Catholic Bishops endorse anti-LGBTQ+ bill

The components of human rights according to the church include the right to life, personal liberty, freedom of thought, expression, religion, movement freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, language etc.

Is allowance instantly strangers applauded

The draft anti-LGBTQ+ bill currently before Parliament has received fresh endorsement from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ghana, who have described LGBTQ+ activities as “morally unacceptable”.

A statement released by the Church condemns homosexuality and notes that it contravenes foundational principles of Christian faith and practice. Membership of the Catholic Church comprises some 13.1% of the country’s population.

“As a Church, we want this abominable practice made illegal in our country… The Bible, which is foundational to Christian beliefs and practices, condemns the practice,” the Catholic Bishops argue.

According to the Catholic Bishops, the inclination of a homosexual person is an “objective disorder” towards a moral evil and not a sin. The church added that a homosexual person can be blamed for the sexual activities they indulge in because it is not a compulsive sexual behavior.

“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder… The Church rejects the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and very compulsive and, therefore, they should not be blamed for their homosexual acts.”

The church has however asked that the rights of homosexuals be respected and their fundamental human rights protected. They however recalled the ruling by the European Court for Human Rights that indicates that “same-sex marriages are not considered a human right”.

The components of human rights according to the church include the right to life, personal liberty, freedom of thought, expression, religion, movement freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, language etc.

“Nevertheless, according to the Church’s understanding of human rights, the rights of homosexuals as persons do not include the right of a man to marry a man or of a woman to marry a woman. For the Church, this is morally wrong and goes against God’s purpose for marriage. We should also point out that the European Court for Human Rights has ruled that same-sex “marriages” are not considered a human right, making it clear that homosexual partnerships do not in fact equal marriages between a man and a woman. The ruling was announced 9th June 2016 in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France,” they said.

The Catholic Bishops Conference has become the latest large religious body to  endorse the anti-LGBT bill after the Church of Pentecost submitted a memo in support of the bill.