From Ekklesia:
In Belize, criminalisation of gay sex, introduced under British colonial rule, is being challenged in the courts. Leading activist Caleb Orozco of the United Belize Advocacy Movement (UniBAM) has been verbally attacked and had a bottle smashed in his face for battling a law under which “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” can lead to ten years’ imprisonment.
His critics include Pastor Scott Stirm of the anti-LGBT group Belize Action. According to a flyer from this group, UniBAM is “bringing foreign attorneys from foreign homosexual organisations with huge foreign funding to impose their foreign values” – though Stirm is himself from Texas in the USA. They have tried to make out that legalisation will put children at risk.However, mainstream churches too have joined the campaign to resist decriminalisation, including Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders.
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I would submit that Belize has a number of problems with carnal intercourse that is not “against the order of nature.”
According to Dr Marvin Manzanero of the Belize Ministry of Health, “the average [age] of first sexual experience is generally about 12 or 13.”
The Ministry is undertaking a campaign of TV commercials aimed at young people, linking a program to decrease HIV infections with encouragement to delay sexual activity. (cf. http://www.plustvbelize.com/news/health-partners-inform-teenagers-on-sexual-health/)
In addition, 25% of neonatal deaths in the first 28 days of life occur to children of mothers under the age of 20, as are 16% of all abortions in the country.
It would seem that Belize political and religious leaders could do a lot more to address these kinds of issues, rather than persecuting LGBT persons.
Does Belize threaten heterosexuals with legal prosecution and imprisonment if they engage in acts of intimacy in which it is physically impossible to make a baby? If not, why does that not qualify as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”?
Will the Christians of Belize heed the prime directive of the one they claim to follow as Lord, enunciated in Luke 6:31: “Treat others the same way you want to be treated”?