Ghanaian bishop Dag Heward-Mills has caused quite the stir in South Africa after a sermon in which he tore into homos*xuality, claiming it is unnatural.
Heward-Mills, often held up, like Mensa Otabil, as a sort of ‘educated’ Ghanaian preacher who is above the gutter Christianity practiced by other preachers of the uncvilised variety, simply proved himself just as inept, if not more so, as those he’s supposedly superior to.
His followers claim he is a doctor, thus a sort of enlightened fella – but we see here that religion erodes the brain just as equally in the educated as in the uneducated.
Heward-Mills, in the explosive sermon, repeated the oft used but thoroughly debunked argument that homos*xuality is not natural.
“That’s nature. Dogs, cats, leopards. Which animal has one partner? It’s just like homosexuality, you don’t have male and male. You don’t find two male dogs, two male lions, two male impala’s, two male lizards. You don’t find that in nature. That is unnatural. There is nothing like that in nature.” Heward-Mills reportedly said, in a sermon given at the Grace Bible Church in Soweto, South Africa.
Education is about more than having degrees, it’s also about learning everything you can about the world outside your comfort zone, and trying to be as factual as possible in every utterance and argument you make.
How can anyone call Heward-Mills educated when he just made such a demonstrably false claim? Homos*xuality has been observed so often in nature (read all about that here), it’s difficult to call yourself educated and not know this simple fact. Anyone whose brain has not been eroded by blind adherence to a religion knows this, and the anti-gay crowd still blinded by dogma have long looked for different arguments because they know this one is false.
This tendency of highly ‘respected’ men of God in Ghana disgracing themselves with clearly demonstrable, ignorant pronouncements, is becoming quite alarming. One would think some of them would know better but it’s clearly not the case (refer to a similar incident with Mensa Otabil here).
Best case scenario here is that Dag Heward-Mills is ignorant, which for a man of his ‘stature’ is difficult to fathom but clearly plausible, seeing as how Ghanaians are not only reluctant to learn any new information that contradicts their pre existing beliefs, but that we are also notoriously anti-science. Worst case scenario is that he knows but is simply saying what he knows will bring the cash flowing from his gullible flock.
A well known gay South African choreographer and radio personality, Somizi Mhlongo, was in the congregation and reportedly stormed out of the sermon. He later posted a video on Instagram angrily refuting the sermon.
“This is who I am. I am a gay man. Get it into your skull. My soul is all right with my God.” he said in the video.
“I’m disappointed at all the gay men and women who sat there and listened to him offending us and didn’t do anything about it. I walked out and visibly so,” he added.
I don’t know why any gay person would remain religious when other ‘sinners’ constantly try and claim that the gay ones are somehow worse than they are. Atheists interprets the world in the light of science and science tells us being gay is natural. Freedom and more happiness lies our way, rather than continuous moral judgements from people who aren’t any better than you but simply put on their holier-than-thou cloaks so they can feel superior – like Dag Heward-Mills.