BY ANDANJE WAKHUNGU
IN MOMBASA.
A few Months ago Mombasa was allover in the news for the wrong reasons when several cases of sodomy sprouted up almost on a weekly basis and the purported culprits were Muslim religious teachers. The ugly incidences raised so many questions, as courts in Mombasa were jammed to maximum capacity when alleged suspects were presented before courts for sentencing. And as we were still contemplating what was happening, a similar case was reported in Nairobi when an Italian Catholic priest was for the second time arraigned in court for allegedly having sodomized several boys under his care.
Despite sending shivers down the spines of parents to young boys within the city, it also tainted the image of the Islam and Christian teachings that harshly teaches against the vice as both un religious and un natural.Many questions have hovered in many peoples minds as to why a right thinking individual in his/her normal senses should be sexually attracted to a person of the same sex and still why someone would decide to take advantage and sodomize a young child.
It triggered The Weekly Vision to send our senior writer Andanje Wakhungu to both Mombasa and Nairobi to commence on a path of establishing the truth behind homosexuality, the science behind it, what the politicians say about it and the perception of religion over the unnatural vice.For starters, homosexuality is the sexual behavior among people of the same gender and men homosexuals are called gays while the females are referred to as lesbians.
A few years back two male Kenyans leaving in the United Kingdom tied the knots and became a couple, and as pictures were splashed in our local dailies the reaction back home here in Kenya where the two hailed from was shocking as parents were lost for words and decided to disown them completely as they had brought shame to not only the society but a nation as a whole.
This happened after the Church of England stood up and stated that it was supporting same sex marriages and despite its announcement causing a lot of ripples all over the world the church stood its ground and said it was everybody’s right to marry whoever he/she wanted as long as they are happy.
In recent years homosexuality has been a complicated subject of study in the fields of science politics and religion and where as scientists have been trying to prove that it is not some kind of disease but rather natural , religious leaders have stood their ground, terming the practice as an immoral and ungodly act.
But with gays believing that the soul of the person is more important than the physical being, this belief then proves beyond reasonable doubt that indeed it is a disease, assuming that the physical body is not important: then what is the reason for them to deviate from natural tendencies and indulge in physical behaviors with the same sex? (Jafar Hassan, Islamic Insights).
The chairman of the Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council (KEMNAC) National Chairman Sheikh Juma Ngao says that both Christian and the Muslim communities are much affected with Mombasa Malindi and Lamu topping the list. Sheikh Ngao points out that the Sheikhs, Ustadhs, Shariff leaders, are top on the list in the Muslim community with Fathers and Reverend leading from the Christian side.
Biblically homosexuality dates back to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah where God had to send Lut to go and warn the inhabitants of the town that it was about to be destroyed if they did not change from their unnatural behaviors but they were so deep into the act that they defied his ordered forcing God to send brims of fire and stones of baked clay to destroy the city and only one man Lut survived both the bible and the Quran adheres to this.
Sheikh Ngao who is a theologian by profession having attained his degree in history/ religion from Kenyatta University notes that God prohibited homosexuality and its written in Deuteronomy, the Gospel and the Quran considers it as ungodly and even pigs and dogs among other animals do not do it.
Bishop Kizito Tamre who is the head of over 30 small churches country wide expresses his concerns the way the church elders have lost moral control and are being easily lured by Satan into sin. He argues that they should be the ones on the forefront in condemning the immoral acts but to the dismay of many their faith has been weakened by the desires of the world.
According to studies by various scientists on trying to establish whether or not homosexuality is natural and if homosexuals are born with such an inclination or if they develop this behavior during the course of their upbringing, the studies are mostly statistical and theoretical.
The studies are based on two parallel theories for the cause of homosexuality: the biological and psychosocial theories.
The biological theory proposes that genetic factors among them hormones and neural structures are the root causes of with the psychosocial theory linking the social environment as the main triggering factor though there are very little scholarly consensus regarding which sex differences are attributed to which theory.
In one Journal article (in the Archives of sexual behavior) it cites a phenomenon where some children develop childhood gender non conformity where they fail to kowtow to gender related issues. This is a situation where a girl is referred to as a “tomboy” for displaying more masculinity traits while the boy becomes “sissy” who prefers to play with dolls rather than playing outdoors and still exhibits more effeminate behavior.
In Australia, scientists have been trying to unravel the cause of sexual differences between homosexuality and heterosexuality in twins possessing identical genes. Conclusively the twins brought up in the same environment but with sexual differences later on in life still remain an area of great controversy in regard to the cause and effect of homosexuality (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).
Recently another survey of the twins carried out in Sweden gave out statistical results showing that the individual specific environment affects the sexual preference of the homos. (Archives of sexual behavior) if homosexuality is environmental, as statistically shown by the Sweden twins study, then it would assist scientists provide a solution to change the environmental factors that will see one change sexual orientation from a homosexual to heterosexual.
Despite scientists trying to establish which genes, hormones or neural structures are responsible for homosexuality, the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) has proven through a fact sheet that men who have sex with fellow men (MSM) are at much risk of being infected with HIV.
Studies (CDC fact sheet 2010) also reveal that since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 279,000 MSM have died from the scourge.
With gays believing that the soul of a person is more important than the physical being, it provides many answers that homosexuality is actually a disease.
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