The Constitutional Court in Blantyre, Malawi postponed the same- sex decriminalization review to May 23, 2023. This is causing terror amongst religious fanatics in the country, imposing their fundamentalist beliefs on all Malawians, all the while promoting a re-colonization of the country through American evangelical religious influence. Such is obvious from the statement of the Christian Mother bodies in Malawi comprising of Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) and the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) (Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), an umbrella mother body of 122 Christian denominations and organizations in Malawi) ...who issued the following statement:
STATEMENT OF CHRISTIAN MOTHER BODIES IN MALAWI ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL CASE SEEKING TO LEGALIZE HOMOSEXUALITY (SODOMY)
(A Statement to be read in Churches and pro-family gatherings) 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Christian Mother bodies in this country, comprising of Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) and the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) in conjunction with other religious groups, would like to inform the nation that the Constitutional Court of the High Court will be sitting on the 23rd May 2023 in Blantyre to determine whether organization’s promoting same sex relationships should be legalized in Malawi.
If the court passes the decision that the Government can start registering such organizations, it will mean legalizing same sex relationships in this country.
2.0 OUR BELIEFS All the religious bodies in this country share the following beliefs about marriage:- (a) That it is God who created them male and female. (Mark 10:6-8). He ordained marriage to be between male and female.
(b) That any relationship contrary to the above is unacceptable scripturally and unnatural and therefore a perversion of Gods own Law. (c) God designed that children, as off springs of a marriage relationship between male and female, be brought up under the care of the mother and father, wherever possible. (d) That homosexuality practices do exist in our midst but it is an abnormality. We believe such people require our counseling and support to reform. 3.0 OUR CONCERNS The faith community in this country is concerned with the legalization of homosexuality on the following grounds:- (a) Legalizing same sex relationships/marriages will directly infringe on our religious liberties. Once legalized, church leaders will be forced to marry same sex couples in 2 our churches even against our own spiritual convictions; as is currently the case where such laws have changed. (b) Legalizing same sex marriages would promote the moral decay in our society as our children and young people in schools and colleges, including mission Schools, will openly be taught homosexuality as being normal. This is an unacceptable behaviour. (c) Homosexuality indirectly threatens the natural family unit which is the hub or core for a strong society. Other definitions of marriages/unions besides male and female is a fallacy and a perversion of natural order. (d) Homosexuality is a sin before God. (Lev. 18:22, 20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9, Rom. 1:26-32). Whilst God loves sinners just as He loves everybody else created in His image, He hates sin. Legalizing homosexuality is to “suspend” God’s moral code and establishing our own “standard” which is against His divine word. God cannot smile at nations when they choose disobedience. Malawi cannot afford to rebel against God at a time when we are asking God to heal our nation as we are faced with several calamities and disasters. 4.0 OUR APPEAL We therefore make the following appeal: (a) The Judiciary: That the judiciary should not change this fundamental law without consultation of all Malawians. (b) The Faith Community: Should unite and earnestly pray against legalization and same sex marriages in Malawi. We must sensitize all people of the threat of same sex unions to the natural family and general morality of the country. People must know and stand up to defend the family. Let us use all media outlets and pulpits to bring this awareness. (c) Our Leadership: That our leaders whether Traditional Chiefs, parliamentarians or the executive should not give in to the pressure for us as a nation to “rebel” against God by legalizing same sex marriages. (d) The International Community: That the international community should respect our sovereignty as a nation and not dictate values which are conflicting with our religious and cultural beliefs as a people. (e) Civil Society and Human Rights Group: We are aware that the majority of such individuals in these groups do it for money and not necessarily based on convictions. We therefore urge all groups advocating same sex marriages to seriously reflect on their actions and not be used to cause the nation to sin against God.
5.0 OUR COMMITMENT The Religious bodies in this country therefore are against the legalization of homosexuality. We are of the view that this is a fundamental part of our law, which if indeed has to be changed, can only be changed by the will of the majority of the citizens of this nation through either a referendum or through the peoples representatives in parliament. To have three high court judges sitting and changing such a fundamental law would tantamount to an infringement of people’s rights, values and interests. We must all stand together as a nation in solidarity to defend the natural family marriage as established by God. We therefore call upon all concerned Malawians to seriously pray to God that Same Sex Unions should not be legalized in this country by the Courts. On Tuesday, 23rd of May 2023 as the case will be heard in the Court, we request people to sit peacefully outside the High Court in Blantyre silently praying to the God of heaven that Malawi, as a nation, shall seek to live by God’s righteousness and not depart from His divine laws governing our morality. (Prov. 14:34). May God bless Malawi and keep it a
RE #1 The human and civil rights of a minority group is not promoting the minority but rather protecting the rights of the minority. Sexuality and gender identity minorities in Malawi are perfectly entitled to have their quest for rights represented by an organization/s, and this quest for rights may well include having their innate human sexuality decriminalized. Registering an organization that serves the quest is not promotion of sexuality. In fact promoting sexuality is not the mission nor motivation of any LGBTQI+ NGO. Helping people to navigate all that comes along with being a demonized minority is a very good reason to establish a NGO and registration like any other NGO is a basic constitutional rights for all.
This is a false statement. This is not true. It does flow through a such automatically - though same sex relationships should not be criminalized. The law currently criminalizes sexual acts in vague terms. Registering an organization that represents LGBTQI+ people's rights does not mean the penal code disappears.
RE #2 Let us never challenge any one's beliefs. But one can never impose their own religious belief on someone else in a country where there is purportedly "freedom of religion" as entrenched by the Constitution. So here these Churches are imposing their interpretation of scripture on everyone. Religion is to be practiced in community with one's own community and is private choice of an individual. No one can tell me what to believe. So I will not impose my belief on any one when it comes to interpreting this: For example I believe God also created all in God's image and I believe that if God created me to love another woman, then that is between me and God and no one else should interfere. I may well believe God created woman and men with a spectrum of sexual attractions where woman could be attracted to women. I could believe that such would not be possible but for God's intent at creation. My belief is my constitutional right and I should not be denied any rights because of it nor criminalized because of it.
There is no proof anywhere that homosexuality is an abnormality. it is only some religious dicta and interpretation that makes that assertion. Re #3 The religious argument above stands. Nothing in these points are true as proven by countries where LGBTI relationships have been decriminalized, legalized and even where same-sex marriage is legal. These concerns are not based in fact and are baseless. This is an attempt to shove one set of religious fundamentalist beliefs on everyone, thereby robbing people fo their religious freedom. If this group is concerned for the loss of THEIR religious freedom if same-sex relationships are legal, then perhaps they should work with human rights defenders to OFFER decriminalization and carve out conditions / caveats - to protect the rights they are so concerned about. Re # 4 OUR APPEAL(answers in Green) (a) The Judiciary: That the judiciary should not change this fundamental law without consultation of all Malawians. The judiciary is independent and should speak to constitututionality based on law, not on what a group of religious zealots have to say. (b) The Faith Community: Should unite and earnestly pray against legalization and same sex marriages in Malawi. We must sensitize all people of the threat of same sex unions to the natural family and general morality of the country. People must know and stand up to defend the family. Let us use all media outlets and pulpits to bring this awareness. No one is standing in the way of their right to pray for anything they want. People should be aware that what is beig preached is colonialist influence. The right wing American evangelicals are recolonizing Africa though extreme forms of religion. The first colonization was clearly not enough. (c) Our Leadership: That our leaders whether Traditional Chiefs, parliamentarians or the executive should not give in to the pressure for us as a nation to “rebel” against God by legalizing same sex marriages. This again is one set of religious beliefs. Making this argument denies relgious freedoms for all. It denies the GAY Malawian the right to their own affirming religious beliefs. There are many global Christians who see Christianity differently, and those who subscribe to their form of belief should not be denied their religious interpretations. (d) The International Community: That the international community should respect our sovereignty as a nation and not dictate values which are conflicting with our religious and cultural beliefs as a people. The International community respects sovereignty. But that does not mean they cannot hold such sovereignty accountable to what is expected globally of human rights. If Malawi wants to isolate from their global human rights obligations then they should boot out APPLE, FACEBOOK. GOOGLE, HILTON HOTELS, and every single multi-national corporation that invites LGBTQI people to apply for jobs, touts DEI and even has CEO's who are Gay such as Tim Cook of Apple. (e) Civil Society and Human Rights Group: We are aware that the majority of such individuals in these groups do it for money and not necessarily based on convictions. We therefore urge all groups advocating same sex marriages to seriously reflect on their actions and not be used to cause the nation to sin against God. Well at this time most NGO's are not advocating for same-sex marriage, but rather from decriminalizing sexuality and gender identity and to stop countries from persecuting and exacting violent repercussions on LGBTI people. Again this request is baseless because it forced religion and or religious interpretation on someone who may choose to and has the religious freedom to believe differently. NO NGO's do not get paid money in exchange for their convictions. If any NGO receives money it is legitimately operational so they can operate... Indeed the Global gays are not pouring millions of dollars to recolonize the way the Evangelicals are: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/africa-us-christian-right-50m/
#christianity#evangelical exudes fear and hate instead of love and real teachings - but time is NOW for the real Christians to speak about about what is happening in the name of Christianity, in Africa, right now. An example here.
