LGBTQI+ : Let’s disassociate sin from sinners – Catholic Bishop

A philosophy lecturer at St Paul’s Catholic Major Seminary in Accra, Rev Fr Stephen Stanislaus Ackah has urged Ghanaians to separate sin from sinners in respect to the LGBTQI+ debate which is currently going on in the country.

According to him, although the Bible is against homosexuality, God still loves gays, hence the need to dissociate sin from sinners.

Four Churches and four Christian organizations presented a memorandum to Parliament in support of the bill to criminalize Lesbians Gays Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQI+) in the country.

The churches were the Apostolic Church Ghana, Church of Pentecost, Methodist Church Ghana and Christ Apostolic Church Ghana.

The Christian organizations were Christian Council Ghana, Ghana Congress Evangelism, Women Ministry National Clergy Association, and the National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches.

The men of God, including Apostle Eric Nyamekye, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Reverend Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, President of the Apostolic Church Ghana, Apostle Dr Aaron Ami-Narh arrived at the forecourt of Parliament for the presentation.

Presenting six memoranda with 15,000 signatories from pastors, youth workers of the church, Children Ministry, pastors wives, Apostle Eric Nyamekye said the Church was fully in support of the bill before Parliament.

He said the issue at hand was not a matter of rights, but morality.

The Catholic Bishops of Ghana in a statement also made known their support of the draft Bill presented to parliament to make homosexual practices criminal in Ghana.

Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie, with Host, Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, Rev Fr Stephen Stanislaus Ackah said although the Catholic Church does not condone homosexuality, they do not hate those who commit it.

Apart from using Bible, he noted that the European Court of Rights indicates that homosexuality is not part of Human rights.

“Our culture does not accept homosexuality but what the Bishops are saying is that let us separate the sin from the sinners. The thing is a sin, but the person doing it is still a human being and a child of God and so we cannot fight against him. It happens in this country; someone goes to steal and even though he still has rights, people exact instant justice. This is what we are talking about,” he said.

He expressed hope that even if a law will be made against LGBTQI+, it should be such that it punishes the sin but protects the rights of perpetrators.