CHANGING ATTITUDE NIGERIA NEWS

PRESS RELEASE

Come Out! says Jesus to Lazarus and LGBT Anglicans

Sunday, 23 April 2006

A response to Canon Akintunde Popoola, Director of Communication, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

Dear Tunde,

Come out!
The gospel reading for morning prayer on the day Tunde last posted a response on Thinking Anglicans, Thursday 20 April, was the raising of Lazarus, which ends with Jesus’s shout to Lazarus, ‘Come out‘. I can never read the story of Lazarus now without knowing the shout of Jesus confronts me in a very personal way. I learnt about my need to ‘come out’ as gay long before I related my experience as a gay man to Jesus’s demand to Lazarus. For 30 years I accepted that it was too dangerous to ‘come out’ in church. No longer. Jesus’ command to Lazarus applies as much to LGBT people living a half-life entombed in secrecy and fear as it does to Lazarus, three days dead in his rock tomb. Come out of your tomb and live again, shouts Jesus to Lazarus and to lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual people. Don’t live in a tomb, don’t live in the dark, don’t live under the yoke of oppression, don’t live in fear, come out into the glorious Easter sunlight and really live. And we are! We are coming out and living holy Christian Godly lives, free from the oppression of those in the Church who would keep us locked up and oppressed in the tomb. We are Easter people in an inclusive Church.

Listening
The Anglican Church has put in place a commitment to listen to LGBT people together with a process of listening. In almost every reply to Tunde, I have asked him to tell us what the Church of Nigeria is doing in response to these international commitments signed up to by Archbishop Peter Akinola. Tunde has failed to tell us anything about the Church response, suggesting that there isn’t one in Nigeria. Tunde, you have never once responded to the request to tell us, as Director of Communications, what your Church is doing.

The Law
Matt is right in his post to Thinking Anglicans on 21 April 2006 in telling Tunde is quite wrong in suggesting the new Nigerian ant gay marriage law replaces the old. The proposed new legislation does not replace the present law but adds to it.. The colonial-era anti-sodomy law with a penalty of 14 years' imprisonment will still be on the statute book once the new law is passed. The new law adds a penalty of five years to anyone who speaks out on behalf of homosexuality, or in favour of gay marriage.

Is Davis MacIayalla (and are other lesbian and gay Nigerians) supposed to be grateful that they might only be imprisoned for 5 and not 14 years or death as Tunde proposes? Is Davis supposed to be grateful that he has not yet been so punished? Tunde wonders at Davis’s fear of 5 or 14 years imprisonment or death, because the Church of Nigeria thinks that imprisoning or executing homosexuals is necessary to avoid imposing a practice the Church deems to be sinful upon an unsuspecting populace. This echoes the most foul and disgusting support by the Church (Anglican, Roman Catholic and free) in many parts of the world for the abuse, humiliation and extermination of lesbian and gay people. It is the absolute opposite what Jesus would have wanted and taught. Tunde is slowly revealing in his posts why anyone who fails to support the full inclusion of LGBT people in society is in reality legislating for our death and a life locked in the tomb. No, says Jesus - Come out!

Mike who posted a response to Tunde on Thinking Anglicans on 21 April 2006 is correct - to support the new government legislation as Tunde and Archbishop Akinola are doing is to support the continued persecution of LGBT people.

Come off it!
No-one, and certainly not Tunde, can be allowed to tell LGBT people to ‘come off it’. LGBT people have been suffering prejudice, abuse and execution in society and from the church for centuries. We are at last finding our voice and our dignity, at first in western societies and now in countries like Nigeria. God is in this work.

Canon Akintunde says the Church is not after Davis MacIyalla and is persecuting no-one. Then why did the Good Knight magazine in the February/March edition publish a picture of Davis on the cover with an article linking him as a gay Anglican to the government legislation attacking gay marriage and gay rights and implicating him? We are gathering detailed information about parishes and churches where teaching and preaching against lesbian and gay people has occurred and will publish this shortly. 

Asylum
Tunde implies once again that Davis is, or will be seeking, asylum. The only person who is talking about asylum, Tunde, is you. The plot is yours and you are the person thickening it. You want to make Davis appear as a person who is running away, avoiding his responsibilities and not facing up to the false allegations you have made against him. You make, as you did in the Disclaimer, totally malicious and unsubstantiated claims about Davis - you call him a vacationer, say that he needs asylum and is working hard at it. This is your invention Tunde, your attempt to start a smear story, and another example of the dishonourable tactics you use as Director of Communications for the Church of Nigeria.

God-fearing
The members of Changing Attitude England and Nigeria are a God-fearing body of believers who unashamedly maintain the sanctity of the Holy Scriptures.

Telephone 01380 724908
E-mail office@changingattitude.org

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