GOD HAS given to man; his own free will. We have a choice to make His will superior to ours or diminish His and go by our self-centred will created out of our sinister or portentous desire which has no future. The debate on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) has taken a global trend as most world leaders are torn between legalising and criminalising the acts of these callous sexual deviants. Those who think it should be legalised argue from an angle of fundamental human rights. They believe that everyone has the right to choose any sexual preference which suits his or her desire.
Well, in order to fall in love with the rights of individuals, we must begin to question ourselves on how healthy and well-balanced we want to lead our lives, and also, how far we want the future generation of our country to reach.
People in other jurisdictions, who believe that the activities of LGBTQI should be criminalised or outlawed also raise the concern that such practices are unwholesome or noxious to the development of man. The debate on this ancient practice or lifestyle will continue to linger from a legal, health,
cultural/religious, scientific, and business points of view.
I would, therefore, argue against such practices from a theological and cultural point of view. Man has a will on his own to either subject it to a supreme power who will help him lead a decent lifestyle, or to overrule any prompting and instead, allow the dictates of his lustful desires to control his personality. In either case, the will becomes the centre stage for supremacy from a Supreme Being or allowing our desires to control our choices.
In the words of Dickson (2011), “Those who seek to follow after their carnal lusts of the flesh will create a religion that conforms to their behaviour. Such people deceive themselves into believing that their behaviour is acceptable to the higher power they have created after the lust of their flesh. What they think is the truth is a lie.” God will allow a man to live in his deceptive way.
However, in the end, He will condemn man for his unwillingness to live and believe the truth. When people forsake God’s instruction(s) and distort the very nature of God by their abhorrent or detestable imaginations, God gives them up because they will no longer be influenced by His will.
The acts of Lesbianism, Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender and Queer, Intersex issues (LGBTQI) are the manifestations of a corrupt mindset that are contrary to human sexual behaviour, originally designed by the Almighty. Whenever we reject God’s standard for morality, we lose our centre of reference for establishing decent values. It is time we upheld the value of God’s word for mankind and lived by His standard.
Finally, our rich Ghanaian culture appreciates the sanity of our cultural heritage; hence, the acts of LGTBQI are a total disorder to our family values.
No matter how, we should love and help reform these social misfits, through acts of guidance and therapy, it must be on record that, we have a responsibility as a nation to be firm in our persuasions in resisting and eliminating this practice, for the purpose of this present generation and the generation, yet unborn.
We have a decent culture to protect; a culture which sees marriage as a union between a man and a woman who have agreed to live together as a husband and a wife; having gone through the procedure recognised by the state. This, to me, is a heritage to be cherished for the purposes of procreation, companionship, social integration and the continuity of the family ties.
Our rich customary marriage doesn’t accept the union between a man and a man, or the marital agreement between a woman and a woman. In other religious settings within our culture, like Islam; it sees homosexuality as total ‘haram’. In other words, the acts of LGBTQI are to be disliked, and shunned as they corrupt our decent way of living as Ghanaians.
No matter the freedom of association per our constitution, we should, as a matter of urgency, reinforce the supremacy of our cultural values in resisting any neo-imperialist influence that has no respect for our eccentricity and our peculiarity.
We have a choice to make to uphold the dignity of our society. At the moment, we have stronger issues to handle – from economic challenges, health issues, educational reforms, the continuity of social intervention projects, among other important matters of great concern for nation building.
It’s time to sit down as a nation and boast about our rich culture, which has become a case study for others to learn from. Regardless of any external financial grants, to condone in vile acts that are not healthy for our minds, we should, for once, be bold enough to stand and defend our honourable cultural heritage.
The writer is an Academic, Visiting Lecturer, Leadership Consultant and a
Reverend Minister with WordSprings City Church, Kumasi –Ghana.
Email: patrickowusu799@gmail.com
BY Dr. Patrick Owusu