacted to the agitation and became the first country to legalise gay marriages, followed by Belgium and Canada in quick succession. President George Bush resisted the pressure to legalise gay marriages in the United States in 2003 arguing that it is unscriptural and unnatural. Nevertheless, there are many gay couples in America today. Last year, South Africa and a few other countries legalised it and over 700 gay couples were said to have wedded in the United Kingdom in 2005.
Homosexuality is a barbaric, perverted and unnatural act whereby persons of the same sex have intercourse together. In other words, two men, known as gays, can have sex together. Similarly, two ladies, known as lesbians, can have sex together contrary to the provision of nature. But God created human beings and even animals as heterosexuals who can have intercourse and procreate within a matrimonial home.
The Bible condemns both gayism and lesbianism as abominable and unnatural in Romans 1: 26-27 In Leviticus 20:13, God demonstrated His abhorrence of this abominable sexual perversion by prescribing capital punishment for offenders.
Some homosexuals argue that they have an inborn, irresistible tendency to be sexually attracted to persons of the same sex. Others say they simply enjoy it and are, therefore, entitled to their lifestyle. This is preposterous. Such strange, unnatural sexual feeling is indicative of demonic influence or personality disorder which requires either divine deliverance or psychotherapy, not complacency. It is like a spoilt, overprotected young man who has an Oedipus complex manifesting in a repressed desire to kill his father and marry his mother! He should not be left alone; he needs the attention of a pastor or psychotherapist.
Legalisation of homosexuality and gay marriages is ill-advised and morally reprehensible. The implication is that, sodomy, an unspeakable and most abominable brand of sin, has now been clothed with respectability and could be practised openly and brazenly in countries that approve it. It is quite disconcerting that the Western nations which once held the torch of enlightenment and religious piety have now tumbled into the dark abyss of moral depravity. They have regressed into stone age barbarism reminiscent of the perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah.
As a developing nation we must realise that the moral anarchy being witnessed in western nations today is the cumulative result of extreme secularistic humanism which despises religious values. There was a time in the West when the church, as the custodian of piety and social norms, lifted its voice against social vices while the State maintained regimental control over social behaviour. Social deviants hid their heads in shame.
But with the de-emphasis on religion and the adoption of secularistic humanism as a process of acculturation, the educational system produced a new generation of libertarians who kicked against the bridles of religion and moral ethos. They advocated for a free-wheeling, permissive lifestyle which permitted people to behave the way they liked without inhibitions. Consequently, all the excesses of the innate negative propensities of the human nature which were hitherto curbed by religious sanction were let loose. It was in this kind of social climate that advocacy for gay rights came to the fore in the West.
In the light of the foregoing, human rights in Nigeria should be evaluated within the context of public morality and the religious sensibilities of the people and not just the legal considerations alone. If these social bridles of religion and morality are overlooked in the consideration of human rights, then we give free rein to moral anarchy. Since some human rights advocates in Nigeria only echo the pet ideas of their foreign sponsors, most of whom are libertarians, not minding the incongruities of such ideas in our social and cultural milieu, the government should intervene to ensure moral sanity.
When a government panders to the idiosyncracies of people in the name of human rights, you will begin to see the base passions of men being brought to the fore for social acceptance. Before long we will hear of groups demanding the right to marry their children or sleep with their dogs, right to walk naked or sniff cocaine and such other outlandish, deviant behaviours as their animal instincts may crave. This could as well mark the beginning of the retreat to the Hobbesian state of nature.
This is why President Olusegun Obasanjo must be highly commended for hurriedly forwarding before the Federal Executive Council a draft bill for an Act prohibiting sexual relations or marriages between persons of the same sex arguing that such practices are inconsistent with our religious beliefs and cultural values. The President was alarmed when a group of persons gathered in Abuja to advocate for same sex marriage in December last year, echoing the gay agitation in the West. So he acted promptly to checkmate the ugly trend. That is what a responsible government should do.
Last year, the Nigeria Anglican Church severed its ecclesiastical relationship with its American counterpart because of the ordination of a gay bishop. It also threatened to withdraw its traditional loyalty to the British Anglican Church if it follows the example of the American Church.
As the draft bill goes to the National Assembly, religious leaders, parents, school authorities, the National Orientation Agency and other custodians of morality should lift up their voices in support of the bill and put pressure on our lawmakers to pass it into law. This is the only way to prevent sodomy from taking root and festering on our soil.
Rev. Ekeanyanwu is the General Overseer of Bible Wisdom Ministry International in Lagos.