Peter Akinola: Humanity

“We in Africa are always on the receiving end. We have had human slavery, political slavery, economic slavery and now religious slavery. We in the church are saying no. We are prepared to live by what God says, not what you say. Man shall not sleep with man, woman shall not sleep with woman.”

Peter Akinola

Interview with Associated Press http://www.morningsun.net/stories/120803/usw_20031208026.shtml December 2003

God , Sleep

“Homosexuality seeks to destroy marriage as we know it, unity as we know it, family life as we know it, so how can we endorse that? That is completely outside what God planned for humanity. When God created man, he saw man was alone and added a female mate for him. Why didn't he pick one of the baboons, one of the lions to make his partner? He could have done so. He didn't. Homosexuality is nothing short of sinning against God with impunity as you are going against his will. Homosexuality is wrong, it's from the devil.”

Peter Akinola

Interview in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 January 2007

Life , God , Marriage , Family

“To opine that, unknown to humans, God had hitherto created some people to be homosexuals and lesbians (i. e., sexual orientations) is tantamount to creating God in our own image and introducing a cancerous element into the fabric of the African understanding of marriage and family.”

Peter Akinola

God , Marriage , People , Family

“I didn’t create poverty. This church didn’t create poverty. Poverty is not an issue, human suffering is not an issue at all, they were there before the creation of mankind.”

Peter Akinola

Reported in the East African Standard January 2004, now only available online here http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/000985.html.

Suffering

“The Church commends the law-makers for their prompt reaction to outlaw same-sex relationships in Nigeria and calls for the bill to be passed since the idea expressed in the bill is the moral position of Nigerians regarding human sexuality.”

Peter Akinola

(Communique on the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2006
The 2006 Bill, as well as criminalising same-sex marriage, also proposed to criminalise "Registration of Gay Clubs, Societies and organizations" and "Publicity, procession and public show of same-sex amorous relationship through the electronic or print media physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise", on penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment.

Law , Sex , Idea

“The archbishop's support for this law [the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2006, see above] violates numerous Anglican Communion documents that call for a "listening process" involving gay Christians and their leaders. But his contempt for international agreements also extends to Articles 18-20 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which articulates the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, association and assembly. Surprisingly, few voices -- Anglican or otherwise -- have been raised in opposition to the archbishop. When I compare this silence with the cacophony that followed the Episcopal Church's decision to consecrate the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives openly with his partner, as the bishop of New Hampshire, I am compelled to ask whether the global Christian community has lost not only its backbone but its moral bearings.”

Peter Akinola

John Chane, Bishop of Washington
Criticism

Marriage , Religion , Law , Sex

“The victimisation or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us.”

Peter Akinola

Statement of the Primates of the Anglican Communion at Dromantine, February 2005
Associated quotations

People , Sex