Nigeria's Anti Gay Law - By Chuka Anthony Obi

Chuka Anthony Obi

*Writer needs an applause for this epic piece!

 This afternoon, just after I finished praying, I was asked by my Unizik Alumni friends what my take was on the recently passed anti-homosexuality law. There have been so many different things said about it, and they wanted to know my perspective. 

Okay. Two things. 

Firstly, 

"But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 

So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” 

It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! 

Worse followed!!! - Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: 

rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. 

Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! 

(Romans 1:18-32 MSG)

At the very beginning of the passage, you see that ALL men and women KNOW God's law on this thing- it is a NATURAL law. You don't need anybody to teach you this particular thing. You were BORN with the knowledge that homosexuality is wrong, whether or not you derive pleasure from it.

So this proves that hating homosexuality has nothing to do with being Christian or religious. It is a LAW OF NATURE.

Next, you will notice something unusual- the text first describes evil doings, but then says WORSE FOLLOWED before adding homosexuality. In other words, homosexuality is a worse form of sin- a progression from sin to greater sin. A further degeneration in man's journey to the bottom.

Now, as you read on, next you see the DIRECT EFFECTS of this degeneration- the passage says, "ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE". Why? Because of how low man had sunk; to the point of homosexuality. So homosexuality is an all time low!

Now, to the second thing.

People are making noise that this is not the right time for passing this bill...that we have other pressing issues to deal with. The answer to that is simple. 

1. There is no wrong time for doing what is right. There might be a wrong time for doing a good thing, but there is never a wrong time for doing what is RIGHT. There's a difference between a good thing and a right thing. That's a discussion for later.

2. The best way to deal with a problem is to nip it in the bud. You don't wait for that lump in your breast to become malignant before you see a doctor do you? So why do you want us to wait until homosexuality becomes a real problem before you deal with it? It's not nipping our problems in the bud created this monster that Nigerian corruption has become.

 Arguing that we should wait until homosexuality is a huge problem like the rest of our problems is the thought pattern of inadequately enlightened or immature minds...or worse still, people who's job it is to criticise the government whether or not they do the right thing. We all know such people- they're around us everyday. They only delight in their own opinions, and get a kick just from going against the grain.

In conclusion, our government has gotten a lot of decisions wrong over the years- and a good number of those wrong decisions were in an attempt to copy the western world. This one time that they have made the right decision- and even defied popular world opinion just to do what is right, the should be praised. Commended. Lauded.

God Bless You.