{"id":24480,"date":"2022-06-19T21:35:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T21:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/church-happy-with-governments-stance-on-gay-rights"},"modified":"2022-06-19T21:50:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T21:50:24","slug":"church-happy-with-governments-stance-on-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/church-happy-with-governments-stance-on-gay-rights","title":{"rendered":"Church happy with Government\u2019s stance on gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>Kitwe District Pastors Fellowship has commended President Hakainde Hichilema for denouncing gay rights. Speaking in an interview in Kitwe today, Fellowship chairperson Bishop Raddy Lewila said the president\u2019s clarification on his government\u2019s stance on gay rights gives the church confidence that the country\u2019s Christian identity will not be dented or soiled up.<\/p>\n<p>He said the church will support the president\u2019s stance to ensure that the national cultural values are upheld through-out to future generations. \u201cWe are glad that the President has spoken and addressed the talks that had been raised by citizens on gay rights, we are happy that he has clarified that his government does not and will not support gay rights and lesbianism so we are sure that our Christians values will be maintained and our identity will not be dented,\u201d Bishop Lewila said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the President\u2019s consistent position on gay rights is an indication that he is an honest man who attaches great importance to the country\u2019s cultural and Christian values.<\/p>\n<p>However, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia Copperbelt Coordinator Stephen Safwali wants the President to go a step further by condemning the act of flying flags that signify support of gay rights by the Swedish and Finnish embassies.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Safwali said the flags were meant to be seen by Zambians and entice them towards a practice that is against their culture and their constitution.<\/p>\n<p>He said the president should also ensure that those entrusted with enforcement of the law regarding gay rights as enshrined in the constitution do their job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to other nations trying to push an agenda that they know very well is against the principles of this nation, I strongly feel it was wrong for the countries that flew those flags, the fact is that those flags were being flown for the attention of the Zambians to see, yes the President has said something but the flying of the flags has not been addressed by anyone from the government directly,\u201d he said. Bishop Safwali has also called for ambassadors representing different countries in Zambia to respect the sovereignty of the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\">Zambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. Kitwe District Pastors Fellowship has commended President Hakainde Hichilema for denouncing gay rights. Speaking in an interview in Kitwe today, Fellowship chairperson Bishop Raddy Lewila said the president\u2019s clarification on his government\u2019s stance on gay rights gives the church confidence that the country\u2019s Christian identity will not be dented or soiled up. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,25,8,16],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-24480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-featured","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Church happy with Government\u2019s stance on gay rights - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kitwe District Pastors Fellowship has commended President Hakainde Hichilema for denouncing gay rights. 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