The President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Philip Naameh has charged Ghanaians to avoid putting persons with homosexual tendencies and those practicing homosexuality in the same box.
According to him, distinguishing between a sin and a sinner is a critical component that transforms people and draws them closer to Christ.
Citing a biblical example to drive home his point, he narrated, “Christ witnessed a group of elders who had caught a woman in the act of adultery and according to the law she was to be stoned to death. Wanting to put Jesus to test, they asked what action should be taken against her and Jesus responded that he who was of no sin should cast the first stone and they all eventually dropped their stones and left. When the elders left, Jesus did not condemn the woman but asked her to go and sin no more.”
He notes that Jesus’ actions point to the fact that one has to deplore the sin, in this regard, LGBTQ+ without deploring the sinner. “Hence we need to distinguish between the sin and sinner. In our memo as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, we have distinguished between the tendency of being a homosexual and actually practicing homosexuality and this is what we condemn. Not the tendency to the sin but committing the sin itself, and what we call wrong and sinful cannot be accepted as a normal behaviour.”
The Reverend Father shared his view in an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s Fact Sheet show.
He advised that anyone born with the inclination towards same-sex relationships should not suffer stigmatization and be treated as a criminal. “The inclination towards homosexuality and actually doing what displeases God is a different matter,” he reiterated.
The debate in Ghana on the passing of the anti-gay bill is still raging on as the Christian fraternity has thrown its weight behind the bill.
Background
Earlier this year, the Speaker of Parliament received a private member bill from 8 MPs that would expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.
The new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding and act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Meanwhile, fifteen renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament.
In the memorandum, they contend that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities, is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”
Some Christian leaders, on the other hand, have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, endorsing the bill.