The Joy
July 3, 2011
http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201107/68552.asp
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The outgoing Acting Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Anna Bossman has taken a swipe at some members of the clergy whom she said have been inciting hatred against homosexuals in the country.
Speaking on the Personality Profile edition of Multi TV's current affairs program pm: EXPRESS, Ms. Bossman asked society, particularly members of the clergy not to be hypocritical on issues concerning homosexuals.
Some pastors have in recent times condemned the increasing reports homosexual activities in the country with a Methodist Bishop in the Upper West region recently alluding to the fact that owing to the increasing number of gay men in the country, they are now having to compete with babies for diapers.
But Ms. Bossman thinks the hate message by the men of God is out of tune with the religion they profess.
"I don't know whether I can claim to be a very devout Christian... I can't claim that I am someone who reads the Bible all the time but I know one thing, if you are a Christian it means that you're following Jesus Christ and I know from the things I have read that when it came to the matter of an adulteress, there was a story right in the Bible about an adulteress when people were going to stone her because she was an adulteress and they asked Jesus about it what did he say? 'He who is without sin let him be the first to cast the stone.' That's what he said, why, because the whole religion, Christianity is about compassion, it's not about going and standing and inciting hate."
"That is what I understand. I am not a priest but in my layman understanding, I know that the least I can do is to show compassion to others. That's the least I can do and I will never go and stand anywhere and incite hate against anybody, never" she stated.
Ms Bossman accused the priests of closing their eyes to the numerous cases of child sexual abuse even though they they know most of the perpetrators and failing to condemn the practice and rather focus on bashing homosexuals.
"Why are we not making noise about these people who are preying on vulnerable and defenceless children? If you talk to me about these things, yes I'll have something to say about these things. Why are we not talking about parents, especially men who are in very high positions and who are regarded as a pillar of society. Why are we not talking about them who rape their daughters and we know them. You are hiding your face behind things that are really atrocious and then you're going to worry about persons who consensually, they're not doing anything to anybody, they're doing to themselves – it's not my problem."
"These other things that I'm talking to you about, rape of children, the violence against women, defenceless women, these are things that we should really be talking about and we should try to do something about it and so I take great exception to persons and even priests and pastors who can come and stand and incite hate against persons who are different but at the same time they are protecting persons who are doing unspeakable things to children" she said.
According to Ms. Bossman, "the issue is really is not the marriage, I don't think that's really the issue. But the real issue is the way and manner we treat others because they are different from us. That's the real issue so I don't think it should be brought down to same sex marriage. It's how are we treating people differently. Are we treating people humanely and with compassion and are we recognising that people might be completely different from us but do have the same rights of respect and do have fundamental human rights, that the real issue."
She urged society not to be hypocritical on the issue since "there are many things that we cannot explain and when we cannot explain them then our reaction is either because of fear maybe or simply javascript:openNewWindow('pix.asp',%20'PhotoGallery','900','800');because of whatever reason we start doing things we shouldn't be doing. What we have to accept is that there are people who obviously are not like us or they do view love but they find that they are attracted to the same sex."
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