What the bishop had to say
Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda speaks clearly and forcefully against the increasing acceptance of homosexuality in the West. "Homosexuality is evil, abnormal and unnatural as per the Bible," he said at a recent meeting of African Anglican bishops. "It is a culturally unacceptable practice. Although there is a lot of pressure, we cannot turn our hands to support it."
I am a Canadian ministry leader working to bridge the gap between Christian communities and their gay neighbours. This is the kind of rhetoric that makes my job so difficult. But here I was in Cape Town, South Africa, for a conference on global evangelism. And so was the bishop. I asked to meet with him. He agreed.
I want to be clear about my posture going into the meeting. My concern was to come humbly, from a pastoral perspective, with a missional heart and the voice of an advocate for sexual minorities. I did not come into the meeting as an activist.
I came with three basic questions: 1) How have you considered the impact of your words and actions in Africa on the witness of followers of Christ in gay-positive contexts? 2) How have you considered the impact of your words and actions in Africa on the witness of followers of Christ to sexual minorities? 3) How is the African church demonstrating the ministry of Jesus in honouring the humanity, dignity, worth and value of sexual minorities both in your context and in our globalized community?
As the conversation meandered, as conversations with those from other cultural contexts are prone to do, a number of things began to emerge. The bishop was quick to point out that those in the West presume those in the African context to be ignorant and uneducated about matters of sexuality. He stated this was not accurate, but that cultural differences were behind the differing ways church leaders in Africa spoke about and responded to the issue of homosexuality.
When I suggested that the perception of someone like me, having spent the last week in Africa and speaking with many African leaders and hearing many Africans' comments, was that the church in Africa was seeking to stamp out homosexuality, he quickly replied that this was not the case.
He said same-sex sexual relationships have been present in Africa for many, many years and acknowledged there would always be people with these "tendencies." He added, however, that socially it is simply unacceptable in the African context—people with these "tendencies would not be viewed as normal.
When I observed that many Africans seem to talk about homosexuality as a distant issue that lacked a human connection, I asked how a same-sex attracted person who was not involved in a sexual relationship would be treated by the African church. His first comment was to say that in his context they would not understand attraction the way that I would. And he went on to describe deep and intimate male friendships in his context. Then he described how a person with same-sex attraction would continue to be embraced by the family and larger community, but would be pitied and not be viewed as normal.
When I asked how they might engage a person who continued to experience same-sex attraction but who made a commitment to live celibately, he replied that in his context, almost no one chooses to be single. In his life, he has only known one man and one woman who remained single in his community in Uganda.
I found the bishop to be both personable and warm. I encountered a man who deeply loves Jesus. I encountered an educated man. I encountered someone fiercely proud of his African culture. I also encountered a man seeking to be wise in his context, but that wisdom seemed to me to be at times shadowed by the expectations of and his deference to his culture.
Perhaps I simply cannot understand the priority of protecting a cultural system that dehumanizes people. In my country, we barely know what our culture is. But I am left with the challenge that the call of Jesus to the Church supersedes culture. And the call of Jesus unequivocally extends dignity to every single human being as an image-bearer of God and of inestimable value. The call of Jesus is invitational and therefore extending dignity to those whose beliefs and values differ from ours is non-negotiable.
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