Homosexuallity against infidelity among christians

On August 15th daily graphic ran an article entitled “Are homosexuals really demons and psychopaths?” It referenced an earlier article which contained statements from religious leaders suggesting that they were. I write to support the author, Mr. Agyei-Boahene and his hesitance to rashly condemn homosexuals. Firstly, to add a correction to the article which says that “there is no solid scientific evidence that people are born homosexuals,” neurobiological and genetic research in the field of sexuality has provided more and more evidence that homosexuality has biological roots.

Brain structure and function has been shown to be different between homosexual men and heterosexual men (S LeVay 1991), birth order is correlated with male homosexuality (R Blanchard 2001) and it has been shown that homosexuality can run in families along the maternal line (A Camperio-Ciani 2004). As Ghana continues to debate the issue of homosexuality in society, it is important to be aware of this kind of research indicating that homosexuality may not be not a choice, but a part of someone’s identity and while one can choose whether or not to participate in homosexual activity I’m sure the heterosexual male readers out there can relate to how difficult it would be to choose to marry and have sex with other men when their natural inclinations are to be with women. The anti-homosexuality movement is driven by religious groups who claim that homosexuality goes against God and the bible or Quran. However there are plenty of Christian leaders and biblical scholars who have concluded that homosexuality and the bible are not in fact at odds, that translations made over the centuries have skewed the language of the bible, or that the evolution of language has resulted in misinterpretations of the text. On the other hand the bible strongly disapproves of infidelity and references this much more often and explicitly than homosexuality. Infidelity(unfaithfulness in marriage) has destroyed marriages and has left Ghana with a plethora of street children and impoverished single-parent households and this heterosexual behavior is a much larger threat to Ghanaian society than two people of the same sex having a loving sexual relationship. Yet it is not the adulterers about whom we are writing newspaper articles or calling psychopaths.

Some Christians believe that homosexuality is not acceptable under their religion, but these people also believe that we should love our neighbor. Condemning a group of people who don’t conform to your beliefs is hateful and that hate tears much more at the fabric of our society than people whose crime is loving each other even if they are of the same sex. I commend Agyel-Boahene for opening this conversation and hope that objective debate over this issue continues to develop in Ghana.

Mike Owusu Gyimah (Uncle Mike) Light for children kumasi