Quotes taken from the Guardian UK article “Love in the Dock”, describing the extent of anti-gay rage amongst the clergy in African Countries in the aftermath of the sentencing of the Malawi Gay couple to 14 years of hard labor:-

Homosexuals are "inhuman, insane, satanic and not fit to live" Anglican bishop of Uyo, Nigeria, the Right Rev Isaac Orama

"Homosexuality "is against God's creation and is an evil act, since gays are possessed with demons." Pastor Mario Manyozo of the Word of Life Tabernacle Church in Malawi

One of the greatest sins in the bible of the Jewish is worshiping foreign gods and idols, yet often we find that God was merciful and forgiving sending judges, prophets, and kings to deliver the nation of Israel. God gave them to oppression and suffering when they chose other gods, not giving glory and honor to Jehovah for proving them all their needs. We are often ungrateful in word and deed. Yet, we reach a point of no return in the bible when the weak and outcasts is persecuted and taken advantage of by the majority, because it deprives us of our prayers before God.

(Isa 59:2 NKJV) But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
(Isa 59:3 NKJV) For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
(Isa 59:4 NKJV) No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

We often stop at Isa 59:2 and say that sin stops us from receiving answered prayers, but often the question is not asked of which particular sin. However, the bible in Isa 59:3,4, further clarifies that it was not just any other sin, but that our hands are filled with blood, the blood of the innocent. We are talking here of religious God fearing people, yet they were guilty of injustice, not standing up for truth and justice when the weak is persecuted and taken advantage of but instead joining the foray in planning for the evil to be done against them and using our tongue to speak lies and false witness against the defenseless.

We see the same blood curling injustice in Africa where well meaning Christians are speaking lies and creating a mob mentality to hunt down and kill gays and put them into prisons, using fear, misquoting the bible, with the help of the Christian Right in America. Instead of calling for justice for the gay population, we have become the persecutor, and our hands filled with the blood of the gay poor lambs slaughtered by us. Our tongue, filled with false witness against gays.

Yet, our crimes of humanity against gays to God almighty is far more serious that any idol worship which itself is of capital punishment as it violates the first two commandments of the Ten commandments of loving God. Here God is not just any other god we create but the God of Israel. Yet, this can be forgiven and our prayers heard but not the grave violations against the innocent. Why? It is their blood that cries out to God. With our hands clasped in prayer, is also dripping with blood of the innocent, as if offered to God. If God answered our prayers, He would be condoning our actions. With our lips of worship and praise towards God, with sincere petitions, but by the same voice a lying tongue speaking falsehood against the innocent causing them to suffer a terrible fate. If God hears our prayers, He could not but also hear the desperate cries and sufferings of the gay community caused by our iniquities.

In Singapore, like in all other nations, we do need God especially in a time of economic uncertainties and changes. Yet, our needs are far less pressing in comparison to countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, many of them South African Christian countries who are in deep poverty, famine, wars, conflicts, and diseases. The sufferings of the Christian peoples in Southern Africa are immense. For example, Malawi (population of 15 million), who recently decided to sent gays to long prison terms, have a nominal GDP of USD 328/ capita. Compare this with Singapore, who has a nominal GDP of USD 37,293, or more than 100 times richer.

African Countries have a desperate need for God’s grace and mercy, sadly, we may be crossing the line of no return soon due to the systematic persecution of gays, even sending them to death and long prison terms. They have every right to do so because it is their country and they are the majority, yet God may choose not to listen to the desperate cries of the nations. This will be a great tragedy. We hear with sadness of the massive anti-gay tide consuming Africa with Christian fundamentalist motivations, vary of the immense harm being caused in the short term, and also sealing the fates of the nations to poverty. Whatever we sow, we will reap cries the evangelical Pastor, when talking about money not realizing that soon the harm that is sowed will result in a deep silence from God leaving the African Christians to settle their own affairs by themselves.

Millions have come to Christ as a result of the ministries of Reinhard Bonnke and others, yet the lot of the African nations changes not. The same religious zeal shown against gays, will go on to fuel a sectarian war against the Muslim North, thus entering into a spiral of deep despair. A deep and profound tragedy is happening in our midst in Africa where religious fundamentalism has hijacked the nations instead of concentrating on justice, equality, and reliving poverty and diseases. It is pertinent that such Christian Fundamentalism be resisted in Singapore as to not to cross the line ordained by God to the slippery slope of the deep dark African experience of poverty, and sufferings.