Clergy say no compromise for gays: Malawi govt should not promote homosexual behaviour

Conservative clerics in Malawi are asking government not to compromise its anti-gay stand, saying they should not be lured by international support to give equal rights to gays under the law.

Malawi government requested $388 888 (about K221 million) from Global Fund for HIV and Aids interventions targeting 40 000 men who have sex with fellow men. Lesbians – women who have sex with fellow women – have been excluded in the package.

Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale has said homosexuals will not be discriminated against when accessing healthcare despite the existing anti-gay law.

And Minister of Health Peter Kumpalume urged gay people to be honest with healthcare workers, particularly when discussing treatment for HIV.

Kumpalume assured that health workers will live up to their ethics of “keeping confidentiality of their patients.”

But Rev. Dr Zac Kawalala of Word Alive Church is urging government not to entertain anything to do with homosexuality

“We are imploring government to maintain its stand on homosexuality – that it is criminal,” said Kawalala.

He said homosexuality is “divine behaviour in the society;” and that “it is a sin according to the scriptures.”

Kawalala expressed concern with the funding for homosexual programs.

“A big concern on our part is financing a section of our society involved in divine behaviour,” said Kawalala.

Malawi government asked for the money targeting about 40 000 homosexual men with testing, counselling, treatment, condoms and prevention of risky behaviour programmes.

Attorney General Kaphale said all people whether they are sexual orientation as gays or otherwise are at complete liberty to get full treatment, as they also pay tax just like any other Malawian.

The clerics say they are concerned government stand could sway young people to accept homosexuality as a norm “believing this is a way of life.”

Recently during the 2015 Blantyre Keswick Convention, Bishop Geoffrey Matoga of Faith of God discussed the issue of homosexuality, and clergy asked government not to compromise our cultural, biblical and moral values.

Bishop Edward Mikwamba said there are some people who are championing gay issues “because of the slumbering Malawi church.”

He said the Bible clearly states from the onset on the creation of man and woman that they multiply and bear children because God knew that men on their own and women on their own could not bear children; hence, the creation of a man and a woman.

Mikwamba said equality for gays meant opening “the floodgates of evil synonymous with the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Western countries and local civil society organisations (CSOs) have been campaigning that Malawi should legalise homosexuality.