America: An African Boy's Perspective Part 6

...i have missed my country this past week quite a lot, but then, i am happy to continue being here for as long as the Lord wills. And long may my blog today be; but i beseech you to patiently journey with my thoughts, as i put them into ink.

I have taken off time to pray, think and meditate so much about my blog post today. I have had uneasy nights; full of tossing here and there, scratching my head, i have had fits of anger; i have asked the Lord several questions and interceded more than i have done with the rest of my other posts. I have come so close to the enemy that i could almost smell him and feel him! Each time my mind has wondered deep into this subject, very fast, i have sensed the battle lines drawing almost immediately and i think, so far, this particular issue, is what is going to separate the sheep from the goats...i am talking about HOMOSEXUALITY/SAME SEX RELATIONS.

How is it in my own country? This is something that i have tried to follow closely in the last couple of years, i have come into contact with some powerful and weak gays in my quest for answers - and some of them, have remained my friends up today. I was deeply touched for the first time when, in May of 2010, a friend and work mate told me about the struggles of his teen friend. He had visited this friend of his, who was living in a big home in our district with his uncle; who was working with a big international organization. As they were chatting, the car horn beeped and his friend rushed out to open the gate. After a few minutes, the uncle and his friend emerged from the front door, the uncle's hands circling the boy's waist as they walked in. The uncle said hi to him and proceeded to his bedroom, with the boy. My friend heard the uncle's voice threatening the boy, he heard him say :"i will kill you if you give me HIV! Who is he?". After a short while, the uncle emerged back to the living room and sat next to my friend. He started touching my friend's hairy legs sensually saying he liked the feel of his legs! My friend was alarmed and shortly requested to leave. When he met his friend afterwards, he urged him to confide in him and the friend told him how his uncle picked him from his poor parents in the village; to take him to school and help pay his fees and started sexually abusing him, threatening to kill him if he ever told anyone. He had problems sitting well because of this repeated abuse. My friend inquired whether this boy had told is parents about this abuse. The boy said his parents laughed off his claims and said there's no way in the world his uncle would do that, instead they told him to keep his mouth shut and not try to discredit and bring his uncle to shame...i had my fists clenched, but my friend couldn't give me more information for fear that the uncle would indeed fulfill his threats of killing the boy if he disclosed his brutality to the public. My own pastor, being a public trainer and counselor told me his own accounts of several abused young people he had gotten to known, some so damaged that they can not defaecate normally because their bowel systems have been destroyed and have had to use diapers like babies. In the news early this year, a mob tried to lynch a group of crooks who were practicing a new wave of sexual abuse, of luring young poor girls from villages to ram-shackled houses where they are paid an equivalent of $40 per month to have anal sexual relations...there are just so many despicable accounts of abuse and the target is always the young, poor people who are promised college education in the US or Europe, promised a good life style, promised heaven on earth and because America is like heaven to many young budding teens, they give in so quickly. As fate would lead, i came into contact with the American Gay ambassador to Africa!  We have had numerous discussions both over the phone and through social media. She tried to lure me as i tried to lure her from the practice. I got juicy proposals from an easy American visa to huge funding for an organization if i started one. And that's where  my trouble with gay activists is: the promise of a good life. I doubt there's a Ugandan who is truly gay, what i have come to know is that because of the rewards involved, many a people look at it as a way out of poverty and indeed, many wicked Ugandans have gained much wealth through the practice. And because the western donor want evidence that one is a practicing gay, the easy people to lure and use into video recorded gay sex are the young and poor, who don't know that they are aiding someone else to accumulate wealth. I must also point out that i have been asked out twice by an old gay guy from Holland who was working with an aide agency in Soroti. I told him NO. The same old guy asked out a friend of mine (one of the most talented footballers we had). Some time last year, this friend of mine confided in me of the spiritual and physical challenges he was facing as a result of sleeping with this old man. I asked him what made him accept and he told me :" I am staying with my girl friend whom i have a daughter with and i can barely pay my rent and take my daughter to kindergarten. This guy promised to take care of all my bills if i said yes to him. He told me it wouldn't hurt because he has excellent lubricants from Europe". But it all turned out to be a lie because now he had serious health complications and was emotionally sick. I led him to Christ and he started attending my Church. After a few months, HE DIED! I  kept saying that could have been me. I had a lot of anger and had tough discussions with Madam Ambassador. I kept telling her what their money was doing in Uganda and she just kept telling me it's the new order. What is surprising is that this lobby is so powerful, she knows the inside information in our governments that few do. She tells me all the secret meetings with top government officials that they have had and can tell me what is going to happen a couple days before it happens and this always drives me nuts! I know there are people who are doing wicked acts just like some of these guys, like rapists, murderers, defilers, etc, but none of them is funded by well structured organizations, none of them has the influence that the gay lobby has, none of them is as powerful as these guys are. And for your information, madam ambassador was previously married and has two daughters from that marriage, but then got divorced and says it never worked because she was created gay. I could go on and on talking about some of the despicable acts of gay abuse. That's why our government passed a tough law with life imprisonment for those who abuse minors and recruit minors into homosexuality. But then America and Europe were incensed with rage, cut off aide, threatened the government and got the law rescinded. They know better, what is good for us more than we do, i guess, but i keep wondering who tells them what is good and bad? who checks them and their power? who aligns them? I hope on that day the Lord will ask them: "Who told you that, that was right?"
Some people have always argued that they are born like that, but then a thief, prostitute, liar, can say the same thing. It's not about how we feel, or hear, but what the word of God says. Our identity is in Christ and in Him alone are we founded. I have lived with two wicked neighbors before. The one who lived in the next door to mine would sleep with a minimum of two ladies a day for at least five days every week and each day at least he had a different lady! He claimed to be a christian, he knew lots of scriptures and some of the ladies he would get them from the churches he attended. Just about 5 meters from my door, was a young girl of about 18 years; a student who could sleep with 3 to 5 men in at least 3 days every week! The only rest coming when she was in her monthly cycles. Both of them claimed they were born that way. I kept witnessing to them and kept inviting them to come to church with me. The man came twice or thrice but the girl kept coming. I also invited her to my cell fellowship meetings and one day i made an altar call during our cell meeting and her hand was up! You should have been there to see the smile on my face! Slowly, she started giving up her old life, she started appreciating the fact that her body belonged to the Lord and was the temple of the Holy Spirit. Is she still doing that today? NO. Is the man still doing it today? Yes, but at least, i tried and i believe that just like this young girl, people with same sex attractions can be helped.

Well, i needed to set the stage with that background so that you can understand the feelings i had before coming here; the cradle of the whole thing. I have had numerous conversations with here with different people about this subject and i have got various responses; from shocking to very good. I have invested a good amount of time reading about homosexuality and the way the church here is handling it. The church in Uganda has a different unified stand on it, they believe in marriage as it was from the days of Adam and Eve and the Anglican Church has cut off ties with it's headquarters in England over the same and i am proud of them. So, what does the Bible say? Jesus re echoed what is written in Genesis when he said: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH?" (Matthew 19:3-6). The master shows us that the intended marriage is between a male and a female. I am yet to find a single scripture that talks about a same sex union and i would love to be showed one if anyone knows where it is. However, the Holy Book is awash with scriptures that talk against it, just as it's awash with scriptures that talk about other sins as well both in the old and new testaments. I know most of us are already familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 and the instruction to the Israelites forbidding homosexuality in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. However, i have heard several people say it was a thing of the Old Testament. But the New Testament talks about it too together with other sins. In Romans 1:26-28, here is what Paul says in the NASB: "...For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned with their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their in their own persons the due penalty of their error...". Paul continues to mention homosexuality in 1Corinthians 6:9-10 as well as in 1Timothy 1:8-10, just to mention but a few. So why then are some parts of the body of Christ arguing for the church to accept and affirm it? One man of God is said to have said that some parts of the Bible are too old and outdated and inapplicable to our current society. The words of Paul keep echoing in my mind and this actually is the theme scripture of our rural pastors' training school: "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also". I keep asking myself, was this part of the things we were entrusted by those before us? are we still in the same path or we are beginning to add our own stuff? are we faithful to the teachings in the scripture? What is going wrong? My pastor has always enunciated that the kingdom of God is not a democracy; it's not a government of the people by the people and for the people. It's not a government where we protest against what we don't like or petition the president over some rights, you follow what the Lord says, or you back out. And now, this makes sense to me. Is our natural environment beginning to affect our spiritual stand points? are some church leaders making some of these decisions for fear of losing their follower-ship? but then, they are not your followers but Christ's! I keep reading how the early church resolved controversial issues; they always gathered and prayed and the Spirit of God always guided and directed them on what to do, they trusted the guidance of the Spirit. Is this still a common practice today? i don't know. Are we beginning to rely more on our intellectual wisdom than the guidance of the Holy Spirit? I would like to meet a pastor or Bishop or Priest who affirms this practice or body that decided about it and look them straight in the eye and ask him/her/them: "is this what the Holy Spirit told you to decide?". Do you think Jesus would stand in the pulpit today and preside over a same sex wedding? Is it a possibility?

One thought that really made me angry is the fact some States have already legalized the adoption of kids by a same sex couple! As i kept thinking about the likely "victims", my eyes kept welling up with tears. These kids will most assuredly come from Africa and some other poor countries. I thanked God for the leadership of our one orphanage in Uganda. I am sure they will never adopt any kid to such couples. Can you imagine the horror in these kids eyes when they find out their parents? Would you want your kids to be raised by a same sex couple? Not mine! And i seldom doubt any of the agitators of this, including the very judges that determined this, would want their kids adopted by these people. What if we were all gay, how would we multiply and subdue the earth? My heart still aches for the kids who are going to end up being adopted by same sex couples because this will most likely be against their wish.
I have read of Colleges and different institutions in America being threatened by the Federal government of grant cuts if they don't embrace homosexuality. And some of these are christian colleges; i am actually well pleased with Gordon College president for standing firm and i hope the Lord will keep him firm to stand for the right truth. So, what is expected of Christians when the government starts to make these grant cuts? Come out and give financial support to these institutions to cover for the cuts. This way, we will encourage these institutions to remain firm.

I know you must be wondering at the degree of my hatred for homosexuals, right? I hope the answer won't startle you. I don't hate any homosexual, that's why i am still friends with madam ambassador and others. I concur with Sam Allberry that Christians ought to love homosexuals more than they are loved by their fellow homosexuals and love them even more than they love homosexuality. The scripture says love covers a multitude of sins. I believe every church should have special programs to reach out to gays, they should be welcomed to church with open arms just as we do with those who commit adultery, fornication and other sins. The church is a collection of people who are not perfect, worshiping a perfect God. However, it's a place where we are perfected for the work of the ministry; that's what the scriptures say. We shouldn't treat these people with suspicion or distantly, but with genuine love and help present a crucified and risen Christ to them and walk with them step by step towards rehabilitation. Should the Church AFFIRM it? I DON'T THINK SO, NEVER!
Should it be the main focus of the church? I don't think so. I think our focus should be the gospel and seeking ways and opportunities of sharing it. There are still vast places in this country like Vermont that need the gospel and i would rather we meet and discuss how to take the gospel there than meeting to debate whether we should affirm homosexuality. I think now is the time for true Christians to stand up and separate from the wolves. As someone reminded me yesterday, the early Christians were persecuted by the Roman government, but they stood firm in their faith and now, it's our turn. What should we do if our churches affirm this practice? My advise would be to seek the guidance of the Lord in prayer and follow whatever He tells you.
I want to encourage all of you to read this wonderful book by Sam Allberry (a pastor who struggled with same sex attraction) titled: Is God anti-gay?. I would love to hear your comments about that book and this post.

I want to leave you with this scripture: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry..." 2Timothy 4:1-5.

God bless you and keep praying for the future of Christianity and this Nation. Catch you up next week.