NAPS NEWS

NIGERIA
ANGLICAN CHURCH PRIMATE THREATENS SECESSION FROM AMERICA – ANGLICANS OVER GAY
BISHOP…

by

Peter Adegoke

Primate of All
Nigeria, Archbishop Akinola has condemned the move by the Church of England
regarding civil partnerships. (anglicancommunion.org)

Read
Akinola's Letter on the issue here

In a show of hypocrisy typical of Nigerian
clerics; Akinola, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion was
reported by the Tribune Newspaper, Nigeria, Monday 26, July 2004 and the report
is replicated below:

“Akinola inaugurates American diocese next
month. To effectively cut off Nigerians from gay bishops in the United States,
the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Peter
Akinola, would next month inaugurates the American diocese of the Church of
Nigeria. Primate Akinola discloses this on Sunday at the consecration of three
new bishops for the Church of Nigeria.

Most Reverend Akinola describes gay
clergymen as people he cannot do the work of God with.

Akinola has been vocal in his opposition
to the consecration of gay bishops and the establishment of the American diocese
was seen as a practical demonstrations of speculated threat to sever links with
pro-gay American-Anglicans.

The above report again confirms the saying
that Nigeria clerics only bark at issues they know little or nothing about.
Because of the proliferation of religious fundamentalisms in Nigeria; most of
the clerics lack deep epistemology especially those of naturalistic ethics,
human psychology, biblical higher criticism, and exegeses---- Mind you they are
very good in the area of 'eisegeses' that is; making the bible say what they
want it to say and not what it actually meant as in the case of biblical
exegeses under the theological field of hermeneutics. It is this ignorance that
pushes them to make statements that rank far beneath what could be termed
intellectual, Akinola statements inclusive.

Where was Akinola when our ‘born again’
President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who also double up as a prominent member of
an Yoruba Traditional Religious society member known as the Reformed Ogboni
Fraternity (this group was founded surprisingly by an Anglican clergyman almost
a century ago with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria); insulted an Anglican priest
who is also the President of CAN, Plateau State Chapter? The ‘born again’
president described the cleric as stupid and idiotic. But it is really a pity
that our judgmental bishop Akinola did not see any reason to shout at the
president. I am sure I can’t do such because some months later the Obasanjo
raised the sum of 25billion naira for the completion of the National Church and
Ecumenical Center in Abuja, Nigeria. This is the Federal Capital Territory, a
city that has 1,100 beggars.

“In a new repot published by task force on
the management of the destitute and street hawkers, there are over 1,100 beggars
and destitute in the FCT.

According to the report the FCT has over 500
family heads that are beggars between the ages 12 and 40 are about 600.

From this figure; the crippled and the lame
constitute the highest percentage followed by the persons afflicted by
leprosy….” Punch Newspaper, Nigeria, Friday, July 30, 2004 pg.4.

This is a City where the President of the
Beggars Association of Nigeria lives, I am not joking the beggars in Nigeria
numbers over 200,000 and they are organized with an Hausa man as their
president. Akinola and our ‘born again’ president never bother about this people
in the society. God will never send them to these ones but to the rich and the
mighty in Nigeria. Nigeria government filled with religious people cannot help
these ones but they were able to complete a stadium at record time and sum of 40
billion naira and a Birmingham replica was built for the Queen on her visit to
Nigeria.

Akinola is a prominent member of the CAN;
non of the body’s member has ever come out to condemn the actions of the
president for insulting one of them, an offence a poor man dear not commit. Some
of the parishioners of Akinola are politicians and government officials who
embezzle and siphoned public funds for the work of God or personal use as
exemplified in the case of that televangelist----- Chris Oyakhilome whose member
siphoned the money of an organization to the tune of 25 million Naira and when
caught exclaimed that he never spend the money on himself but he used the money
for God’s work; till date Pastor Chris refuse to refund the money. Bishop
Akinola will never see anything wrong in this action.

When the Anglican Church in the United
States was ordaining female bishops; Akinola and his cohorts never threatened
secession on the ground of unbiblicity, but now they are appealing to the bible
to condemn the American bishop who came out unhipocritically to declare his
sexual preference.

Does Akinola even know that the title
Reverend he is wearing is only attributed to God in the Bible?

Psalm 111:9

He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant forever: holy
and reverend is his name.

Does he know that it was never use by any of
the church fathers down through the medieval period and it was first use as an
epitaph for a dead man? The title priest wore then was Mr. And not Rev. not to
talk about Most Rev. Therefore Akinola himself is guilty of trying to be equal
with God which is a graver ‘sin’ more than that of homosexuality I presume.

Where is it in the bible that a female
should be a bishop? They were to keep silent and not to teach in the church.

Where is it in the bible that a bishop
should wear either a miter or a skull cap? Akinola wear this when Paul wrote
supposedly under inspiration that men should not cover their head in church:

1
Corinthians 11:7

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch, as he is
the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

1
Corinthians 11:4

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered,
dishonoureth his head.

The above text implies that all the prayers
of Akinola said with covered head are abomination unto God as indicated above by
apostle Paul.

But though I have problem with Paul who lack
adequate knowledge of the Torah I presume as the Torah:


Leviticus 10:6

And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover
not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath
come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel,
bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled.

(Whole Chapter:

Leviticus 10 In
context:

Leviticus 10:5-7)

Leviticus
21:10

And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the
anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall
not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;

(Whole Chapter:

Leviticus 21 In
context:

Leviticus 21:9-11)

Akinola might use these texts to save
himself but these texts applies only to the Hebrews including Paul who later
brought out his own teaching perhaps out of ignorance of the Torah. Jesus must
have covered his head while preaching in the synagogue, as this is required of
all Jews. But Paul’s teaching negates the ordinance of God as prescribed through
prophet Moses above. Akinola is a Christian and not a Jew, why is he covering
his head in Church with skullcap?

Where is it in the Bible that Christians
should worship on Sundays?

Where is it in the bible that a church
should be named after dad saints (such as St. James, St. Barnabas, St. Luke, St.
John etc.)?

Where is it in the Bible that Christians
should celebrate Easter, Christmas, and Lenten? Are these not pagan in origin?

Where is it in the bible that
the bible should be called bible?

If on the above issues Akinola and some of
his religiously fundamental lieutenants would appeal to extra-biblical logic in
order to save their neck and circularly argued around these issues why can’t
they appeal to rationality on this subject of homosexuality?

Most people including the chrisitan
fundamentalists are deliberately or unconsciously unmindful of the fact that the
bible condemns at least 20% of what they now take as noemal; for instance

1.Wearing of trousers by females.

2. Wearing of multi-colored clothes

3. Braided hair( most Nigerian ladies
including possibly the bishop’s wife and daughters must have had their hair
braided at one time or the other) and costly apparel( the bishop’s robe is
costly, hope you know that; a robe Peter and Jesus never wore).

1 Timothy
2:9

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with
shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls,
or costly array;

(Whole Chapter:

1 Timothy 2 In
context:

1 Timothy 2:8-10).

4. Planting of different crops in the same
field.

5. Long prayers (in fact the longest prayers
in the bible was 15 minutes, said by Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple.

You should be aware that the punishment for
adultery in the bible is stoning to death.

Leviticus 20

⁹ For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be
surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be
upon him.

¹⁰ And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife,
even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and
the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

‘Holy’ genocide as perpetuated in the
‘holy’ bible by Saul under the direction of God against the Amalekites over a
sin their forebears committed against the God of the Hebrews:

1 Samuel 15

¹ Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be
king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of
the words of the LORD.

² Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to
Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.

³ Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have,
and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and
sheep, camel and ass.

⁴ And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in
Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵ And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

I suppose this action now sound barbaric to
Peter Akinola. If Akinola will not allow such action now but the action is
biblical. Akinola would not allow it because it is now unconventional and such
practice is outdated. Therefore Akinola should stop using the bible as authority
upon which to judge the ethical question of homosexuality.

Some ignorant Nigerians condemn
homosexuality as unnatural; according to these people, only heterosexuality is
natural. This assertion is been made majorly by religionists who try to sound
intellectual; as the assertion is weak due to lack of intensive studies of
science and philosophy among most Nigerians. Their ignorance could be excused
because most of the professors who should teach them critical logic,
epistemology, basic physiology, basic physics etc. have now turn pastors and
preachers.

These people do not realize that millions of
organisms engage in asexual form of reproduction. Oral sex, anal sex, fellatioes,
are sexual practices that are strange even to the primates and other close
relatives of homosapien on the evolutionary ladder. I make bold to
say that many Nigerians including the Christians who should be satisfied with
the missionary style usually engage in these sexual pleasures.

These sexually pleasurable practices could
also be said to be bad since it is only the penis and the virginal that
‘naturally’ should be involved during intercourse; sexual positions such as
“doggy” and “wheelbarrow” are not ‘natural’. Sorry for sounding profane my lord
bishop.

I think honestly that sexuality like culture
as subjected to man. Man dictates what he likes in the society including
religion not the reverse. So in my own opinion I think Akinola and others of his
persuasion should busy themselves with fighting for a better future for Nigerian
youth and stop this diversionary attitude aim at looking away from the reality.

When Jesus was alive, he didn’t have a
house, not even a donkey. But Akinola stays in a lavishly furnished Bishop’s
Court in one of the choicest place in Nigeria while most of his parishioners
live in slums like Ajegunle, Mushin, and Orile in Lagos, Nigeria.

A clergy in Nigeria purchased a private jet
at a whooping sum of 650 million Naira an amount that could make the whole
beggars in Abuja to give up begging and live comfortable lives different that of
the abject poverty they are used to.

Akinola and his anti-gay activists should
note that the bible encourages some practices that are now condemned the world
over, for instance slavery:

Numbers 31

⁴⁸ And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the
captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:

⁴⁹ And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the
men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.

I believe slavery is evil and not the choice
of someone over his sexual preference, since homosexuality affects nobody,
according to utilitarianism theory, it should be permitted.

I am not a gay but I do not discriminate
against them. As a Bright Humanist I believe that using scriptures to establish
ethical issues is against intellectuality as a book of myth has little to offer
when issues of psychology, ethics, and biological sciences are
discussed.

Notes:

1.All scriptural quotations are taking from
the King James Version of the Bible.

2.CAN means the Christian Association of
Nigeria: an ecumenical body of Christian churches.

3.FCT means the Federal Capital Territory,
Nigeria’s Capital

Peter Adegoke is a Journalist, a writer, and a student
of philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.