‘Homosexuality is destructive, should not be tolerated’ – Bishop Edghill defends Pastor McGarrell

By Kurt Campbell

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Junior Finance Minister and Pastor, Bishop Juan Edghill has described homosexuality as destructive, unwholesome and unhealthy and says it should not be tolerated in the Guyanese society.

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Parliamentarian was at the time defending Pastor Ronald McGarrell, who under pressure resigned from the Board of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) following anti – gay commentary on the radio program ‘Hard Talk’ on 90.1 Love FM last week.

Bishop Edghill in endorsing the statements of McGarrell, which calls for all gays to live on an island by themselves, said “The gay agenda is an in your face agenda, that is what the religious community has stood against,” while speaking on Hard Talk today (Sunday, June 15), along with Pandit Rabindranath Persaud.

Edghill, who was most vocal during the program, maintained that homosexuality, from a Christian perspective, is against God and the standards set out in the scriptures of the Bible.

“He loves the sinner but hates sin.”

He said, “the sacred text says it incurs the wrath of God,” even as he pointed out that he has always been in the forefront of the fight to ensure same sex marriage does not become a reality, legally, in Guyana.

However, during the programme last week, Co –Chair of the Society Against Sexual Orientation (SASOD), Joel Simpson, had pointed out that the ‘Gay agenda’ was not to legalize gay unions but against the violent discrimination that local anti – buggery laws encourage and a possible repel of those laws to ensure the basic human rights is afforded to people of alternative sexual lifestyles.

To this end, Edghill asked, “Do we want people in our school system telling young boys and girls that its ok to have same sex, in our military barrack room two men having sex, at our border locations homosexuality… do we want at the police college two men having sex or do we want in the parks, when I take children for a walk two people of the same sex embracing each other?”

He believes the fight for gay rights is “being clouded in the matter of human rights.”

Meanwhile, Pandit Persaud said Hinduism is all accommodating and embracing religion and speaks about homosexuals to be people who are born abnormally.

This view was out rightly rejected by the Minister, who claimed that homosexuality was a learnt behavior and advanced an argument that persons who are engaged in the practice can be rehabilitated, a view that was previously junked by Simpson.

He said it would be ok if homosexuals carry out their “unwholesome and unhealthy practice” in a room away from the public, but noted that the agenda of homosexuals is an open agenda, which calls for a man to present himself as a woman and solicit clients for sex at the corner of the street.

“It is not just about removing buggery laws… it is about the right to marry, adopt children… it is an attack on the family, to discolor, disfigure rearrange the order of god… I will not apologize for believing in what the scripture says,” Edghill said.

He went on to qualify his statement by adding that it is a documented fact that homosexuals are the most promiscuous people in society hence the spread of sexually transmitted diseases are greater and the tendency for violence is greater.

The Bishop pointed out that his religious views are not intended to promote violence against the minority community as articulated by a few, adding that the gay community is afraid of education which contradicts their lifestyle. He rebuked Homosexuals from imposing what he said was a deviant and unacceptable lifestyles on others and warned that if the issue is ever raised in Parliament he will speak with a clear conscience against it.

Meanwhile, Pandit Persaud was adamant that the interpretation of the scriptures should not be diluted to accommodate, as he pointed to a scripture in the Bhagavad Gita that says “Shed your unmanliness.”

He said “everybody is trying to create an empire to satisfy their selfish gains and if they have to compromise the family and what it stands for they will do that.”

On a personal note however he said, “If God is willing but incapable of getting rid of the evils in this world then he is impotent, but if he is able and unwilling then he is malevolent.”