Homosexuality an abomination in the sight of God and man

Last Thursday, I had the unenviable task of revising a story titled: “City estate church where Kenya’s gay and lesbian Christians worship”.

It occurred to me that as a mother and a Christian, I would be failing in my responsibilities, albeit as a layperson, if I did not express the utter horror and revulsion that was mine at reading such brazen affirmation of an evil. I can, therefore, confirm that my revision task was as “unenviable” as was the writer’s — something you do because you have no option; it’s all in a day’s work.

I know I speak for the majority of Kenyans — 85 per cent of whom are Christians — and the remaining 15 per cent, who uphold different beliefs, including traditional religions, who must have been as horrified as I was that Mr Michael Kimindu could so casually and openly affirm his ‘ministry’ to “the other sheep” — gays and lesbians, who are living in defiance of the Christ they claim to serve.

In taking a position, I know just how I risk attack. As a journalist, I am somehow expected to shed my Christianity on entering the newsroom and embrace some amorphous ‘‘tolerance’’ ethos. Secondly, and most important, as a sinner, who has been saved by the grace of God, and who is deeply conscious of Jesus’ challenge to those who would throw the first stone, I also know that the same Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery: “Go and sin no more”.

Therefore, Jesus’ deep compassion for the woman caught in adultery was not a licence for her to be entrenched in her sinful ways, but to “go and sin no more”. Mine is therefore to speak for the silent majority, who are intimidated by the rudderless tolerance juggernaut, whose agenda is not acceptance of those whose opinions differ from ours, but rather, to pervert the moral order that is the pillar of any civilised society.

I start on the premise that man and woman are complementary, and if God had a plan for homosexuals, he would have made us all male or all female. That he made us male and female testifies to the need for the other, which is why homosexuality is condemned in the Bible.

What do I make of Mr Kimindu’s claim that “sexual orientation is not a choice; it is innate and there if nothing one can do about it”? For me, using that argument is as illogical as saying, ‘Leave shoplifters alone because the tendency to shoplift is genetic; it runs in families, and there’s nothing you can do about it’.

In the same way we condemn petty theft and rain punches on pickpockets, St Paul, in his letter to early Christians in Corinth, lumps together homosexuals and sodomites with fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, misers, drunkards, slanderers, and extortionists, and warns that they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I don’t know the Bible Mr Kimindu uses for his ‘Other Sheep’, but I know for a fact that homosexuality is condemned in numerous Bible passages, including Genesis 19: 1-28; Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13; Ezekiel 16:46-50; Romans 1:18-27; and Jude 7-8.

The excommunicated Anglican priest’s refusal to acknowledge the sinfulness of homosexuality is best described by the Prophet Isaiah who condemned those who call evil good and good evil. The homosexual desperately needs love — tough love — which is best displayed by condemnation and compassion combined. Condemnation because there is no denying that homosexuality is sinful — and compassion, because that is the Christ way.

Mr Kimindu made a sad but true revelation: that some men who worship in his church are married to conceal their homosexuality. “They use marriage as a cover-up, but keep male concubines who are more pampered than their wives.” For those who don’t know it, that kind of relationship is one of the main drivers of HIV and Aids — because anal sex poses the greatest risk of acquiring the deadly virus.

That means that whether you are a Christian or not, homosexuality still exposes you to a higher risk of infection with HIV. Therefore, even professed atheists should be afraid — very afraid of the emerging acceptance of homosexuality under the guise of tolerance.

Ms Kweyu is a Revise Editor with the Daily Nation.