Tutu speaks out
Desmond Tutu, the acclaimed anti-apartheid leader and former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, is dealing with a relapse of the prostate cancer originally diagnosed in 1996 and in remission for some time. But he's not as interested in talking about his health as he is about what he feels is a more important concern.
The Times of London reports on a recent conversation with the former archbishop:
“What is sad to me is that we are investing so much time and energy in the subject of homosexuality at a time when the world is groaning from poverty, disease and corruption. God must be weeping.”Just as he opposed discrimination against people because of the colour of their skin or their gender, he said he opposes discrimination against gays.
“I cannot have fought about the injustice of apartheid and keep quiet about the injustice of being being penalised for something about which they can do nothing, their sexual orientation,” he said.
“I cannot have fought about the injustice of apartheid and keep quiet about the injustice of being being penalised for something about which they can do nothing, their sexual orientation,” he said.
The Archbishop, who was today at a conference at Hull university speaking about emancipation and reconciliation, told The Times there were similarities between the conflict over gays and the issue of slavery in the past and present.
“The parallels are that a certain group of people is dealt with differently from the generality; they are dealt with unjustly.”
The Anglican Church had for generations taken pride in “comprehensiveness” as one of its defining features. “Comprehensiveness means you hold a point of view and you hold it in integrity, even when someone else holds a totally different point of view.”
He said one of the happiest times of his life was when, as a young man, he served as a curate in St Mary’s, Bletchingley in 1966. He is thought to have been one of the first black curates in the Church of England.
“We used to be able to say in the Anglican Church that, ‘I differ from you but we belong in the same family.’ What is different now is that there are people who say, ‘I differ from you and therefore we cannot subsist in the same communion.”
A related summary was picked up by United Press International.
Archbishop Tutu, our "Man For All Seasons". May God bless him and heal him, as he continues his work toward establishing the Kingdom of God.
June Butler
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May 22, 2007 2:31 PM