Aug 13, 2007News: Malaysia's Government Dislikes MCC Plans
By vanrozenheim
(Malaysia) - Malaysia will prevent realization of a plan to establish a first Metropolitain Community Church in the moslem-majourity country, a government minister said today. Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng, the country's first and only openly gay pastor ordained in the US, said he wanted to set up the church by 2010 and caused an outrage in the homophobic Christians and Moslem communities. Adnan Tengku Mansor, Malayia’s Tourism Minister told AFP that the country had always sought to portray itself as a "family-oriented" holiday destination and thus the government would block the plan.
Malaysia criminalizes homosexuality by corporal punishment and up to 20 years in prison. In 2000, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of sodomy, following a separate 1999 corruption trial.
Rev. Ouyang's keen plan to establish a Gay-friendly church in Malaysia had stirred resistance, Reverend Wong Kin Kong, the secretary general of Malaysia's National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, told last week. This was "because Christians do not want others to assume they condone such a thing," he said.
Rev. Ouyang remained unimpressed and addressed a congregation of 80 people - including his male partner - to "reclaim faith and celebrate our sexuality" in an underground mass on Sunday, according to press reports. "For some of us, especially our gay brothers and sisters, we have experienced first hand that Christianity has been used to persecute minorities."
