‘Homophobic’ tweet by Loyiso Bala to his brother is heartbreaking
Loyiso Bala (Pic: Twitter)
A birthday tweet by singer Loyiso Bala to his brother has been condemned as an example of the often seemingly subtle but devastating homophobia of religious intolerance.
On Sunday, Loyiso wished his younger brother Phelo – who is dating TV and social media star Moshe Ndiki – happy birthday with a tweet that he perhaps intended to be heartwarming but instead revealed a hard truth.
“Blessed to have spent some quality time with my brother @PheloBala the past few weeks. As I said to him, ‘I’m in no position to judge u but to love you and to always point you to Christ. Your relationship with him will define your life’s purpose,‘” Loyiso tweeted.
While we don’t have absolute confirmation that he was referring to Phelo’s sexuality, it’s something that’s been widely assumed on social media, and that Loyiso has not corrected.
Many Christians believe that because they themselves do not directly condemn gay people but rather do so passively-aggressively though their God, this absolves them of responsibility. It’s a “get out of jail free card” way of expressing homophobia under the protection of religious beliefs. It’s being a bigot but not taking responsibility for it by stating that it is something for ‘God to judge’. It’s the coward’s way of being a homophobe.
It’s clear that Loyiso, like many other ‘good Christians’, doesn’t get it. After the outrage about the tweet went viral and started trending, he continued to defend his comment and even expressed surprise that others were offended by it. He still failed to deny that it was about Phelo’s sexuality.
Phelo himself has yet to call out his brother. In fact, he thanked him for the tweet; for his “love and leadership…” and for, “above all, letting me be.”
This conditional and ambiguous ‘acceptance’ that many of us face daily from our friends, family and society is a deeply hurtful form of judgment. Sadly, we are more often than not willing to accept this kind of ‘tolerance’ from our loved ones because it seems better than outright rejection.
If he was indeed referring to Phelo’s sexuality, Loyiso should be deeply ashamed for wishing his brother a happy birthday while simultaneously telling him that he will be judged by God because of who he loves. I would hope that my brother would instead speak out against a belief system that sees his sibling as a sinner and a lesser person simply for being gay.
Happy birthday Phelo – may you continue to love and live without judgment.
Blessed to have spent some quality time with my brother @PheloBala the past few weeks. As I said to him, “I’m in no position to judge u but to love you and to always point you to Christ. Your relationship with him will define your life’s purpose.” #Happy28thBirthday mntshan’am 🎉 pic.twitter.com/pNXF5NcODR
— Loyiso Bala (@loyisomusic) March 24, 2019
This was Phelo’s reply to the same message posted on Instagram yesterday. Good night 👋🏾 pic.twitter.com/gq67KGyoQr
— Loyiso Bala (@loyisomusic) March 25, 2019
Not blessed to have not spent some quality time with homophobe @loyisomusic the past few weeks. As I’d say to him if I did, “I’m in no position to judge your bigotry but to love you and to always point you to Christ. Your relationship with him will define your life’s purpose.”
— Eusebius McKaiser (@Eusebius) March 25, 2019
That Loyiso Bala tweet just reminds me how much abuse we accept from our families because we feel grateful that they tolerate us. The world is so horrible to us that we accept the bare minimum from our families and call it love.
— Jamil F. Khan (@JamilFarouk) March 25, 2019
There was nothing wrong with Loyiso Bala’s birthday message to his brother…IF:
– You’re a good Christian and feel that homophobia is a sin, and
– You deem it necessary to tell the world how you feel about your brother’s sexual preferences.That’s all folks!
— Penuel Mlotshwa (@penzoid) March 26, 2019
- Facebook Messenger
- Total243
I See nothing wrong with the tweet. Everybody believes the lie that ” one day all racism will come to and end, and people will just wake up one day and not see colour.” They have the same opinion about homosexuality….Sadly I don’t see that happening. People are always going to have opinions that they’re supposedly entitled to. You don’t have to agree with them, just respect them enough to let them find their own way. If they are harassed the way loyiso is being harassed then they will be silent about their thoughts, but that doesn’t mean that those thoughts are not there. They say Christians want a world where everyone is the same…it seems that homosexuals want that more…sad to say but I’m this lifetime this can never be. We have far too many differences in opinion
Bunch of nobodies
His response to his very Christian brother is perfect, he is the real and loving brother here. Funny how it is that we do not find it necessary to judge the cisgender homophobes. We are quite happy to let you just be you. Please let us just be.
This world and its amical collade media think everything is biased or proved by their standards… I don’t see any blasphemy nor bad tweet/instagram by Loyiso to his fellow brother. One who knows God and living His purpose while on earth it’s meant to such individual to share the well good news to his/her family/fellow… Pointing them to Christ means as the role model of our conducts. World’s ignorance shoots back by expressing of “judgemental christian’s faith” this is wrong to assume that Loyiso is homophobe, what he did is his mendate as a good brother to show his example besides of the Bible which standard are we measuring life? I think there’s nothing so lacking of such vital knowledge our generation is deepen fall into immorality and things unspoken whether we like it or not… I don’t see anything wrong with Loyiso’s post.