This article is about the GAFCON or Global
Anglican Future Conference, to take place next week in Nairobi and about a very
sad story of a woman possibly
related to one of the main
bishops. But I would like to situate it, by making a brief comparative analysis
of biblical approaches by the environmentalists and Human Rights advocates. The former have successfully
used the Genesis creation narrative to make a Biblical case for environmental
protection while the latter have failed to do so, yet they can. Gen: 1:26 –
28.
“26 Then God said, “And now we will make
human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power
over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild,[d] large and small.” 27 So God created human beings, making them to be like
himself. He created them male and female,
28 blessed them, and said, “Have many
children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control…”
Environmentalists have been able to use the
words “bring it under control” as reference to the need to protect the
environment and this is now mainstreamed in our thinking. Human rights advocates
however have never been able to mainstream the “created in the image and
likeness of God….both male and female” as reference to the equality principle.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights may have this as the foundational
thinking, but the religious still find justification
for discrimination. Let’s look at the story below;
But
first about GAFCON
Next week, Anglican bishops from the global
south (mainly African bishops) will hold a major meeting in Nairobi running
from the 21st – 26th of October. The Anglican Arch-bishop
for Nairobi, Rev. Eliud Wabukala will be their host. In his preparatory letter
to the Anglican communion he reiterated why this meeting in Nairobi is
important because the conference comes exactly after “ten years since the Episcopal Church of the United States consecrated
Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, despite the fact that he had left his
wife and family and then later entered into a sexual relationship with a man.”
The Arch-bishop sees this consecration as a “spiritual cancer in the Communion, [that seeks] the overthrow by some Churches of the creation order of male and
female.(GAFCON Website)”
Another bishop who will be in attendance is
Rev. Julius Kalu of Mombasa. Last year the Bishop said that gays are worse than
terrorists. That “Our greatest fear as
Church should not be the grenade attacks, but the new teachings like same sex
marriages.(East African Standard, July 23rd 2012)”
There are two recent events that have provided us with video footage, that we
can use to compare the two groups of people:
In this one (youtube video) we see very
heavily armed and dangerous terrorists not just shooting at people at the
Westgate Mall in Nairobi; we also see them taking time off their killing sprees
to pray. They are clearly very religious people. They clearly do not seem to
see any contradiction between their religious beliefs and their on-going
exercise of killing innocent people at the Mall. Perhaps they even believe
that, because of their religious beliefs, they are obligated to kill as many
people as they can at the Mall.
In this second video, (youtube video) we
see two gay men from Mombasa, Kenya. One is on life support after he has had
his throat slit. The other is his friend narrating of how difficult it was to
get help from anyone including the police. He even inserts the infamous and
much derided statement “…..tungeomba
serikali itusaidie” [we are asking the government to help us…] which is
largely a cry of helplessness. He continues to say, as a gay person, he is
completely powerless in the society; his security and access to legal redress
are completely at the mercy of any kindhearted person.
For Bishop Kalu, the two videos, present
two dangerous categories of people, but Kenyans are safer with the terrorists
than with the gay men. That for the more than 500 people at the Westgate Mall,
they were a lot better off with the 4 terrorists than if it were 4
gay people at the mall. But no one will pursue that story. Instead, the
narrative of hate, is likely to take animatedly religious and cultural tone.
What
we will hear
As the GAFCON conference progresses next
week, there will be calls to emphasize the commitment made in Jerusalem
Declaration (http://gafcon.org/the-jerusalem-declaration)
. Paragraph 10 of the declaration notes “We
acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable
standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper
place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family.” Although they also
acknowledge they do not always live up to that ideal “We repent of our failures to maintain this standard….” That failure
to reach the ideal or even granting of penance is out of scope for the gay
persons.
We shall hear a lot about the need to
preserve African culture and Christian religious purity in our respective
countries. Of course no one will point out just how contradictory that statement
is.
What
we shall not hear.
We shall not hear about this lady who is
currently staying with her daughter in U.K. She recently moved to London, to
take some time off, after a traumatic experience she may have had with one of the arch-bishops organizing the
GAFCO meeting. She had recently called a leading but retired arch-bishop to
tell him of how she really wanted to kill herself. She told the retired bishop
an unresolved issue with one of the leading arch-bishops organizing the GAFCO
meeting next week. But let’s tell the story differently
It all started when the one of the
arch-bishops organizing the GAFCON meeting was teaching at the Limuru
Theological College – now St. Paul’s University. Though married, he still kept
this lady from Limuru as a girlfriend. Unfortunately on two occasions, she got
pregnant and on both occasions, the arch-bishop asked her to abort.
After a couple of years into their
relationships, the bishop had graduated from being a lecturer to being a bishop,
and then an arch-bishop. It was during this time that his official wife passed
on and the said lady from Limuru, thought the time to formalize their relationship
had finally come. But alas, she was passed over for another lady.
So distraught, and needing to see the said
arch-bishop, she camped outside his official residence, which unfortunately led
to her arrest and even spending time as a guest of the State at Kilimani Police
Station – Nairobi. She was later released because the complainants failed to
file an official report.
After this incident, she decided to visit
her daughter staying in London for some time. It is while staying in London,
that she called the late Arch-bishop, telling him of how unfair she has been
treated; that she feels she has lost her two children for the sake of this
leading clergy man, and now he will not even see her for a simple meeting. And
because of this, she wanted to commit suicide.
The Late arch-bishop told her not to commit
suicide in foreign land, but rather to come back home and talk things over. He was
willing to mediate between the two. Unfortunately he died before he could
mediate between the two. It is unlikely that we shall hear the end of this
story but we hope someone is courageous enough to reach out to this lady and
even hold the leading arch-bishop accountable
Why
tell this story
The relevance of this story in the context
of upcoming GAFCON meeting is twofold:
- The inability of Human rights advocates to address religiously based justification for human rights abuses using the very tools used by the antagonists. The GAFCON meeting could well employ the words of Amos: 5: 22- 24
“ 22"Even though you offer
up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And
I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23"Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even
listen to the sound of your harps. 24"But let justice
roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.…”
Human Rights advocates
and even those working with Key Populations in HIV/AIDS prevention treatment
and care need to ask of the GAFCON leaders to act responsibly. Kenyan MSM in particular
who have progressively been making gains in accessing health, will have to
endure weeklong rhetoric that is likely to reverse these gains. Bishop Julius
Kalu of Mombasa will possibly but needlessly make the environment for MSM in
Mombasa extremely violent, leading even to threat to life as seen in one of the
videos above. There is need to hold
these clergy to a higher moral evaluation and accountability than has been the
case in the past.
- Let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. The lady in question needs Justice. But more foundational, all women in Kenya whose reproductive rights have been denied due to legal and policy restrictions. It is wrong to advocate for abortion, only when it conveniently suits the agenda of the clergy. But condemn thousands of poor girls and women to backstreet quacks because the clergy in Kenya, working with equally self-righteous, inordinately male-dominated political class, will not allow for a positive legal and policy environment for maternal health – which should include safe, competent and legal abortion care.
Women rights
organizations, in particular should reach out to this lady in London, and help
her move on with her life, even if she should choose to forgive the leading
arch-bishop organising the anti-gay conference in Nairobi. This is an important
story towards ending unsafe abortions in Kenya, because it demonstrates that
the rich, including leading arch-bishops will procure safe, medically assisted
abortions, but will deny the same for the poor – who are then left in the hands
of quacks, often leading to needless deaths among our women – and no one is
even talking about the consequences of these maternal deaths to the children
left as orphans.
Somebody, please send this
article to leading Women/Human rights giants like Anne Njogu, and Muthoni
Wanyeki.
