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Sep 07, 2007 News: Gay Christians Condemn Anti-Gay Nigerian Bishop Orama
By Sven Rabatzky

(UK) - The report by the News Agency of Nigeria quotes Bishop Orama of Uyo as saying that persons involved in same sex behaviour "are insane, satanic and are not fit to live." It is known that "Life unworthy of life" is the phrase used by the Nazis to describe various "deviants", among them homosexuals. If the quotation is not an accurate record of what the bishop said, then Changing Attitude Nigeria and England call upon the Venerable AkinTunde Popoola, the Director of Communications for the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) to issue a statement immediately clarifying what the bishop said or correcting the report.

Colin Coward told the GRD, that if the quotation is an accurate report of what Bishop Orama said, then Changing Attitude Nigeria and England ask Bishop Martyn Minns and Archbishop Peter Akinola to issue a statement immediately repudiating Bishop Orama's comments and condemning them as utterly abhorrent.

"We also ask Bishop Martyn and Archbishop Akinola to confirm that they are committed to the Windsor Report in its entirety and in particular to paragraph 146 which states that 'any demonising of homosexual persons, or their ill treatment, is totally against Christian charity and basic principles of pastoral care,'" said Collins.

CA further asked Bishop Martyn and Archbishop Akinola to confirm that the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) is fully in agreement with every section of the Communiqué issued by the Primates Meeting held at Dromantine in February 2005 and in particular with paragraph 7 which said: 'We also wish to make it quite clear that in our discussion and assessment of the moral appropriateness of specific human behaviours, we continue unreservedly to be committed to the pastoral support and care of homosexual people. The victimisation or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us. We assure homosexual people that they are children of God, loved and valued by him, and deserving of the best we can give of pastoral care and friendship.'

According to Changing Attitude, if Bishop Martyn and Archbishop Peter remain fully committed to the Windsor Report and the Dromantine Communiqué, they have no alternative but to condemn the comments made by Bishop Orama as being in direct contravention of the commitment made by the Primates of the Anglican Communion to the pastoral care and protection of Gay people.

Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola is one of the most homophobic religios leaders in Africa. He was behind the outrageous and genocidal anti-Gay legislation proposal introduced to Nigeria's parliament in 2005.




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Gay Christians Condemn Anti-Gay Nigerian Bishop Orama | Log-in or register a new user account | 1 Comment
Comments are statements made by the person that posted them.
They do not necessarily represent the opinions of the site editor.

UPDATE by the editor:

(Score: 1)
by vanrozenheim (vanrozenheim@yahoo.de) on Sep 09, 2007 - 09:57 AM
(User information http://gayhomeland.org/)
Since the publication of this story, we received reports indicating that Bishop Orama denies saying that persons involved in same sex behaviour "are insane, satanic and are not fit to live."

The staff of GRD was so far unable to get a statement from the Church of Nigeria.

Changing Attitudes UK issued the folloving statement on 8 September 2007:

-----
Colin Coward reflects on the implications of Bishop Orama’s reported remarks
Saturday, 8 September 2007
by Colin Coward

The news about the homophobic remarks made by Bishop Orama of Uyo continues to develop. The Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed deep shock at the remarks and urged the bishop to apologise.

An apology has not been issued. Explanations are all that have been issued to date.

Archdeacon Akintunde Popoola has told The Living Church the quote attributed to the Bishop of Uyo was false. Tunde reveals in an email that the comments on which the report was based were made in an address to his diocesan synod in which he spoke about the issue of human sexuality dividing the Communion, and the Church of Nigeria’s position on these issues. Tunde said the bishop “did not say that [gays and lesbians] are to be hated, nor that they are insane or unfit to live.”

Stand Firm published an email from UPI saying the story was generated by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and they couldn’t vouch for its accuracy. UPI noted that there are reports of a statement from a spokesman for the Episcopal Church of Nigeria that Bishop Orama has denied making the statements attributed to him, and that the reporter concerned has offered a verbal apology and promised to publish a retraction. You would have to contact NAN as to whether the information about the retraction is true.

The original UPI report of the bishop’s comments, based on a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, has now been removed from the UPI website.

Bloggers have suggested that internet communication in Nigeria is less easy than in the UK or the USA and this explains why a denial took time to emerge and an accurate report of the bishop’s original remarks has yet to be published.

I have visited The Gambia, Ghana, Togo and Tanzania, but not yet Nigeria. I have experienced parts of Africa at first hand. I know how difficult communication can be sometimes, and also how remarkably easy at others. Cybercafés and cell phones enable people living in towns and cities to communicate with ease, despite the fragility of the power supply - there are always generators.

Inability to access the news can't be the reason why it took two days for the Church of Nigeria to produce any response to the report of Bishop Orama's comments. They were being widely reported online. We know Archdeacon Tunde is an avid reader of Thinking Anglicans. It is unthinkable that he hadn't read the report.

It is safe to assume that the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) office in Abuja and the Director of Communication for the Church, the Venerable Tunde, read the bishop’s remarks as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday. It is safe to assume they were in communication with Bishop Orama on Wednesday and that the whole office new about the remarks and were discussing them.

It is then clear that they didn’t know how to respond to the report, nor how serious the bishop’s remarks would prove to be. Therefore the Venerable Tunde must have decided that it wasn't worth commenting on nor worth issuing a press statement clarifying the position of the Church of Nigeria in relation to the attitudes expressed by the Bishop.

I think this is because the comments accurately reflect the opinion about lesbian and gay people held by Akinola, Tunde and the other bishops who are part of the global south pressure group.

Members of Changing Attitude Nigeria have be
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