Africa Fights for Faith, Family and Freedom

‘There’s some good in this world and it is worth fighting for’

While much of the West is caving in and going down the tubes in terms of the three big ticket items that I mention in my title, not everyone is so easily capitulating and selling out to the activists – including the rainbow radicals. Africa is a clear case in point. In numerous African nations the advancing homosexual juggernaut has been resisted and in some cases fully thwarted.

In my eyes that is real good news, and it should encourage us in the West to keep standing up for what really matters. Here I want to offer a general overview of the African situation, and then look at my own limited role in some of this. I will finish by offering a few lessons we must keep in mind.

I quite recently came upon a new article discussing “Africa’s Crackdown On LGBT Ideology”. It is brief enough to share the entire piece with you:

The promotion of LGBT ideology is suffering a major setback in Africa according to Nigerian evangelist Oscar Amaechina who’s also a Christian author and president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network. He writes in The Christian Post that 32 African countries have already criminalised homosexuality, same sex marriage and transgenderism. “Every effort to introduce these practices has been vehemently opposed by the people of Africa, and laws are coming up to ensure that these are not practiced at all,” he added.

 

Mr. Amaechina points out that the continent’s most populous country Nigeria criminalised homosexuality in 2014 with penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Its 213 million people are roughly half Christian and half Muslim. Lawmakers in Christian-majority (71%) Ghana recently unanimously voted for an anti-LGBT bill that will criminalise LGBT advocacy with penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment. LGBT people could face three years in jail.

 

The Nigerian evangelist adds that: “Recently, Uganda passed an anti-LGBT bill into law, and members of the Parliament have vowed to resist outside pressure. Despite wide condemnation from Western countries, the European Union and United Nations, the Ugandan government remains persistent in implementing the law.”

 

The Uganda law does not criminalise those who identify as LGBT+ which was a key concern for some human rights campaigners in the predominantly Christian (84%) country. It carries the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ which relates to cases involving HIV, children and vulnerable people. A suspect convicted of ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

 

Both Uganda and Ghana have vowed to fight foreign sanctions after the US revoked visas for Uganda’s parliamentary speaker. Ghanaian MP Sam George has said: “We will serve notice to Western powers that we have taken judicial notice of what they have done to the speaker of Uganda and the sponsors of the anti-LGBT bill. We will serve notice as well that if they replicate the same with our speaker and members of our Parliament, we will also take actions against their business interests in our country.”

 

Anti-LGBT laws could also be tightened in Kenya where opposition MP George Peter Kaluma told the BBC he is preparing a bill “to prohibit everything to do with homosexuality.”

 

The Africans’ stance has been supported by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on a rare visit to the continent during which he criticised Western nations’ support for homosexuality. “I believe that this issue, and these strong attacks by the West against the establishment of families and against the culture of the nations, is another area of cooperation for Iran and Uganda,” he said after a private meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

 

African sociologist Dr. Nana Obiri Yeboah told Deutsche Welle (DW) that the push for the recognition of same sex rights would continue to face stiff opposition in most African countries. “It’s not part of our norm and has never been acceptable to us. So it’s not part of our culture orientation. It is not a tradition,” he observed.

 

Mr. Amaechina agreed, writing in The Christian Post: “Most African politicians are not religious people.  Despite their personal moral failures, they found it difficult to comprehend same sex marriage. Even Muslims and pagans in Africa are saying no to the LGBT ideology. It is about the collective consciences of the Africans who cannot abide by these newly adopted Western values.  African societies have so far stood their ground on this issue. That is not likely to change anytime soon.” https://vision.org.au/news/africas-crackdown-on-lgbt-ideology/

My very small connection to this

What is happening in Africa is certainly encouraging to read about. And it is something I have had a very little bit to do with. Let me explain. When I taught ethics, theology and related topics some years ago at four different Bible colleges in Melbourne, I would get a wide mix of students, including some from various African nations. A few of them I have kept in touch with over the years. One of them is Kwasi from Ghana. After completing his studies, he had gone back to Africa.

Early in 2019 I was contacted by a Christian lawyer in Accra, Ghana, asking me to come speak there at a family conference. He knew Kwasi, and had read my two books on homosexuality which had been passed on to him. He was quite keen on the books, and really wanted me to come – along with some others – to warn about the dangers of the radical homosexual agenda, including the push for same-sex marriage.

So from late October to early November that year I was there and spoke at various meetings, including the family conference. I was even part of a television program. While there, I wrote about my experience in two articles: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2019/10/30/adventures-in-ghana/

And this one: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2019/10/31/ghana-christianity-culture-wars-and-the-west/

As requested, I had sent 100 copies of each of my two books: Strained Relations: The Challenge of Homosexuality (2011) and Dangerous Relations: The Threat of Homosexuality (2014) to the lawyer. I assumed they were put to good use, but had not heard what became of them all.

A few weeks ago I received word from Kwasi. He had said this:

Hi Bill, Hope you’re doing well. Wednesday 5th July was a great day in the history of Ghana. All the 275 MPs voted in support of the Anti LGBTQI Bill. The Bill is now in the final stage, the consideration stage. I want to say that your seminal books, The Dangerous Relations and Strained Relations gave us the scientific evidence against LGBTQI in preparation of the Bill. May the Lord bless you, and bless you, and bless you, and bless your children and children’s children. May heaven remember your apologetic work in the Kingdom.

 

Please if you have time Bill, you can go to YouTube and check Ghana Parliament, session on 5th July.

 

Have a blessed day.

 

Kwasi

Wow. That was an uplifting message. And I was humbled to know that I had played a little role in Ghana standing up for the natural family and heterosexual marriage. I looked up the video he mentioned and I did find it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ghana+parliament+session+5+july+2023&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=AB5stBgmSndYV_xj_xfU5VKenoN43co9OA%3A1690868022770&ei=NpnIZLfVLq-d4-EPmrqXqAI&ved=0ahUKEwi3yO-e3rqAAxWvzjgGHRrdBSUQ4dUDCA4&oq=ghana+parliament+session+5+july+2023&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJGdoYW5hIHBhcmxpYW1lbnQgc2Vzc2lvbiA1IGp1bHkgMjAyMzIIEAAYiQUYogQyCBAAGIkFGKIESJZMUI0EWOMicAF4AZABAJgBzAGgAe4GqgEFMC40LjG4AQzIAQD4AQHCAgoQABhHGNYEGLAD4gMEGAAgQYgGAZAGCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:32f4dcbe,vid:itY_lD0vm3Q

I must confess that with it being nearly 6 hours long, I only very briefly skimmed through it. Others might want to check it out further.

Lessons to be learned

We need to persevere. The other side never gives up as they seek to overturn Western and Christian civilisation and remake it into their own image. So we too need to get involved and stay involved and keep on fighting. And the arenas of engagement are many, be they in politics or the media or in education or the arts or in law or in writing articles and books or doing podcasts.

As to my first book on homosexuality, it started out years earlier as a ten-page research paper. I just kept adding and adding to it, and eventually it came out as a heavily documented and referenced book. But there was even opposition to it being published from some folks I was involved with at the time.

And even before that, I knew the radical homosexual agenda was simply going to get worse, and I knew I had to do my bit to warn about it. But I recall one meeting with pro-family leaders that I was actually ridiculed by one of them when I suggested that soon enough our main problem will be the push for homosexual marriage. He thought it just was not going to happen. Well, now we know who was right.

Moreover, all the hate mail I have received over the decades would be enough to stop most folks from going ahead in the culture wars. Indeed, I know of some who did give up, as the opposition became too intense for them. But we must find what it is that we are meant to do and then do it with all our heart, despite the fury of men and devils.

Even teaching all those classes for all those years could often be a thankless task. A good 98 per cent of my former students I have never heard from again. A few keep in touch, including Kwasi. Little did I know that when he was a student of mine all those decades ago, that it would lead – in part – to what happened recently in the Parliament of Ghana.

Indeed, I could – in hindsight – make this long chain of events leading up to this outcome:
-Being born in a small Wisconsin town
-An early love of reading, thinking and writing
–A few cases of unrequited love with American gals
-A missions trip to Holland, leading to marrying an Australian gal
-Moving to Australia and being involved in the culture wars
-Teaching in Bible colleges
-An African student of mine returning home
-What was discussed above leading to the Parliamentary vote

We just never know how God will lead us during our lives, or what good our work and ministry might be doing. We are simply called to be faithful, and not worry about the results. I just spotted this quote by David Wilkerson on the social media: “When God calls you to do something He is not always calling you to succeed. He’s calling you to obey! The success of the calling is up to Him, the obedience is up to you!”

While we might learn now and then of some of the good outcomes to our work for Christ, we will mainly need to wait until the next life to get the full report. So keep on keeping on.

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