Anti-gay extremism in Nigeria
The place non secular fervor can lead. (So, sure, a digression into American politics).
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Saturday 28 October 2023
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Preliminary be aware: this put up is just not directed at James Joyner’s put up from earlier in the present day, though that put up jogged my memory that I have been that means to put in writing the next since Thursday.
A good friend introduced this story to my consideration this week when, regardless of my information food regimen, I hadn’t seen it. CNN reported the next: Nigeria’s paramilitary raids celebration, arrests 76 gays.
Seventy-six folks have been arrested for attending a homosexual celebration in northern Nigeria, the nation’s paramilitary company mentioned Monday, including that the organizer had additionally deliberate to carry a same-sex wedding ceremony, which is prohibited.
[…]
Buhari Saad, the Nigeria Safety and Civil Protection Corps (NSCDC) spokesman for predominantly Muslim Gombe state, mentioned after receiving a tip-off that the company raided a celebration attended by “homosexuals and pimps” on Saturday evening.
He mentioned 59 males had been arrested, together with 21 who confessed to being homosexual, and 17 ladies.
Being homosexual carries 14 years in jail in Nigeria (and I believe the penalty for not confessing is worse).
The same raid was additionally reported again in August (additionally through CNN): Police raid suspected homosexual wedding ceremony in Nigeria and arrest greater than 200 folks.
I believe you will need to pay attention to this ongoing violation of human rights and to see extra concretely what it may appear to be when non secular zealots can use their energy in opposition to susceptible teams. Much more, I’d assume it could give pause to those that wish to criminalize relationships and sexual exercise they disapprove of. Even when slopes aren’t slippery sufficient to convey zealots into the type of barbaric habits illustrated above, that does not imply we should not cease and take into consideration the place issues may find yourself underneath the improper political constellation.
When this story was dropped at my consideration, I had simply been studying concerning the new Speaker of the Home, Mike Johnson, and had seen this excerpt from a 2004 editorial he had written: “Gay relationships are inherently unnatural, and research present clearly, is finally dangerous and expensive to all. Society can’t give its stamp of approval to such a harmful life-style” (supply: NOLA.com).
Look, I am not arguing that Speaker Johnson desires to raid same-sex weddings and put folks in jail for 14 years. What I do know is that this: should you educate those who sure subsets of fellow residents are “unnatural”, “harmful” and “costly to all”, then you might be setting the stage for what may result in what occurs in Nigeria in 2023 .I’ll be aware that that is additionally the way you get issues like Pizzagate, the place a pedophilia conspiracy idea led a person to fireplace his AR-15 at a restaurant.
On Johnson, ABC Information has extra than simply the 2004 editorial: How New Home Speaker Mike Johnson Spent Years Combating Homosexual Rights. From that piece:
“There may be clearly no ‘proper to sodomy’ within the Structure,” Johnson wrote in a 2003 column in a Louisiana newspaper. “And the precise to ‘privateness within the residence’ has by no means positioned all exercise with the house exterior the bounds of the prison legislation.”
Eager to criminalize particular sexual acts carried out in personal between consenting adults is totally authoritarian (to not point out hypocritical, because the man of the precise acts can be engaged in by heterosexuals – should you’re not acquainted, I am positive Google could be your information). Maybe his views have advanced, however when given the prospect to make clear, he advised Fox Information this week:
Let me say this very clearly. And there have been questions on this. Let me say the place I’m. Anybody who is aware of me will let you know that is true. I’m a person of the rule of legislation. I made a profession out of defending the rule of legislation. I respect the rule of legislation. When the Supreme Court docket issued the Obergefell opinion, it turned the legislation of the land. I respect the rule of legislation, however I additionally genuinely love all folks, no matter their life-style selections. It’s not concerning the folks themselves. I’m a Bible believing Christian. Somebody requested me in the present day within the media, they mentioned folks have been curious, what does Mike Johnson take into consideration any topic underneath the solar? I mentioned, Nicely, take a Bible off your shelf and skim it. That is my world view, that is what I imagine.
That is actually not a solution.
We want tolerance and pluralism in America, not the opposite method round. And whereas Johnson is actually free to imagine as he desires (due to tolerance and pluralism), I do not assume it is unreasonable to be involved about his views on homosexuality, now that he occupies one of the highly effective positions within the US authorities.
I am not a hair-on-fire type of man, nevertheless it’s laborious to not have seen how anti-LGBTQ+ views are on the rise, and never simply rhetorically, however by way of legislative motion (eg Florida’s ” Don’s Say Homosexual” ” invoice to not point out the quantity of makes an attempt to curtail trans rights). And ever-escalating rhetoric linking homosexuals and transsexuals to pedophilia will radicalize some residents, as with Pizzagate, and can doubtless lead to violence.
By the way, let me be aware one of many biblical passages used to justify the anti-gay positions of many American Christians, 1 Corinthians 6:September 11.
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous won’t inherit the dominion of God? Don’t be deceived: Neither sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor males who’ve intercourse with males[a]10 neither thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the dominion of God.11 And that is what a few of you have been. However you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been made righteous within the title of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
With out stepping into translation points or something like that, I am going to simply be aware that the above is from the NIV (New Worldwide Model), which is extensively utilized in American church buildings.
I’d be aware that if conservative evangelicals (together with Speaker Johnson) have been as intensely centered on all the factors made in that verse, it could be simpler, from an mental standpoint, to just accept that their views on homosexuals actually acted about adherence to a literal biblical morality and actually not simply anti-gay bigotry. (And to be clear, it could be worse for society in the event that they utilized comparable logic to the checklist, insofar as it’s the path to non secular policing a la the Taliban).
With out even stepping into the broad hypocrisy drawback that will engulf the Republican political class in the event that they have been simply to take care of the infidelity half, let me be aware that it’s empirically true that Donald J. Trump has been sexually immoral (that is been confirmed in court docket ) and has dedicated adultery. Likewise, it’s simple that he’s grasping, has slandered and cheated, and is a thief (if something due to the many individuals he has refused to pay over time). Facet be aware, Rudy Giuliani is a drunkard.
However you realize, homosexual relationships are real drawback…
Oh, and by the best way, Mike Johnson is a staunch Trump supporter who served as his protection lawyer in certainly one of his impeachment circumstances and has refused to just accept the outcomes of the 2020 election. Possibly Johnson is the one who ought to “get a Bible [his] shelf and skim it.”