Rt. Rev Daniel Degraft-Brace
The network of churches, ministers and councils in the Western Region have called on the government to ensure that educational institutions are insulated from becoming avenues for the nurturing and promotion of LGBTQIA+ activities.
LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer intersex, and allies.
The pastors said the youth stood the risk of becoming more vulnerable and gullible to the act.
The Network of Ministers also called on the government to come out with a bill that would proscribe and criminalize the practice and advocacy of LGBTQIA+ in the country.
The network wants the government to call to order all foreigners who are promoting the LGBT movement in the country, saying, “We need to strengthen Ghana’s legal jurisprudence and existing legislation to make it stricter and more punitive for offenders.”
Stating their position of the controversial subject at a press conference organized in Takoradi on Monday, the Christian leadership maintained that homosexuality was an abomination and that any nation that allowed it would incur the wrath of God.
Rt. Rev Daniel Degraft-Brace, Bishop of the Sekondi Diocese of the Methodist Church, said the number one responsibility of the government was to uphold the sanctity of sacredness of human life bequeathed to the people by the creator.
“LGBTQIA+ is an act of perversion and deep deprivation which seeks to defy God’s procreation agenda for the propagation of the human race.
“The practices also abuse human dignity and it’s an affront to cherished societal values which must be overtly condemned in no uncertain terms,” he stressed.
He pointed out that the government must demonstrate the political will in creating a social and legal environment that would be intolerable of anyone wanting to engage in the act of perversion whether a foreigner or a citizen.
He also added that there was the need for the three arms of government to come out to overtly condemn LGBTQIA+ activities with a concerted voice and assured the masses of their commitment to tackle the problem head-on.
He bemoaned the fact that some churches, particularly those in the western world, were among the few institutions that had come out openly to legitimize the act and even gone ahead to ordain homosexual ministers into the pastorate, saying, “We wish to state categorically that such legitimacy will not be accorded homosexuals by the church in Ghana.”
Muslims’ Support
The press conference organized by the Christian leadership in the region had the support of some representatives of the Muslim community in the area.
Yusif Gyamson of the Ahmadiya Muslim Mission said “Our culture and religious beliefs consider homosexual as an abomination hence the need to treat the legalization of LGBTQ+ as such.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi