AFRICAN BISHOPS WON’T COMPROMISE ON GAYS

The heads of the Anglican church in Uganda and Kenya say they won’t even discuss the possibility of softening their homophobic stance towards homosexuality.

Ugandan Primate Bishop Stanley Ntagali and Kenyan Primate Bishop Eliud Wabukala have both issued statements rejecting a Church of England report on same-sex marriage.

The report called for continued discussion and reflection “on the interpretation and application of Scripture” when it comes to “the subject of sexuality.”

Wabukala insisted that “such dialogue only spreads confusion and opens the door to a false gospel because the Scriptures no longer function in any meaningful way as a test of what is true and false.”

“We cannot… allow our time and energy to be sapped by debating that which God has already clearly revealed in the Scriptures,” he said.

Ntagali also warned that the issue could lead to African churches splitting from the Church of England.

He said that if the Church of England continued on “the path they have set themselves on” the Church of Uganda may not “be able to maintain communion with our own Mother Church.”

He also welcomed the recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, saying that Uganda’s parliament had followed the church’s recommendation to remove the death penalty clause.

Even though the law will still sentence “repeat offenders” to jail for life, Ntagali claimed that the legislation now “frees our clergy and church leaders to… offer counselling, healing and prayer for people with homosexual disorientation, especially in our schools and other institutions of learning.”

The hard-line statements come just as the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the symbolic head of the global Anglican church, issued a letter calling for Anglicans on the continent to show love and care for LGBT people.

Archbishop Welby is on a five day trip to Africa, where the letter and his call for tolerance is unlikely to be well received.