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Monday, July 8, 2013

African Religious Leaders Reject Obama's Call for Gay Rights

African Religious Leaders Reject Obama's Call for Gay Rights

Homosexuality is illegal in 37 African nations

 

Obama inspects the troops at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, July 1, 2013.
Obama inspects the troops at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, July 1, 2013. • AP

Obama apparently "received a less-than-warm welcome" in Africa after he called on national leaders to decriminalize homosexuality.
The POTUS called on African leaders to grant equal protection to gays and lesbians in a news conference after the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. "Regardless of race, regardless of religion, regardless of gender, regardless of sexual orientation, when it comes to how the law treats you, how the state treats you...people should be treated equally," Obama said. "And that's a principle that I think applies universally."
Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Senegal suggested they were unable to warmly welcome Obama because of the statements. "This issue of homosexuality which he mentioned had really blocked the hospitality which the religious leaders desired to reserve for him," said the Rev. Pierre Adama Faye, a Senegalese Lutheran leader. In Senegal, homosexuality is a crime, as it is in 36 other African countries.
"The subject of homosexuality must not be used as a tool to blackmail and coerce society to defy God's command," said Sheikh Saliou Mbacke, a Senegalese Muslim leader.
Tanzania's Anglican Bishop Michael Hafidh said that he wished Obama had stuck to talking about "investments and trade."
Kenya's Roman Catholic Cardinal John Njue also rejected Obama's call for universal acceptance of homosexuality. "I think we need to act according to our own traditions and even our own faiths," he said.
Via the Religious News Service.

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