Reverend Emmanuel Asante: Is Homosexuality Human rights or Animal rights
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, says there can be no justification for human beings practicing homosexuality.
According to him, even animals do not engage in such despicable acts.
Most Reverend Asante was speaking to Citi News after delivering a lecture on the theme: “The Church and State, which way?” to commemorate the first in the series of the S.H. Amissah Memorial lectures in Accra.
“The point that I am trying to make is that, we have a situation where people are talking about human rights issues. Are we dealing with the question of human rights or animal rights? Look at even animals; have you seen a male dog chasing a male dog? I don’t condemn the human rights activists. They have a position and I am also making a case so I am not condemning anybody. I am simply making a case that the Church has the responsibility to contribute to the ethical standards of this nation within the context of the Church’s role to bring about transformation of the society” he noted.
He joins several members of the clergy and well-meaning Ghanaians who have vehemently spoken against the practice with a call on Government to nip it in the bud before it worsens.
Reverend Asante’s comments come in the wake of reports that 8,000 homosexuals, particularly gay men, have been registered by some non-governmental organizations in two regions of the country.
There are concerns that the growing incidence of homosexuality especially among the youth will have a direct effect on the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS and other diseases; homosexuals tend to have a higher prevalence and transfer rate.
Some human rights activists and proponents of homosexuality insist that some people are into homosexuality not by choice but because they were born that way. According to them, the fact that homosexuality is abnormal does not and should not make it criminal.
“For example, one can be born with one leg slightly shorter than another, one can be hard of hearing in one ear; all of these are abnormalities because we expect that a human being should be able to have both ears hearing correctly, both eyes seeing correctly and if you are born and you have a defect of that kind, it is an abnormality but it is an immutable one, it is a natural one and we cannot and should not penalize you for that,” commented a constitutional lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo.
Nana Asante Bediatuo urged all Ghanaians to be aware of their constitutional rights, pointing out that the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, religion amongst others.
NDC Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, Hon. Fritz Baffuor shared the view of the constitutional lawyer.
While saying he will prefer to relate with women, he said he cannot arrogate to himself the right to stop others whose sexual preference is for members of the same sex from enjoying their rights.
But the Methodist Bishop thinks such advocacy is misplaced although he does not entirely condemn the promotion of the rights of homosexuals.
According to him, the Church has a responsibility to contribute to the ethical values of the Ghanaian society by speaking against immoral acts in society.
Some churches, notably a part of the Catholic Church and recently the Anglican church in the US, have approved same sex marriages amongst their priests, which is often as a result of varied doctrines.
Source Citifmonline
Category: Religion
To the uninformed Rev Bishop: TV Programs Probe Parallels in Animal, Human Mating
Actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.
Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo have been inseparable for six years now. They display classic pair-bonding behavior—entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and the rest. They also have sex, while ignoring potential female mates.
Wild birds exhibit similar behavior. There are male ostriches that only court their own gender, and pairs of male flamingos that mate, build nests, and even raise foster chicks.
Filmmakers recently went in search of homosexual wild animals as part of a National Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female’s role in the mating game. (The film, Girl Power, will be screened in the U.S this Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m PT on MSNBC TV.)
The team caught female Japanese macaques engaged in intimate acts which, if observed in humans, would be in the X-rated category.
“The homosexual behavior that goes on is completely baffling and intriguing,” says National Geographic Ultimate Explorer correspondent, Mireya Mayor. “You would have thought females that want to be mated, especially over their fertile period, would be seeking out males.”
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