PRESS RELEASE - 10 March 2006

CHANGING ATTITUDE NIGERIA

The Truth of same-sex unions in the
Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

Davis MacIyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria

The Rt. Rev. David Onuoha, M.A., Bishop of Okigwe South S.E. Nigeria, has published an article on the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) web site titled ‘The Absurdity of Same Sex Union’.

The article is a further attack on Changing Attitude Nigeria, the organisation representing LGBT Anglicans in Nigeria. The article refers to members of the group as ‘social deviants’ and ‘perverts‘, calls them ’misguided’ and indicates that they are only ‘claiming to be gays in Nigeria’ but are not really gay people.

The bishop is wrong when he says that same sex relationships are clearly alien to Nigerian culture. They are not. CAN members are among many thousands of lesbian and gay Nigerians who are not only gay, but have partners with whom they share their lives in love and faithfulness.

Bishop Onuoha’s interpretation of the Bible is seriously at fault. Scholars recognise that the sin of Sodom has nothing to do with homosexuality, but is the sin of a failure of hospitality. It describes the threat of male rape and the disgrace of a father offering his daughter to be raped by other men. It says nothing about loving gay relationships.

The wicked act being perpetrated by the Church now is the act of misrepresenting the Word of God in Holy Scripture and the failure to follow the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us that the first and greatest commandment is love, the love of God and love of our neighbour. Jesus said nothing about gay relationships.

If the Bishop really believes that Leviticus 20.13 teaches that homosexuality is “‘a detestable sin’ which must be avoided“ then he has no alternative but to impose the death penalty prescribed for this offence. Death is indeed what the members of CAN fear the Church of Nigeria intends for them.

God made man male and female because it is not good for men and women to live alone. God made us to live in relationship. God made us to live in love. Genesis does not tell us that God instituted marriage. This is a human creation. Lesbian and gay people are not telling God that he made a mistake and it is time to correct God. Lesbian and gay Nigerians are telling the Church that we are present in Nigeria and in the whole of Africa. God has created us and God loves us. Despite the prejudice and persecution with which the Church is trying to attack and destroy us, we are faithful Christians and members of our churches. We love God and worship every week alongside our parents and friends and all our heterosexual neighbours. The Church would be surprised to discover how many lesbian and gay members are worshipping every Sunday, singing in the choir, teaching in Sunday School, and even as priests and bishops, preaching the Holy Word of God in Nigeria.

Perversion is not a psychological disorder that can be corrected, as the bishop would know if he had any training in psychology or psychiatry. There is not chaos and anarchy now, and yet there are millions of lesbian and gay people in the world. We have freedom of choice and action and we choose the life given by God, we choose good over evil and right over wrong as we share our love faithfully.

Finally, the Bishop is quite wrong about homosexuality being un-African and unknown if Africa. It is well-documented that sexual relationships between people of the same sex have been recognised across Africa in many different societies and at different times. The Church now admits what it once denied, that gays exist in Africa.

For further information please contact:
davis@nigeria.changingattitude.org