President Barack Obama’s cajoling of Kenyan leaders to accept “LGBT rights” has met with a notable backlash from African bishops and
other state and religious leaders, with one African bishop drawing attention to the hypocrisy of Obama’s LGBT agenda. President
Obama’s pro-gay agenda push came as no surprise. Prior to his departure, he told the BBC that he intended to deliver a “blunt” message
on gay rights when he travelled to Africa.
Commenting on Obama’s BBC interview, Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Nigeria, Director of Communications for the African bishops,
offered his own blunt message:
“As a Nigerian and an African, I expect the leaders in Kenya to present again, as firmly as clearly as possible, the legitimate values
and worldview of the Kenyan people, which admittedly could be a handful for President Obama to handle.
As a Nigerian, I worry little about President Obama’s mindset about the United States needing to have a presence ‘to promote the
values that we care about,’ as he said in his interview with the BBC. My worry is whether Mr. President can actually figure out
other rights aside from the LGBT ‘rights’ — the rights of other peoples to determine the values they care about — and whether he
considers that some so-called American values are actually non-values for other peoples. Nobody should be killed for private
wayward or immoral behaviors that do not compromise other people’s lives. But that does not mean all kinds of exotic sexual
adventure must be foisted on other nationalities in the name of rights.
Most Africans care about religious values, about the family, about the complementary nature of man and woman and the culture
that makes us Africans. Why can we not choose what ‘benevolence’ to accept from the West? Why can we not just be helped to
fight corruption, terrorism, unemployment, disease and illiteracy?
Many Africans care about polygamy. Would Americans roll over and let someone push such values on their nation, and by force?
It is a huge irony that the world police of human rights seem to have rights, behaviors and personal preferences all mixed up.
African leaders and peoples need to be vigilant in deciphering the cunning mix-up and know what to accept and what to reject.
America claims to be a great democracy, and the proof of that fact will be found in her capacity for sincere dialogue and the
readiness to respect the legitimate values and worldview of other peoples.”
In February, Bishop Badejo said the United States administration [and Hillary Clinton when she was US Secretary of State] has made it
clear it would not help Nigeria fight Boko Haram unless the country modify its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-
control. And in April, he called the Obama administration’s appointment of its first “LGBT” special envoy evidence of a growing
“dictatorship of the minority”:
“I think the appointment of Randy [Berry] just shows how little the current US administration respects the democratic values it
seems to preach, especially when they preach them abroad.
If the current American government is investing so much effort in appointing a special envoy to promote what it calls the ‘rights’ of
homosexuals and gays and the rest of it, as I have always said, I think there is a mix-up between what are actually ‘rights,’ and
what are behaviors. And human behaviors cannot be put on the same level as human rights.
We have a right to live. I do not think that homosexuals ought to be killed, by no means. Life is a basic human right. But the right to
do things that are considered abnormal are not.
I do not think that homosexuals, as people, are evil people. But I do think that their activities are sinful and disordered. And if we
invest so much money and effort into imposing the orientation of this minority — this particular minority — onto the entire world,
then we are guilty of what I like to call a ‘dictatorship of the minority.’ So where is democracy? How can America claim to be a
champion of democracy in the world?”
Bishop Badejo therefore cautioned the American people in April to use their freedom wisely in the next presidential election and realize
that their vote has deep ramifications for Africa. The Nigerian prelate was not the only religious leader to rebuff President Obama’s
message. Prior to President Obama’s visit, 700 Kenyan evangelical pastors wrote an open letter asking the president not to come to their
country to push the gay agenda. Mark Kariuki, the leader of an alliance representing 38,000 churches and 10 million Kenyan Christians,
was the main drafter of the letter. “We do not want him to come and talk on homosexuality in Kenya or push us to accepting that which is
against our faith and culture,” Kariuki said.—DianeMontagna,Aleteia, July 29, 2015