wfn.org | Major Zimbabwean Christian Group Joins Row over Homosexuality

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Debate 
11-May-1998 
98159 
 
    Major Zimbabwean Christian Group Joins Row 
    over Homosexuality Debate 
 
    by Ecumenical News International 
 
HARARE-The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), one of the biggest 
Christian groups in the southern African country, has condemned the World 
Council of Churches (WCC), claiming that it will use its next Assembly - to 
be held in Zimbabwe - as a platform to promote homosexuality. 
 
    The WCC, which has 332 member churches - Protestant, Orthodox and 
Anglican - will hold its Eighth Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, 
from Dec. 3 through 14 this year.  Homosexuality is not among the subjects 
for discussion on the Assembly's main agenda, but news that at least one 
homosexual group - Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) - will attend the 
Assembly has provoked consternation in church and government circles in 
Zimbabwe, where homosexuality is illegal. 
 
    "All the member churches, bodies and individuals in the Evangelical 
Fellowship of Zimbabwe are alarmed at the efforts of the WCC, which should 
be a body upholding biblical standards, to negate true Christian faith by 
making the forthcoming WCC conference a forum for 
homosexuals and lesbians,"  EFZ president Andrew Wutawunashe said in a 
recent statement. 
 
    The EFZ is an umbrella organization with a membership of more than 2.5 
million Zimbabwean Christians.  The membership includes 150 denominations, 
parachurches and interdenominational organizations such as the Scripture 
Union of Zimbabwe and the Student Christian Union. The EFZ is not a member 
of the WCC. 
 
    "We roundly condemn such a blatant perversion of the Christian faith 
and we cry `shame' that it should be sanctioned by a body claiming to 
represent Christians," the EFZ  statement said. 
 
    Wutawunashe said EFZ was appealing to the Zimbabwe Council of Churches 
- the local organizers of  the Assembly - to stick to its "previously 
scriptural stand on the issue and not be swayed by international pressure 
so that Christians may not be forced into a boycott of such an important 
convention." 
 
    The nation's president, Robert Mugabe, who has frequently condemned 
homosexuality as non-African and non-Christian, also criticized the WCC 
last month, claiming it intended to have a debate about sexuality at its 
Assembly. 
 
    Asked in Geneva for a reaction to the EFZ criticisms, a spokesperson 
for the WCC declined to comment, and referred ENI to previous statements 
about the Assembly, which point out that "the topic of human sexuality and 
sexual orientation ... will not come on to our business agenda in Harare." 
 
    However, there will be opportunity at the Assembly's "Padare" (a 
Zimbabwean word for meeting place) for discussion of issues not on the 
official agenda of the Assembly, and GALZ has been granted space by the WCC 
at the Padare. 
 
    The  Zimbabwean Council of Churches has declined to comment on whether 
there should be discussion of homosexuality on the official Assembly agenda 
or at the Padare. "We are simply hosting [the Assembly]. The program of the 
Assembly is the responsibility of the WCC," ZCC's general secretary, Densen 
Mafinyani, told ENI. 
 
    He said that the ZCC still stood by the position it had taken in 1995, 
when the issue became a matter of public debate because of Mugabe's 
condemnations. According to a ZCC statement issued at that time, "the ZCC 
feels that the practice is totally new and out of step with Zimbabwean 
traditions and culture. We feel that Zimbabweans should not be coerced into 
a practice which is totally alien to them." 
 
    "The same position remains," Mafinyani told ENI. 
 
    Mugabe's campaign against homosexuality began in 1995 following the 
news that GALZ  planned to set up a stall at the Zimbabwe International 
Book Fair.  Subsequently GALZ was denied a permit for the book fair.  In 
1996, GALZ won a court order allowing it to have a stall at the event. 
However, GALZ later withdrew from the fair after a hostile mob prevented 
GALZ members from setting up their exhibit. 

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