African Catholic Bishops Call Homosexuality a Ruthless Form of Colonization

by Michael Jones · 2009-10-12 12:39:00 UTC
Topics:

Africa globe

There are plenty of American Catholic bishops who have long transferred from the religious train to the crazy train, as they pontificate around the country for Catholics to discriminate against LGBT people. Now a group of African Catholic bishops are joining in spreading global homophobia, by saying that homosexuality poses a direct threat to the stability of the African continent.

The bishops, members of the special Synod of Bishops for Africa, are meeting for a three-week gathering to talk about the role of the Catholic faith in Africa. Sadly, it looks like the bishops are all too eager to tie discrimination to their faith -- all the more tragic in a continent where many countries, from Sudan to Nigeria, still put people to death for being LGBT.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, South Africa, may take the prize for most outrageously homophobic statement, by saying that homosexuality is a threat to the health of the African continent.

"[Africa's traditional cultural values] are threatened by the new global ethic which aggressively seeks to persuade African governments and communities to accept new and different meanings of the concepts of family, marriage and human sexuality," Bishop Tlhagale said, according to Catholic News Service. "Africa faces a second wave of colonization, both subtle and ruthless at the same time."

What a stupid statement. It's theologically inept, and worse, it's likely to result in violence. For a Church that's supposed to celebrate the concept of peace, the Bishop's statement is the furthest thing from it.

(Photo courtesy of ^@^ina {back from Africa}'s photostream on Flickr.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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