As the Episcopal Church begins to shed parishes like a dried-up
Christmas tree sheds needles, it must have been comforting to the
denomination to receive a sizeable Christmas present from the
New York Times.
What could more clearly say “Merry Christmas” to the denizens of
815 Second Avenue, the church’s national center, than the total
trashing of the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Peter
J. Akinola, on the front page of newspaper’s Christmas Day
edition?
With the headline “At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay
Nigerian,” the Times
story spins the crisis in the Anglican Communion as a simple
pro-gay/anti-gay issue. But it wasn’t just differing views of
homosexuality that led nine parishes in the Episcopal Church’s
Diocese of Virginia to affiliate with the Province of Nigeria. And
it wasn’t just an “anti-gay bishop” that brought about the
Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).
The root cause the Times ignores is a theological one
concerning differences over many tenets of the faith: the nature of
sin; the authority of Scripture; whether Jesus is the only way to
God; whether God is a Father, or as the new Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church would have us believe, a Mother. The
Times portrayal is guaranteed to make the Nigerian church
and American traditionalists appear ignorant and hateful.
That’s why the paper seems alarmed by the size of Akinola’s
flock — there are more than 17 million members of the Anglican
Church of Nigeria. (Think of the potential number of homophobes
being indoctrinated!) And whereas the Times’ pet Episcopal
Church is diminishing more with each passing year, the Nigerian
province continues to grow in spite of persecution. In 1998, there
were 61 dioceses, and today there are 78 — many of the new ones
formed in the Muslim-dominated northern and middle “belt” areas of
the country.
THE TIMES REINFORCES ITS “anti-gay Nigerian” theme with an
introductory story about the archbishop’s “first and only time” to
knowingly shake a gay person’s hand. Akinola recounts how while in
mid-handshake with a man in New York, the man introduced him to his
“partner of many years” while shaking his head in what the reporter
describes as “wonder and horror.” “I said, ‘Oh!’” he told the
Times. “I jumped back.”
Akinola may have been shaking his head with dismay over a
province of the Anglican Communion where same-sex partners are not
just accepted but exalted. And perhaps the archbishop jumped back
because he is savvier to Episcopal Church operatives than for which
he was given credit. African bishops and clergy from Sudan and
Uganda, for example, had been introduced to the same gay man and
his partner while the Episcopal News Service conveniently happened
to be close by. They seized the moment on camera to exploit those
Africans — either for shaking hands or for not shaking hands.
Maybe Akinola did not want to join the ranks of those who had been
used by the Episcopal Church to provide credibility for itself in
the wider Communion.
The rest of the article continues in this vein. Akinola is
called “the most visible advocate for a literal interpretation of
Scripture,” which supposedly challenges the “traditional Anglican
approach of embracing diverse theological viewpoints” The
archbishop is further identified as “the 62-year-old son of an
illiterate widow.” The reference to his mother’s lack of education
— not uncommon among African women of the time or even today —
seems to suggest that only the ignorant and uneducated have this
perspective on the Bible.
Yet the reporters admit that Akinola’s views on sexual morality
fit the Nigerian mainstream. “Attitudes towards homosexuality,
women’s rights, and marriage are dictated largely by scripture and
enforced by deep social taboos,” the Times scolds. These
attitudes contrast sharply with those inculcated by some American
church activists, who make use of transgendered sock puppets to
promote “Queer Week” at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in
Massachusetts.
Maybe the Times should have interviewed the sock puppet
rather than EDS Professor Ian Douglas. Douglas says Akinola “sees
himself as the spokesperson for a new Anglicanism, and thus is a
direct challenge to the historic authority of the Archbishop of
Canterbury.” But Douglas’s concern for “historic authority” seems
disingenuous. He was present at General Convention 2003 during
debates over the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New
Hampshire. Those in favor of Robinson justified their challenge to
historic authority by invoking the Holy Spirit (in favor of
consecrating as bishop a man who had left his wife and children to
live in a homosexual relationship). Falsely portraying orthodox,
traditional faith as “new” Anglicanism is part of the spin.
IN A PARTING THRUST, the Times expounds upon proposed
Nigerian legislation that would make any public expression of
homosexuality a crime punishable by five years’ imprisonment. What
the story fails to mention is that homosexual activity has actually
been illegal in Nigeria, as in many African countries, for years.
According to Article 214 of the Nigerian Penal Code, sanctions
include up to 14 years imprisonment. But recently, homosexual
activism sponsored by organizations from outside of the country has
enflamed the already-heightened religious tensions. Islamists seek
to reform the country by imposing a legal code that calls for the
stoning of homosexuals. In response, Nigerian President
Obesanjo has proposed the aforementioned legislation, which would
prohibit homosexual activities sans stoning.
Akinola recognizes that there are concerns about the possible
violation of the human rights of individuals affected by the
proposal that need to be addressed in “both in the framing of the
law and its implementation.” He informed the CANA churches that
“while the honorable speaker of the House, a Muslim, wanted the
immediate and outright passage of the bill, the deputy speaker, an
Anglican, persuaded his colleagues to allow full public debate on
it.”
It’s difficult enough to keep your head as a Christian in
Nigeria. For the archbishop to decry legislation that limits “gay
rights” would be to expose the entire Christian community in
Nigeria to the wrath and violence of the Islamists. Moreover,
Akinola has made it quite clear that he believes it is in the best
interest of his country, and indeed, of those persons who are
living in a homosexual lifestyle, to not “follow the path of
license and immorality that we have witnessed in other parts of the
world.”
The Times may not be considered all the news that’s fit
to print in the Archbishop’s Palace in Lagos, but Akinola is well
aware of his critics’ charges. In a letter to the new CANA churches
in the U.S., Akinola wrote, “Sadly, I have heard that some are
suggesting that you are now affiliated with a church that seeks to
punish homosexual persons. That is a distortion of our true
position.”
“Every person, regardless of their religion or sexual
orientation, is made in the image of God, loved by God, and
deserving of the utmost respect,” Akinola says. CANA Bishop Martyn
Minns adds, “[Akinola] is not seeking to victimize or diminish
anyone. He is primarily an evangelist and a pastor whose desire is
to see all people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Akinola sees individual human beings who need
Christ’s healing in their lives to become the people they were
created to be. The New York Times sees an opportunity to
promote the gay rights agenda. Who is it who is really diminishing
people?
