by Rev. Steve Parelli, Bronz, New York
Rev. John Makokha of Nairobi, Kenya, Coordinator for Other Sheep Kenya announced today that Other Sheep Kenya will conduct workshops in Mombasa the first week of March (2010) for Sheikhs, Imams and Christians.
The announcement read: "Other Sheep Kenya has organized a workshop for 30 Sheikhs and Imams in the Coastal town of Mombasa and another workshop for 30 Christian leaders during the first week of March. These workshops will address issues of sexual orientation and homophobia and transphobia in view of religious dogma."
Rev. Makokha noted: "Pray for OSK as we take peace, justice and reconciliation with the love of God to the coastal community."
OTHER SHEEP BLOG: A blog on "faith and LGBT concerns" worldwide
Showing posts with label Nairobi Kenya Bible Teacher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nairobi Kenya Bible Teacher. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Other Sheep Kenya Conducts Nakuru PFLAG Seminar - 32 Participants Attend
by Rev. Steve Parelli, Bronx, NY.
Rev. John Makkha, Other Sheep Kenya Coordinator, in a February 21, 2010, email, reports: "Other Sheep Kenya held a seminar for parents, friends of lesbian and gay (PFLAG) persons in Nakuru, Kenya, on February 19, 2010. A total number of 32 participants attended the one day workshop. The seminar theme was 'Sexuality and homophobia/transphobia in view of religious dogma.'
"The participants were drawn from Muslim, Seventh Day Adventist, Supkem, United Methodist Church, Friends church, Reconciling Ministries Network, Family Hope, Human Rights Network, Mid Rift Human rights Network, God's Family Church, Africa Independent Pentecostal church, Catholic church, Integrity, Changing Attitude, Kinship International, Home Vision Kenya, St. Joseph Youth Center, Brahma Kumaris, Kenya Youth Alliance, Teachers, Thairira widows, and Anglican church."
Speakers at the Other Sheep Kenya Nakuru PFLAG Seminar included: Rev. Michael Kimindu, Rev. John Makokha, Ann Baraza, Pastor Jackson and Peter Wanyam.
The seminar participants made seven observations.
For a full report of what the speakers said, and for the seven observations of the seminar participants, go to the Other Sheep Report webpage.
In 2007, Jose Ortiz and Steve Parelli introduced the idea of PFLAG to the LGBT community in Nairobi, Kenya, using the Blue Book as a suggested course book for initial PFLAG meetings. Since then, the PFLAG idea of reaching family and friends with positive materials has been an ongoing thrust of Other Sheep Kenya.
Other Sheep acknowledges Rev. John Makokha with much gratitude in his accomplishment of this Other Sheep Kenya PFLAG seminar.
Other Sheep especially thanks UHAI-EASHRI for their support. Their generous grant, awarded to Other Sheep Kenya, made possible this seminar.
Rev. John Makkha, Other Sheep Kenya Coordinator, in a February 21, 2010, email, reports: "Other Sheep Kenya held a seminar for parents, friends of lesbian and gay (PFLAG) persons in Nakuru, Kenya, on February 19, 2010. A total number of 32 participants attended the one day workshop. The seminar theme was 'Sexuality and homophobia/transphobia in view of religious dogma.'
"The participants were drawn from Muslim, Seventh Day Adventist, Supkem, United Methodist Church, Friends church, Reconciling Ministries Network, Family Hope, Human Rights Network, Mid Rift Human rights Network, God's Family Church, Africa Independent Pentecostal church, Catholic church, Integrity, Changing Attitude, Kinship International, Home Vision Kenya, St. Joseph Youth Center, Brahma Kumaris, Kenya Youth Alliance, Teachers, Thairira widows, and Anglican church."
Speakers at the Other Sheep Kenya Nakuru PFLAG Seminar included: Rev. Michael Kimindu, Rev. John Makokha, Ann Baraza, Pastor Jackson and Peter Wanyam.
The seminar participants made seven observations.
For a full report of what the speakers said, and for the seven observations of the seminar participants, go to the Other Sheep Report webpage.
In 2007, Jose Ortiz and Steve Parelli introduced the idea of PFLAG to the LGBT community in Nairobi, Kenya, using the Blue Book as a suggested course book for initial PFLAG meetings. Since then, the PFLAG idea of reaching family and friends with positive materials has been an ongoing thrust of Other Sheep Kenya.
Other Sheep acknowledges Rev. John Makokha with much gratitude in his accomplishment of this Other Sheep Kenya PFLAG seminar.
Other Sheep especially thanks UHAI-EASHRI for their support. Their generous grant, awarded to Other Sheep Kenya, made possible this seminar.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Correspondance with a Nairobi evangelical Bible teacher on issues that spring from the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009
A letter in which it is shown that evangelicals in America and Africa, denying basic human rights, are courting the state in order to make laws and amend constitutions in order to limit same-sex relationships according to their evangelical take on the Bible.
Dear Steve of Other Sheep:
I am a vocal anti-homosexual activist. I am a Bible teacher from Nairobi, Kenya. I am able to show you from scripture why I believe you are wrong, and everyone like you. I can show you, from the Bible, what is the natural divine intention that God purposed in human sexuality. I do not support the execution of homosexuals anywhere in the world (a reference to the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality bill of 2009). But I do believe this problem has a spiritual solution.
It was great knowing you, but I am sorry that our friendship cannot continue. I have removed you as a friend on Facebook. I will pray for your salvation. Our relationship must be an impersonal relationship. Please unsubscribe me from the Other Sheep eNews.
Pastor and Bible Teacher [name withheld], Nairobi, Kenya
Email dated Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dear Pastor of Nairobi:
I believe we must build a society where my understanding of the Bible and your understanding of the Bible does not mean that I infringe upon your civil liberties, and that you infringe upon mine. Regarding the question of policing same-sex relationships (as in the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and as in the amending of state constitutions in America), it is my opinion that evangelicals have become the new inquisition, the new archbishop that all must follow, the new state regime where the laws of the evangelical Bible are to be written into state constitutions. This is obviously true in America where the civil liberties of sexual minorities have been limited by amending state constitutions, won, in large part, by the efforts of evangelicals. The same can be demonstrated now in Uganda where evangelicals play a significant role in society and where the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 has been recently introduced.
The basic human right to believe according to the dictates of one's conscience without harassment from any religious or secular body, state or church, is being challenged today in America and Africa by the intersecting of the Bible, homosexuality, and society. In civil society, the citizen chooses freely to submit, or not submit, to the evangelical understanding of the Bible, or whatever the sectarian view. In a free society, the state does not impose upon its citizens an evangelical understanding of “the natural divine intention” of God.
Marriage is a civil institution. Not a religious institution. My civil right to a same-sex marriage does not infringe upon anyone’s civil right to an opposite-sex marriage. Why do evangelicals need to limit my civil rights in order for them to freely enjoy their civil rights? Why do evangelicals ask the state to restrict my options in marriage to that which is unnatural (that is, it is unnatural for me to marry the opposite-sex), while heterosexual evangelicals enjoy the state’s protection in marriage to what is natural for them? Should I not, naturally, be given the same right to marry according to my nature, too?
No homosexual, in order to enjoy the rights and privileges of marriage, should have to marry the opposite sex. That would be contrary to his or her nature and would serve only to disrupt the order of society where unnatural unions (homosexuals with heterosexuals) result in broken lives due to unfilled emotional and physical needs. How unnatural, therefore, for a homosexual to be joined in marriage with a heterosexual. How unnatural for intellectual society to reject a homosexual who would naturally refuse to marry a heterosexual.
The Reformation taught us this: The state must forever be the state. And the church must forever be the church. The one should not rule the other, directly or indirectly. What evangelicals may call unnatural in context of its own code of morality, the state may rightly call natural in terms of its moral responsibility to uphold the civil liberties of all, i.e., marriage between two consenting adults for all, not for some. The state and the church must be free to function without bowing to the other. Same-sex marriage is a civil question. Consenting same-sex adults, therefore, are not “worse than beasts” as Nigerian evangelical Yusufu Turaki gives credence to in his article on “Homosexuality” (page 1355, Africa Bible Commentary). Same-sex couples do naturally what opposite-sex couples do naturally: they make a life together. Both should be granted marriage and protection from the state.
At the very core of my being I am same-sex oriented, just like most evangelicals are opposite-sex oriented. I believe God smiles upon the joining together of two individuals who complete and complement one another. For a heterosexual evangelical to marry the opposite sex completes and complements him or her. For me to be married to my same-sex husband (August 25, 2008) completes and complements me. Ironically, in terms of sexual orientation, it is not opposites that attract, but sameness: heterosexuals attract heterosexuals and homosexuals attract homosexuals.
Evangelicals need to stop and back off and be the church again, allowing the state to be the state, both in Africa and in America. The evangelical church will actually win laurels from society, and rightly so, when they realize that same-sex marriage is a civil question and not a religious question and that LGBT people are a valid minority that need the same rights and protection under the law like any two heterosexual adults who consent to marriage.
Sincerely,
Rev. Steve Parelli
Other Sheep Executive Director
Metropolitan Community Church clergy
October 27, 2009. Bronx, NY
Dear Steve of Other Sheep:
I am a vocal anti-homosexual activist. I am a Bible teacher from Nairobi, Kenya. I am able to show you from scripture why I believe you are wrong, and everyone like you. I can show you, from the Bible, what is the natural divine intention that God purposed in human sexuality. I do not support the execution of homosexuals anywhere in the world (a reference to the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality bill of 2009). But I do believe this problem has a spiritual solution.
It was great knowing you, but I am sorry that our friendship cannot continue. I have removed you as a friend on Facebook. I will pray for your salvation. Our relationship must be an impersonal relationship. Please unsubscribe me from the Other Sheep eNews.
Pastor and Bible Teacher [name withheld], Nairobi, Kenya
Email dated Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dear Pastor of Nairobi:
I believe we must build a society where my understanding of the Bible and your understanding of the Bible does not mean that I infringe upon your civil liberties, and that you infringe upon mine. Regarding the question of policing same-sex relationships (as in the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and as in the amending of state constitutions in America), it is my opinion that evangelicals have become the new inquisition, the new archbishop that all must follow, the new state regime where the laws of the evangelical Bible are to be written into state constitutions. This is obviously true in America where the civil liberties of sexual minorities have been limited by amending state constitutions, won, in large part, by the efforts of evangelicals. The same can be demonstrated now in Uganda where evangelicals play a significant role in society and where the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 has been recently introduced.
The basic human right to believe according to the dictates of one's conscience without harassment from any religious or secular body, state or church, is being challenged today in America and Africa by the intersecting of the Bible, homosexuality, and society. In civil society, the citizen chooses freely to submit, or not submit, to the evangelical understanding of the Bible, or whatever the sectarian view. In a free society, the state does not impose upon its citizens an evangelical understanding of “the natural divine intention” of God.
Marriage is a civil institution. Not a religious institution. My civil right to a same-sex marriage does not infringe upon anyone’s civil right to an opposite-sex marriage. Why do evangelicals need to limit my civil rights in order for them to freely enjoy their civil rights? Why do evangelicals ask the state to restrict my options in marriage to that which is unnatural (that is, it is unnatural for me to marry the opposite-sex), while heterosexual evangelicals enjoy the state’s protection in marriage to what is natural for them? Should I not, naturally, be given the same right to marry according to my nature, too?
No homosexual, in order to enjoy the rights and privileges of marriage, should have to marry the opposite sex. That would be contrary to his or her nature and would serve only to disrupt the order of society where unnatural unions (homosexuals with heterosexuals) result in broken lives due to unfilled emotional and physical needs. How unnatural, therefore, for a homosexual to be joined in marriage with a heterosexual. How unnatural for intellectual society to reject a homosexual who would naturally refuse to marry a heterosexual.
The Reformation taught us this: The state must forever be the state. And the church must forever be the church. The one should not rule the other, directly or indirectly. What evangelicals may call unnatural in context of its own code of morality, the state may rightly call natural in terms of its moral responsibility to uphold the civil liberties of all, i.e., marriage between two consenting adults for all, not for some. The state and the church must be free to function without bowing to the other. Same-sex marriage is a civil question. Consenting same-sex adults, therefore, are not “worse than beasts” as Nigerian evangelical Yusufu Turaki gives credence to in his article on “Homosexuality” (page 1355, Africa Bible Commentary). Same-sex couples do naturally what opposite-sex couples do naturally: they make a life together. Both should be granted marriage and protection from the state.
At the very core of my being I am same-sex oriented, just like most evangelicals are opposite-sex oriented. I believe God smiles upon the joining together of two individuals who complete and complement one another. For a heterosexual evangelical to marry the opposite sex completes and complements him or her. For me to be married to my same-sex husband (August 25, 2008) completes and complements me. Ironically, in terms of sexual orientation, it is not opposites that attract, but sameness: heterosexuals attract heterosexuals and homosexuals attract homosexuals.
Evangelicals need to stop and back off and be the church again, allowing the state to be the state, both in Africa and in America. The evangelical church will actually win laurels from society, and rightly so, when they realize that same-sex marriage is a civil question and not a religious question and that LGBT people are a valid minority that need the same rights and protection under the law like any two heterosexual adults who consent to marriage.
Sincerely,
Rev. Steve Parelli
Other Sheep Executive Director
Metropolitan Community Church clergy
October 27, 2009. Bronx, NY
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