Country is at risk from homosexual invasion, says Archbishop

It would be nice to be able to simply dismiss Nicholas Okoh as an irrelevant bigot, but he also heads the Anglican Church in Nigeria, and as such is also a senior figure in the Anglican communion worldwide. Sadly, he's a prime example of the kind of barking fundamentalism which so many religious leaders across the continent seem to be embracing and selling as somehow African. Earlier this month he told a press conference that "Same sex marriage, paedophilia and all sexual pervasions [sic] should be roundly condemned by all who accept the authority of scripture over human life" and talked about the risk of a gay invasion (more here)

For a long time, homosexuality (albeit condemned) was fairly low down on the list of key issues for religious leaders across the world, but not any more. Playing on cultural taboos and strengthening religious ones is a quick win, and we should be wary of the way those who claim to speak for the world's major religions are cosying up to one another on this issue. No one could have predicted when so many of us went onto the streets to campaign for gay rights in the US and Europe in the 1970s that rational thought would be so under threat 40 years later.