Africa-Press – Zambia. About the Pope Francis’ eyepopping announcement on same sex marriage, this is my reaction. My thoughts about same sex relationships have changed over time. In my younger years, they were informed by evangelical Christianity that said being gay was, first of all, the worst of sins, and then, secondly, a curable choice.
Down the years, reading and, especially, meeting gay people willing to answer my invasive, maybe, but honest questions, my understanding changed significantly. I came to know that sexual orientation is no more a choice than one’s shoe size.
While I still cannot wrap my head around the practicalities of gay sex, I have come to think that punishing someone for something they did not choose is as good as punishing other abnormalities like blindness or even genius. All human functions, including sexuality, have the norm, and then variances that affect a small minority. Some variations, like psychopathy, are harmful to others, so we try to prevent or punish them. Consensual gay sex hurts no one so
Does my saying that mean I am of the view that Zambia should legalise same sex unions – no. The country is not even half ready for it. I just think PRIVATE gay sex should not be punished or criminalised. We should accept that what people do consensually, where we cannot see, is not out our business. We need to stop distressing ourselves by imagining how it happens.
Now to the Pope. I don’t understand his thinking. You see, my sense is you cannot claim to be a follower of the Judeo-Christian God, and His Bible, and then go against one of His fundamental edicts.
The point is, there is no reading of the Bible that allows one to make the Christian God accept gay sex. My view, and this has never changed, is that it is OK for clergy persons to change their minds on this matter, and be convinced that vilifying gay sex, as their religion demands, is wrong.
What defies logic is to want to do so in a Christian church. It just does not work. You might as well try to say there are many gods, and Jehovah is OK with that.
So, my sense is that the Pope, and others like him, who have changed their mind on same sex relationships, need to start a new religion, rather than rewrite the very foundations of the faith they have so far held.
Just like you cannot be a Muslim Imam and say you have decided eating pork is alright with Allah, you cannot unilaterally make the Christian God stomach homosexuality.
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