Ntumba Katabua | Between Two Cultures

–– Ntumba Katabua

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Genesis 4 records the world’s first murder. Brother against brother. Xenophobic attacks and acts of intimidation against African and Asian migrants in parts of South Africa have surfaced again. Xenowatch reports a total of 697 deaths in South Africa over the last 30 years, related to xenophobia.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines xenophobia as a “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.”

Sociologists and politicians often trace xenophobia back to rivalry over limited resources such as jobs, housing, and social services. Here are three reasons this symptom-level sociological analysis offers an unsatisfactory explanation:

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— Ntumba Katabua

The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Ever since the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in 2008 in South Africa, social activists have been pressuring the church to do the same.

This raises the question: Does the category of “gay Christian” have biblical warrant? Is some form of homosexuality acceptable in the church?

A 2020 survey in the USA noted that among religious LGBTQ+ adults, 77% identified as Protestant, Roman Catholic or other Christian. Statistics for South Africa are unavailable, but are not expected to vary wildly from the USA statistics.

This discussion is important because, within the evangelical church, there are some who are desperate to make peace with the moral revolution and are looking to endorse the acceptance of openly gay individuals and couples within the life of the church. Sadly, many denominations have since accepted same-sex ideology and are even promoting it.

Here are three considerations when discussing the idea of homosexual Christians.

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