In South Africa, October is Pride Month, an opportunity for like-minded actors to commemorate Africa’s first gay and lesbian Pride march, which took place in Johannesburg on October 13, 1990. And October 27th will be International Religious Freedom Day “to commemorate the signing (in the United States) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).”
Prior to the inauguration of the IRFA, the right to freedom of religion was already protected by the right to freedom of religion or belief (hereinafter known as the FoB) enshrined in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981).
Definition of ForRB
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981) is “one of the most detailed international instruments needed to advance the right to freedom of religion or belief, but it is probably the least utilized,” according to FoRB’s former UN Special Rapporteur, Ahmed Shahid. Article 1 of the Declaration defines the right to FoRB as follows:
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the freedom to have a religion or any belief of one’s choice and to express this religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching, individually or in community with others, and in public or private. No one shall be subjected to coercion that impairs his or her freedom to practice the religion or belief of one’s choice. The freedom to express one’s religion or beliefs may be subject to restrictions prescribed by law and necessary to protect public safety, order, health, morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
It’s a Biblical case for FoRB.
Some Christian individuals and groups, including the late evangelical pastor Joel Edwards, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and the World Council of Churches, have argued that FoB is based on the Bible.
FoRB including homosexuality
FoRB protects the right to be gay just as it protects the right to be a Christian.
FoRB is a human right that protects the freedom to believe and live according to a religion, and the freedom to hold and live according to non-religious or non-religious beliefs, including forms of homosexuality. In other words, FoRB rights protect the right to be gay as much as they protect the right to be a Christian (or anyone who professes and lives by any other religion).
From what they have written here and here, Nadine Badenhorst, former General Counsel and General Counsel for Freedom of Religion South Africa (FORSA), and Victor Madrigal-Borlos, former UN Independent Expert on Protection from Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, would agree that the FoRB protects the right to identify and practice homosexuality, or at least the right to identify and live as a homosexual with the FoRB. There is no tension in homosexuality.
The intersection of FoB, Christianity, and homosexuality in Africa
In the first place, whether Christians recognize and respect ForB as a right backed by the Bible depends on what we believe and how we act based on that belief. What matters is whether we see it as a right that protects homosexuals. What FoRB rights mean for homosexuals (the protections they are afforded) is important for several reasons, particularly in Africa.
First, the majority of Africans identify as Christians. Second, African Christians are “the most committed,” meaning they “pray more often, attend religious services more regularly, and consider religion more important in their lives than Christians in other parts of the world.”
In Africa, state regulations against homosexuality are becoming stronger.
Third, in Africa, “religious leaders are more trusted and less likely to be seen as corrupt than any other group of public leaders,” so what Christian leaders say from behind the pulpit, such as state regulation of homosexuality, may be given more weight. Fourth, in the not-too-distant past (and even today) several African heads of state professed to be Christians.
But despite all this, reports by the Institute for Security Studies and Amnesty International, among others, show that state restrictions on homosexuality (including violent persecution of Christians) are increasing in Africa.
According to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, almost half of the countries in the world that criminalize homosexuality are in Africa. The LGBT Equality Index includes the legal status of homosexuality as an indicator and provides a clear picture of the inequalities experienced by gay people in Africa compared to other parts of the world.
Can Kenyan theology professor Bernard Boyo’s observation that “most Christians” in Africa “haven’t really thought through” what it means to live in a pluralistic nation explain these trends and realities?
Doing to others what you would like them to do to you
We must not only refrain from supporting state restrictions on homosexuality, but actively oppose them.
Regardless of what practicing Christians like me believe about the biblical status and sinfulness of homosexuality, and how this belief affects church governance and membership (specifically, whether or not active homosexuals are part of church congregations), if we agree, we believe there is biblical support for FoRB because the Christian God allows for freedom of choice (regardless of the consequences) and we value the right to freely express religious beliefs. We must not only refrain from supporting state restrictions on homosexuality, but actively oppose them. Anything other than this is hypocritical.
This does not mean that Christians, both inside and outside the church, must agree with homosexuality, but it does mean that we must support the human right of others to hold, practice and celebrate their beliefs, in Africa and elsewhere, just as we have the right to hold, practice and celebrate our own. Based on the discussion above, this includes supporting the right of others to practice homosexuality and celebrate Pride Month as an expression of their beliefs.
An expanded version of this article can be accessed here.
Craig Bailey holds an MA in International Studies from Rhodes University and certificates in Thought Leadership, Public Leadership and Transformative Governance from the Thabo Mbeki Institute of African Leadership, the Open University and the University of the Free State respectively. He has had the opportunity to engage audiences about FoRB in several African countries. He is the founding director of Bailie Leadership Consultancy. He writes in a personal capacity.
