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Loading...Liberia’s Deadly Religious Campaign Against Gay Marriage
Religious organizations in Liberia have banded together to form an anti-gay marriage campaign, but is this just a front to push for a Uganda-style ‘Kill the Gays’ bill that is already in the legislature?
The group, calling itself the “Anti Gay Rights Campaign,” is made up of Christian and Muslim faith leaders. It has reportedly started a signature gathering exercise building on previous efforts to support legislation that would explicitly ban same-sex marriage in the country, something that currently is not touched upon in statute.
Reports an allAfrica.com analysis piece:
Rev. Brown used the campaign ceremony to urge Liberians to stand up for their faith and beliefs by rejecting subtle means by lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender practitioners and supporters to promote and legalize same-sex practices in the country.
[...]
“Liberia is a religious country where 98% of the population is Christian and Muslim. They are the majority and that’s what democracy is about,” the chairman of the Board of the Pentecostal Fellowship Union of Liberia said.
Also speaking, Rev. Dr. Jasper Stephen Ndaborlor, President of the Pentecostal Fellowship Union of Liberia (PFUL) who is also pastor of the Monrovia Free Pentecostal Church in Sinkor, told residents in the community that the purpose of the campaign is to ensure that Liberia doesn’t legalize same-sex marriage because of the influence of the “international community”.
“We cannot fight the international community”, he averred, “but gay or lesbian right is not a human right.”
The campaign is led by Rev. Dr. Kortu K. Brown, a Pentecostal preacher and member of the executive committee of the Liberian Council of Churches, and is marshaled under the banner “No to man marrying man, and no to woman marrying woman.”
Liberia’s senate passed a constitutional amendment in July aiming to amend section 2.3 of the constitution, which bans marriage between people who are already wedded to others and between close family members, to include mention of persons of the same sex. Another piece of legislation currently in the hands of the House of Representatives would make homosexuality a first degree felony potentially punishable by death.
While the religious campaign, thus far at least, appears to have made little explicit mention of the second bill, allAfrica notes that church leaders intend to present a “position statement” to the House of Representatives and the President of Liberia that “commends the House… for passing a bill against legalizing sodomy in the country.”
Since there is no other bill that mentions homosexuality, it would appear this could only be the felony bill.
The group is aiming to collect at least 100,000 signatures, of which it says it has already collected around 10,000 through operations in 13 of Liberia’s 15 counties.
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has said she will oppose any further efforts to legislate for or against homosexuality in the country, however this was before religious groups began their campaign.
This concerted effort by religious groups would seem to mirror actions taken in Uganda where several high-profiled preachers and religious leaders not only condemned homosexuality but actively supported the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, or as it is more popularly known, the Kill the Gays bill. So are there any other parallels? Loosely, yes.
Over the past year anti-gay attacks have increased in Liberia and homosexuality has begun to receive the same grandiose demonizing treatment as in Uganda.
In April for instance, a vigilante group calling itself “Movement Against Gay’s in Liberia” is said to have distributed a list of people suspected of being gay, much in the same way a Uganda tabloid previously published a list of “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos.” The Liberian group’s followers had pledged to “get” those on the list “one by one.”
One key difference between Uganda and Liberia is the presence of the Nobel Prize winner Sirleaf, though her lack of willingness to advocate on behalf of gay rights has been marked. It may come down to her influence, however, to help fight off this considerable threat to human rights.
Related Reading:
Campaign Launched to Kill Gays in Liberia
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Supports Gay-Bashing, Blair Looks On In Silence
Liberia Introduces ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill
Read more: africa lgbt, gay rights, kill the gays, kill the gays bill, kill the gays liberia, kill the gays Uganda, lgbt rights, liberia, liberia human rights
Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution License with thanks to light_arted.
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Recent Comments from Causes
Very moving.
An excellent development and if it can reduce the population of unwanted animals, that's awesome.
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+ add your ownTo use religion as an excuse for denying the rights of gays to be happy is a cop-out because the holy "buy-bull" does not say anything against gays . Maybe if the "buy-bull" readers of this world actually knew how to study this book the world would be a better place to live.
Thanks for this article and your reporting. What you do is appreciated.
I posted it to my LGBT Group on LinkedIn to spur members to read your article and to make comment. I also scooped it at Scoop.It on my LGBT Times news mashup.
Link to group >> http://www.linkedin.com/groups/LGBT-Gay-GLBT-Professional-Network-63687/about
All LGBT+ and community allies.... please come join me and 15,500+ of your soon to be great connections on LinkedIn. The member base represents 80% of the world's countries.
It's core value is - Visibility can lead to awareness which can lead to equality. Come stand with us and increase our visibility on the globe's largest professional networking site. Be a professional who just happens to be LGBT - or a welcomed community ally.
continued,
DON'T BUY A CHICK-fil-A SANDWICH! Because, seriously, CfA thru its non-profit arm, is giving Profit$$$$$ DIRECTLY TO THESE EVANGELICAL HATE GROUPS - so if you buy a sandwich there, you are GIVING YOUR MONEY TO THIS EVIL "CAUSE".
WE can learn TRUE African History also! Don't believe what the Evangelical Missionary Churches say - they ARE the problem!
Africa had many wealthy and powerful Kingdoms; in in these Kingdoms, there was NOT this persecution of Gay people we are seeing just very, very recently! It is definitely NOT an "African Tradition". [And Homosexuality is NOT a "European Import", as the Evangelicals say. Gay people are of course being born constantly, everywhere, all over the Globe!]
The FIRST African anti-gay laws came when Europeans conquered and ruled and enslaved. [But even those laws were only selectively enforced, against political enemies for example.]
This is how we can help.
DON'T buy Sick-fil-A, and,
SUPPORT those who are Researching, Teaching, and Writing their TRUE History. [They are on the Internet, also!]
These things, tho small, are how we can all DO SOMETHING.
What can we do? is a very valid question, and a valid and compassionate reaction to these horrendous developments.
[Of course our local TROLLS, think this sort of thing is just FINE & DANDY, as it fits in with THEIR view of life! They aren't even going to TRY to deny it!]
Well, there IS ONE THING we can all do RIGHT AWAY:
DON'T BUY A CHICK-fil-A SANDWICH! Because, seriously, CfA thru its non-profit arm, is giving Profit$$$$$ DIRECTLY TO THESE EVANGELICAL HATE GROUPS - so if you buy a sandwich there, you are GIVING YOUR MONEY TO THIS "CAUSE".
Please tell all your friends; and, SIGN the anti-Sick-fil-A Petitions that are over on change.org, there are quite a few of them, and new ones appearing all the time! Every little bit helps! Many of them come from STUDENTS rightly objecting to CfA serving food on their campuses...
Then, also, AFRICANS {and people of all nations in the African Diaspora], ARE MAKING EFFORTS TO REVIVE AND LEARN THEIR REAL HISTORY - NOT the "history" LIED about and distorted by the Colonialists and Missionaries. And Knowledge is Power, can be turned into Power.
We can SUPPORT THESE EFFORTS - and WE can learn TRUE African History also! Don't believe what the Evangelical Missionary Churches say - they ARE the problem!
Africa had many wealthy and powerful Kingdoms; in in these Kingdoms, there was NOT this persecution of Gay people we are seeing just very, very recently! It is definitely NOT an "African Tradition". The FIRST African anti-gay laws ca
Thank you for sharing.
Sorry, but I find the same level of ignorance and intolerance here in the U.S. - most especially in the ever expanding bible belt.
Very sad. You don't have to have a spiritual life and believe in a "Religion".
This is one of many reasons to argue for secular government. If government focuses on civil rights and responsibilities religions can support their members in believing and acting according to that group's moral/ethical frame. Not including, of course, violating anyone's civil rights. If people don't like it they can leave. Should any religion completely control government? Seems like this is incompatible with democracy. Religion can be passionate and certain of its correctness. How can a religious government tolerate differences?
The so-called religious people always eager to spread hate, don't they? Torture, war, fear, hatred.. oh my. And this religion is merely an excuse of their inhumane actions.
Why can't people be people?
mike I, just come out of the closet.
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