Thinking Anglicans

Orombi fears for his life

New Vision reports that Gays want to kill me, says Orombi. The article is copied below in full.

Update There is a further article in New Vision which shows that Orombi is not alone in his views, see Canterbury should not tolerate gayism.

Gays want to kill me, says Orombi
Wednesday, 9th July, 2008
By Chris Ahimbisibwe

Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi yesterday said he fears for his life because of the campaign he has waged against homosexuals.

“Nowadays, I don’t wear my collar when I am in countries which have supporters of homosexuals,” he said while addressing Christians at Kitunga archdeaconry, West Ankole diocese in Ntungamo district.

“I am forced to dress like a civilian because those people are dangerous. They can harm anybody who is against them. Some of them are killers. They want to close the mouth of anybody who is against them.”

Orombi is among the Anglican archbishops who have led the boycott against the Lambeth Conference, which takes places later this month, over the issue of homosexuality.

The Global Anglican Future Conference, which was held in Jerusalem last month, resolved to form a new movement and broke ties with the authority of Canterbury over the consecration of gay bishops.

Despite the threats, Orombi yesterday continued his anti-gay campaign, asking Christians to pray for him and others who are against homosexuals.

“Homosexuals are agitating that it is a human right. But how can it be a human right for a man to sleep with another man or a woman to marry a woman?” he asked.

“What we need is to wake up and protect our church and children against this practice.”

He argued that God created men and women so that they could have children and fill the world so that the generations could continue. “So where do the homosexuals want to get their children?” he asked.

Orombi noted that homosexuals were trying to take advantage of Africa’s poverty by making donations, building schools and offering scholarships.

“We should not accept any donation that comes our way and has strings attached. Some people have already fallen victims in Uganda and we need to stop it,” the archbishop said.

Bishop Yona Katonene, the bishop of West Ankole diocese, who accompanied the archbishop, said he had received a report that a male teacher in Bushenyi had married a male student.

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JCF
JCF
16 years ago

Speechless.

Lord have mercy!

Doug Chaplin
16 years ago

Gosh. This is such a difficult question. How many gays have been killed or beaten up by homophobes? And how many Africans have been murdered by gays for criticising Western gay lifestyles?

Pat O'Neill
Pat O'Neill
16 years ago

Orombi should put up or shut up, as we say in the States. Produce evidence of these threats against his life by gays…e-mails, letters, recordings of phone calls.

Or stop slandering an entire group of people.

jnwall
jnwall
16 years ago

So sad to see a fine mind overcome by paranoid delusions.

Lapinbizarre
Lapinbizarre
16 years ago

So Henry Orombi does not accept money that “has strings attached”? Sad that this undignified, Drama Queen attention-grabbing is coming from a fellow-countryman of Archbishop Sentamu.

Tobias Haller
16 years ago

I think Orombi has officially relinquished any claim not to be homophobic, literally. I’m also astonished at the concept of being taken advantage of by being given donations. I must try that in my next stewardship campaign. “Take advantage of you church — increase your pledge!”

deaconmark
deaconmark
16 years ago

How sad really. One is tempted to just dismiss him as a bit of a nutter; but i really have the sense that i’m hearing my greatgrandfather talk from his prospective in the 1920s. Where will we get our children? Good grief. Look around dear Bishop at the starving masses of orphans. And one cannot help but fear for the gay and lesbian men and women in Africa who are dealing with this mindset. They dont’ exist unless they are dragged into the ‘lifesyle” by Westerners.

Pluralist
16 years ago

What a homophobic ignoramus.

Jerry Hannon
Jerry Hannon
16 years ago

This man is pure evil, incarnate; either that, or he must be the most delusional person on the face of the earth.

What chutzpah!

What lunacy!

The anti-Christ is surely making a large footprint through Orombi,who obviously does not understand what Christ taught us.

Jan
Jan
16 years ago

May Archbishop Orombi find peace of mind. He is in my prayers.

“With joy I enter into the activities of the day; without regret I remember the events of yesterday; and with confidence I look forward to tomorrow, for today my heart is without FEAR.”

Josh Indiana
16 years ago

Which countries of the world do NOT have “supporters of homosexuals?” Uganda sure does.

Orombi’s ridiculous claims that “supporters of homosexuals” “force him to dress like a civilian because these people are dangerous” is just another flaccid attempt to promote the dueling, contradictory stereotypes that Gay men are both flaming sissies (less than men) and rampaging rapists (supermen). Huh?

Meanwhile it’s the Lesbians who get beaten and raped. Lord, have mercy.

Göran Koch-Swahne
16 years ago

I am reminded of a saying by Mr de Rochefaucalt:

Everybody complains of his health, no one of his judgement,

or summat ; = )

Uriel
Uriel
16 years ago

Projection is so utterly universal. “I hate you – therefore I wish to destroy you – therefore you hate me and wish to destroy me. So *you* are dangerous.”

God help us!

Uriel

drdanfee
drdanfee
16 years ago

Well Bishop Orombi and Dr. Lugemwa are both fine examples of standard, culturally embedded 1920’s state of the art understandings on this hot button topic of queer folks, society, and nature with a capital first letter. The subsequent question, then, is: Where have these two bright fellows been, really-actually, as well as intellectually and citizenship-wise? A lot, a huge lot – of seriously important changes have happened since 1920. For one thing, Orombi and Lugemwa could get clued in to the updated factual biological thinking on animal analogues of human same sex exuberance and pair-bonding – rampant in the animal… Read more »

Keith Kimber
Keith Kimber
16 years ago

Fear not so much the poisoner, as the mighty media machine that delivers the poison with every due regard for its impact!

Merseymike
Merseymike
16 years ago

I’m sorry, but this is simply blatant, unacceptable homophobia. I rather approve of the statements being made in this way as it displays the true feelings and opinions of conservatives.

These views are simply not compatible with contemporary Britain, and the idea that a church which follows this sort of line will be anything more than a fringe relic and somewhere for the disaffected is a joke.

The more these ignorant people say, the more they condemn themselves and their religionism

Davis Mac-Iyalla
Davis Mac-Iyalla
16 years ago

Archbishop Orombi, I am telling you this is a total attempt at black mail. You are and your colleagues in Nigeria and other Provinces in Africa have been supporting the jailing and maltreatments of LGBT people for years. If it is not so speak out against it. You and Archbishop Akinola denied knowing the situation of LGBT people in your provinces when you were questioned in the GAFCON meeting and yet you are strongly opposing and campaigning against LGBT People. I am now seeking asylum and safety all because of those who thinking they will make heaven by murdering me… Read more »

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

“I rather approve of the statements being made in this way as it displays the true feelings and opinions of conservatives”

I’ve got to hold with you on this one, mike. I’m waiting for the conservative Evangelical response to this, both here and in the real world. I expect vigorous defence of his right to speak this way along with pity for the way the poor faithful Godly leader is being persecuted by the Godless heathen. Has he, I wonder, had to wear a bullet proof vest at any time since he was elected (?appointed?) bishop?

Colin Coward
16 years ago

Both Archbishop Henry Orombi and the doctor need to read The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality edited by Phil Groves as the official contribution to the listening process. It would disabuse the doctor of his ignorance about homosexuality and educate Archbishop Orombi. For Changing Attitude, the Archbishop’s views confirm the worst impression of the prejudiced and abusive attitude held by some Primates and bishops. He is not representative of all in Gafcon or Foca. His remarks are a timely reminder to +Rowan and the bishops and archbishops gathering at Lambeth next week that those who will not be there (because all… Read more »

Rae Fletcher
16 years ago

If Orombi believes what he is saying (or the delusion is real for him) then I pity him for living in such a world where fear governs life. But, if he doesn’t believe what he is saying, but it saying it to incite anger and bolster resistance in his part of Africa, then we are seeing the most dangerous of conservative tactics – victory at all costs and the greatest cost is the truth.

Rob Leduc
Rob Leduc
16 years ago

I don’t think this is just homophobia. The good Archbishop appears to be delusional.

pete hobson
pete hobson
16 years ago

It’s true. This is a misplaced, misanthropic and ultimately mistaken diatribe, spoken for the ears of his own faithful, and exposed by modern media to the eyes of those it wasn’t spoken at – such as Thinking Anglicans…

..some of whom fall right into the same trap. And I wonder if any posters on this thread will speak out against, for example, calling Archbishop Henry Orombi “pure evil, incarnate”. Or do you all think his undoubted homophobia (which is indeed what his stated words imply) means that he deserves all the opprobrium you can heap upon him? Sound familiar?

Davis d'Ambly
Davis d'Ambly
16 years ago

I prefer to think he’s delusional – the alternative is too horrible to imagine.

Göran Koch-Swahne
16 years ago

+Orombi says: “I am forced to dress like a civilian because those people are dangerous. They can harm anybody who is against them. Some of them are killers. They want to close the mouth of anybody who is against them.”

There is also a saying: With Enemies like these, who needs Friends?

(especially referring to the performance of Primates Orombi and Akinola at their Gaffe-con press conference in Jerusalem)

David
David
16 years ago

I particularly enjoyed the gay dating ad to the immediate right of both articles. Has someone done a spot of jiggery pokery I wonder?

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
16 years ago

Pete “And I wonder if any posters on this thread will speak out against, for example, calling Archbishop Henry Orombi “pure evil, incarnate”.” Yes, I will. Those are incredibly strong words that should have no place in a civilsed discourse or in the description of anyone who isn’t at least a mass murderer on the scale of Hitler or Mugabe. But….as long as people like Davis Mac-Iyalla have to fear for their lives in their home countries because their church pursues them with all its might for being gay, I will reserve the right to call +Orombi morally repugnant, ill… Read more »

krhull
krhull
16 years ago

I am convinced that the church can and should bless same-sex partnerships. And I think Bishop Orombi’s comments would be laughable if they weren’t so tragic. But I am also sick of this conversation, and the narrowness of its terms of reference, and I think there is fault to be found on both sides. By focusing on one sexual orientation and its physical expressions, we are letting ourselves off the hook from looking at broader questions of sexuality and sexual expression. To the ‘conservatives’: if all homosexual sexual expression is wrong, are all heterosexual sexual expressions within marriage permissable? What… Read more »

Pluralist
16 years ago

So it’s OK then if it is for your own audience, and that he doesn’t really believe it. I think he needs more opprobrium piled on him. There comes a point where words on here are disallowed, that are entirely appropriate.

There is no excuse for this, none at all. If he thinks he has some sort of position in world Anglicanism then he should shove some pairs of socks in it.

At least he tells those who would ally with him what deeply unpleasant people these are that they would associate with. It won’t be cost free.

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

“And I wonder if any posters on this thread will speak out against, for example, calling Archbishop Henry Orombi “pure evil, incarnate”.” I will join Erika in this, though I recognize the hurt and fear that this is coming from. Consider it: were I to go to Uganda and make it known I am gay, many would believe in all honesty thanks to this, that I am seeking to kill their Primate. They might well kill me as a result. Such rhetoric as this has already led some of them to believe that if they kill a gay person, they… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
16 years ago

KRhull
“Once it has been shown that bisexuality is normal among a certain percentage of people, will we expand the number of people from two to three who can be in a covenanted relationship?”

I applaud much of what you say but this is based on a misunderstanding.
Bisexuality does not mean wanting 2 partners at the same time. It means being emotionally and physically capable of loving people from both sexes. Bisexual people’s partners potentially come from a larger selection of the population, but like heterosexuals and homosexuals, they still only chose one partner!

Malcolm+
16 years ago

If someone tells me they’ve seen something commonplace (ie, a blue Volkswagen Beetle – Punch Buggy!), I tend to believe them without any proof. When someone tells me they’ve seen something quite out of the ordinary (ie, a blue unicorn with polkadot stripes reading a copy of the Church Times), I tend to apply a different standard. Thus, when Gene Robinson says he’s had his life threatened, I don’t look for much proof. Nonetheless, he has disclosed some of the purely evil correspondence he’s received. But when Henry Orombi claims to have had his life threatened by gay activists –… Read more »

Cheryl Va.
16 years ago

Sad but true, some souls would even go so far as to wear a bullet proof vest, just so they can claim their side also lives in fear of their lives. Some would even stoop so low as to harm some of their own to prove that there is a danger of aggression (self-mutilation at a group level). The fear might feel very real, and in some countries extreme violence and aggression is seen as inevitable, tolerated, condoned or even lauded. For example there are some leaders who have been praised for calling GLBTs beasts (forgetting that in the bible… Read more »

Uriel
Uriel
16 years ago

Krhull: fair questions. As for bisexuality, I have no problem with that; poly-partnership is a different issue. I have always thought that bisexuals just have a larger pool from which to choose a single life partner.

Uriel

Dan Baynes
Dan Baynes
16 years ago

Krhull asks some very good questions; and although I disagree with the opening wish I’d like to offer my responses. And first of all, you’re quite right to be disappointed at the narrowness of the ‘debate’ of the last five years. I feel that this is something which the secular media has manoeuvred us all into, whether liberals or conservatives, for its own sensationalizing purposes. As a ‘conservative’ in the matter of the presenting issue, re. marital sex I’d reply that its basic purpose in the created order is reproduction, so attempts at contraception (whether ‘successful’ or not) transgress the… Read more »

Göran Koch-Swahne
16 years ago

K R Hull wrote: ”Once it has been shown that bisexuality is normal among a certain percentage of people, will we expand the number of people from two to three who can be in a covenanted relationship?”

Bisexuality is the ability to fall in love with either gender (one at a time, I am told ;=)

BTW, Do you often misunderstand things like this?

PTown Vicar
PTown Vicar
16 years ago

It is a terrible thing to live in fear. Perhaps Gene Robinson could loan him the bullet proof vest he had to wear at his consecration. Or better yet, Orombi could join Robinson at the table where perfect love casts out fear.

Andrew
Andrew
16 years ago

These uneducated and inarticulate comments by Orombi and Myers Lugemwa lend credence to the theory that some Africans are ignorant to the point where they can be manipulated by conservative Americans and others from the west. Sad day for all Anglicans.

Leonardo Ricardo
Leonardo Ricardo
16 years ago

Orombi will do any pitiful thing for attention…that is, when either boasting about “chasing” skirts as a youngman didn’t work or destroying the Integrity Community Center in Uganda as a old mean bigot…persecutiving LGBT Christian/others wherever he finds a cluster of hate/fear-mongers to cry the blues with is what his mission is about! Gives egodriven silliness all new meaning.

Uriel
Uriel
16 years ago

“Meanwhile the group of questions you put to liberals is one I too would really like to hear from them about. You mention bisexuality; we could easily bring in polyamory (-gyny/-andry), ‘consensual’ paedophilia or at least hebophilia, many forms of incest, and in extremis, even perhaps some kind of bestiality, just to cater for those individuals who cherish their relationship with their pets more than that with any living human.” Oh, for heaven’s sake! The point in sacred relationships is that they are between two consenting adults – equals. Any relationship premised on such a power imbalance as between an… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
16 years ago

Dan Baynes
It’s a real problem, isn’t it.
I live with another woman, so of course my children are in danger of being abused by me. You just can’t trust me to have any moral compass at all!
The dogs go into hiding when they see me, I don’t blame them. At least the guinea pigs are safe, I haven’t worked out what I might do with them yet, but it can only be a matter of time.
I’ll think about that once I’m bored of necrophilia.

Dear dear, what did you do during the listening process?

Charles Nurse
Charles Nurse
16 years ago

Give me a break – lets not introduce the red-herring of conceptual paedophilia.

Paedophilia is abuse, pure and simple as it is exploitation of a position of power – the child does not have the intelectual ability to “consent”.

Hugh of Lincoln
Hugh of Lincoln
16 years ago

Is this episcophobia?

Tobias Haller
16 years ago

Pete, I agree; “pure evil incarnate” is much too strong. I prefer not to call any person “evil” — that’s not for me to decide. (I also dislike “unchristian” since plenty of Christians do terrible things.) As to nature: that’s really not what it is about. Showing that same-sexuality happens naturally doesn’t make it good — but it does disprove it to be “unnatural.” This is not a positive proof, but removal of a negative argument from the table. That old argument still appears, however, in language about the “order of creation” showing us that procreation is good, and anything… Read more »

Robin
Robin
16 years ago

It seems to me that the readiness to jump on Dan Baynes just shows that there really IS an underlying issue of concern. As Dan noted, sexuality is only the topic of current discussion – one could equally argue about the biological tendency (if any) toward theft. The real issue is the fact that if a certain argument is advanced for the acceptance of certain behavior, then it becomes necessary to look very hard at the logical extension of that argument and be prepared to explain why the extension to other situations is or is not valid. This is as… Read more »

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
16 years ago

Interesting to see such a glowing account of

The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality edited by Phil Groves

from Colin Coward – I have yet to read the compilation – and now look forward to doing so even more knowing it has his endorsement!

It was Andrew Carey, I believe, who once noted that Orombi and his ilk are our greatest asset – how true, how wise!

krhull
krhull
16 years ago

Thank you all for your responses, and especially you, Robin, for your first paragraph, which expresses better than I did what I am trying to get at. And incidentally, I am throwing these issues at myself as well. The argument from human biology *will* come to grief sooner or later. We must have a theology of sexuality, and it seems to me that any meaningful such theology will necessarily require constraints of some kind on sexual behaviour, and these constraints, whatever they might be, must be applicable in principle, even if different in their particulars, to all, not just to… Read more »

JCF
JCF
16 years ago

“it becomes necessary to look very hard at the logical extension of that argument” LOGICAL extension??? Maybe in BizarroWorld, Robin, every *conceivable* slippery-slope turns into a topic something worthy of discussion. I would LIKE to believe, NOT on “Thinking Anglicans”! ***** “As a ‘conservative’ in the matter of the presenting issue, re. marital sex I’d reply that its basic purpose in the created order is reproduction” No, Dan, that’s the basic purpose of *heterosexual* sex—you know, the kind you can see any two dogs, pigs, or dung beetles going at. It is, at base, a BEASTLY activity. “Marital sex” (or,… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
16 years ago

Robin “It seems to me that the readiness to jump on Dan Baynes just shows that there really IS an underlying issue of concern.” I agree. And the issue is how people like Dan can possibly still be asking those questions and what on earth we can possibly do to answer them. I don’t know where Dan lives. Here in England same sex couples have been living together happily and openly for years. We parent, we are integrated in our societies and often in our churches. We can legally form binding partnerships that are very much like marriages. On fora… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
16 years ago

Krhull “Such persons might point to heterosexual and homosexual partnerships and say something like, “these two groups are allowed to express the fulness of their sexual natures, so why shouldn’t bisexuals be allowed to do so?” No, you still haven’t understood about bisexuals. Bisexuals are allowed to express the fullness of their sexual natures to the same extent that homosexuals and heterosexuals are: in one stable, faithful and lifelong relationship. Whether they chose a woman to live that relationship with or a man, the fact remains that they will limit themselves to one person, just as gays and straights should.… Read more »

Cheryl Va.
16 years ago

krkull wrote “Let me restate that I support the blessing of same-sex partnerships. But I’m not happy with the depth of the arguments that I’ve heard so far.” That is the difference between legalism and faith. Legalism demands the “water-tight” argument that can stand up against all accussers. Being a Christian involves living by faith and seeing beyond the letter of the law to the intent of the law and thus the heart of God. Jesus did not attempt to live by the letter of the law, and both Jesus and John the Baptist were contemptuous of the legalistic Pharisess… Read more »

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