Dear Archbishop Welby, what about Cameroon?

News from Cameroon.

A 42-year-old gay Cameroonian man, Augustin Siewe, has died from injuries suffered at the hands of a mob armed with clubs and machetes. 

Two of his companions, FrancisNgamemo Tientcheu, 40, and Clovis Djeukam, 34, survived the Feb. 6 attack in the coast city of Douala, but then were placed under arrest.
Police rescued the men from the mob and transferred Siewe to a local hospital, where he died. Ngamemo and Djeukam were taken into police custody after their injuries were treated. Police then launched an investigation of them as presumed homosexuals.

Under Cameroonian law, homosexual activity is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Although the law as written only applies to people who are caught in the act of same-sex relations, in practice it is often used to penalize people for being homosexual, even without evidence of any sexual activity.

<snark>
Of course, this must be because gay people in England and California are marrying.  Naturally, it's our fault.  Clearly the only proper response to gay people marrying in England and California is murdering gay people in Cameroon or Uganda.  If only gay people weren't marrying in England and California none of this would be happening.
</snark>

ABC Justin explains that marriage equality = dead Christians

As if the tired old C of E didn't have enough trouble with things, now Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has compared gay people to adulterers,

Although he continued to uphold what he called the historic position of the church, of "sex only within marriage and marriage only between a man and a woman", he agreed with the presenter, James O'Brien, that it was "completely unacceptable" for the church to condemn homosexual people more than adulterous heterosexual people.

and claimed that marriage equality in the US is the cause of Muslims murdering Christians in Africa.

African Christians will be killed if the Church of England accepts gay marriage, the archbishop of Canterbury has suggested.

 And not a peep did he make about the Anglican Church in Africa supporting criminalization of homosexuality.

IT's OUR FAULT, people!  Us gay folks!  If we would just go back in the closet, and live inauthentic lives of fear and hiding, then none of this would happen!  It's our cross to bear!  We're in too much of a hurry!

Oh, my.  The Rev Martin Luther King, a modern prophet, had words for Justin Welby, written in a Birmingham Jail  (paragraphs broken for ease of reading).  Perhaps someone should send the Abp the link.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? 

We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. 

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. 

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.    

On #NALTs, kneejerk responses, and African Bishops

So if you go to Twitter and you look for the hashtag #NALT, you will find a range of opinions about the new "Not All Like That" video campaign, where professed Christians speak out in favor of gay rights.

You will see there a backlash from some members of the gay community, lashing out against those of faith, that seems to coalesce around the idea "how dare you speak to me?"

Here's one such tweet:

Dear Straight "Allies": when you tell Queer people how to feel about something straight folks (like #NALT) are doing, you're doing it wrong.

I don't think they were telling you how to feel, they were telling you--and other Chrisians-- what THEY  feel.  And then,

Having a christian tell me they "accept" me means NOTHING to me. And frankly, why should it? #NALT

And I find this to be quite annoying, with its focus on knee-jerk identity politics.  Fine, it means nothing to you, snarky tweeting pereson, but it may mean quite a lot to other people.  Other gay people.  And, other Christians.  Let alone, gay Christians.

I got news for ya, people:  we do not win equality without the support of straight allies.  And we have not won equality in any state that has had a vote without the support of people of faith.  So when those people of faith step up, and put their own faces on the line, to speak not just to the LGBT community but also fellow Christians, I say more power to 'em.  We need all the help we can get, and having a litmus test for progressive bona fides is just infuriating.

One vivid response by an HIV-positive man who lived through the plague years nails the self-satisfaction of the snarky young activists:

I am furious at the too-cool 20-somethings in the LGBTQ Christian community (and I almost can't use the  word "community" for the first time in my life) who think NALT to be pretentious, insincere, presumptuous, etc. etc. …. 

I'm furious at their lack of wisdom (or willingness) on the part of those in our community to acknowledge the fact that they have just slapped the face of these people who are going to take a boat load of shit from their own congregations, friends, and families to perform the simple act of letting people know that they're loved, unconditionally….. 

As I am listening to and watching the kind eyes in these videos, all that I can do is to hold back tears of gratitude.  And fear isn't anywhere to be found.  I see... I see, almost a plea of remorse and empathy in their eyes.  My heart hurts for the kindness that I see…. 

  I for one love you for coming to a place of loving all of God's children without condition. I love you for not playing God, and for your bravery. I love the fact that I've lived to see this day. That I've survived the horrors to hear a message of love where there once was nothing but silence.

The reactionary left wing that tries to define what THE response should be, often within its own little echo chamber.  A purity cult. I definitely would not pass muster there.

While they insult the good efforts of the #NALT campaign, they also took down someone else this week, an African bishop James Tengatenga who was to be head of a program at Dartmouth college.  Yes, indeed, the Bishop had had a history of negative comments about LGBT people. But (like a certain President), he had evolved to an explicit support for LGBT rights, in the context of a place and a culture where how to advocate for LGBT people is not the same as here. But his job was rescinded because there is apparently no nuance possible.

The Rev. Albert Ogle, who is an out gay Episcopal priest who works extensively in Africa on LGBT issues, writes,

The Dartmouth saga is the most recent example of American Christian liberalism paying more attention to the symbols of LGBT equality and inclusion rather than actually in the business of forming new moral paradigms for the 21st century. 

Most liberal institutions in the USA including academia and the faith community have not taken the time or spent the resources needed to understand global homophobia. We are not paying attention to our own collusion in building up a new faith-based industry supported even by funding from the American taxpayer. Dartmouth’s response is only another example that we are really not listening and are prepared to throw good and resourceful people like James Tengatenga under the bus to protect some public persona that we are somehow more inclusive than we really are. Image trumps substance. The Rev. Kapya Kaoma, who was deeply shocked by this sad melodrama, expressed the delineation of battle zones simply as: “America is right. Africa is wrong.”

Ogle and other leaders active for social justice in Africa (including Abp Desmond Tutu) have written a letter decrying the firing of Bishop James, and the failure of American activists to recognize the cultural differences and boundaries of building rights in Africa.

To me, these are partnered issues, because there is an unwillingness to look beyond a certain pattern of "acceptable" activism, and rejection of potential allies for a lack of sufficient "purity".   Which really, is no different than some on the other side of the ideological spectrum.

Not everyone hates TEC

From The Zimbabwean:

Christian leaders in Africa have more to think about than gays and lesbians, the Bishop of Angola (Anglican) Rt. Rev. Andre Soares has said.
Speaking before the start of the annual general meeting of the Mozambique and Angola Association (MANNA) that links Anglican churches in Britain to their counterparts in those two former Portuguese colonies, Bishop Soares said: “The African churches continue to believe in the Bible. We must continue to follow the teachings of the Bible. We can perfect our understanding of our readings of the Bible but it does not mean that we can do things that the Bible, for a long time, has been teaching us. It is important to understand that we are many, but we exist in our diversity.”

And from the Rt. Rev. Dan Edwards, bishop of Nevada, reporting on the House of Bishops meeting in Phoenix:

Last night we heard from the Suffragen Bishop for Anglican Communion Relations and also a Bishop from Africa. Very interesting. They stressed that most African Anglicans value their relationship with us. Diocese to diocese, parish to parish, and person to person relations are where the Anglican Communion is communing. They said 90% of the African bishops want to preserve our relationship and some of them act on that at real risk to themselves because of the hostility of their archbishops. It turns out that one African parish is in partnership with the Diocese of New Hampshire (home of Gene Robinson) but it isn’t public because that parish would be in major trouble with their archbishop if it were known. While hostility is in the press, partnership is going on behind the scenes. The hostile archbishops are nearing the end of their terms. What we need to do is just be patient and wait. Most African Anglicans disagree with us on matters of women’s ordination and gay inclusion. But they want to remain in relationship anyway.

Malawi couple freed

BBC is reporting:

A gay couple who were jailed in Malawi have been pardoned by President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Mr Mutharika, speaking as UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Lilongwe, said he had ordered their immediate release.

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were given 14-year jail terms after being convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts.

The Manhattan Declaration: intolerant conservatives claim Christianity

The Forces of Ill have put together something they call The Manhattan Declaration stating their opposition to marriage equality with all the same, tired slippery slope arguments and self-righteous victimhood. From The New York Times:

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.
“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says....

The manifesto, to be released on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, is an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the administration of President George W. Bush.......
The document says, “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”

It's a pretty creepy document. You can read the whole thing at Good As You. (I won't give the haters' site any hits)

One of the signatories is Abp Peter Akinola of Nigeria.

Thus providing yet another link in the chain between right-wing anti-gay extremists in the US and the African churches that has led to the Ugandan Gay Death Bill. I blogged on this and so has Fr Jake as well as many others.

The signatories of the Manhattan Declaration purport to represent Christianity. We know they represent conservative Christianists, Roman Catholics, and Mormons. It's PAST TIME for the forces of good to stand up to them and say NO MORE. It's PAST TIME for the leadership of liberal, progressive Christian denominations (Yes I am talking to you PB Jefferts Schori, yes I am talking to you ABP Williams) to SPEAK OUT against intolerance and divisiveness and hatred masquerading under God's name.

Because, truly, this is a matter of life and death.