Applause please for Desmond Tutu

[Daniel]

Of it you prefer- a huge cheer. I love this man. Telling it like it is!

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111807tutu.htm

Tutu Blasts Anglicans Over Gay Feud
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: November 18, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET

(London) South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Sunday blasted the Anglican church for being "obsessed" with homosexuality.

The denomination has been deeply divided since the election of Gene Robinson in 2003 to be Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is the first openly gay man to be made a bishop in the Anglican faith.

Since then, Tutu told the BBC, the Church has become "extraordinarily homophobic".

Tutu slammed the worldwide leader of the church and Anglican conservatives in a BBC radio program to be broadcast Tuesday.

Tutu accused Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams of failing to follow a "welcoming God" and said he was ashamed of what the Anglican Church has become.

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastating pandemic, and conflict," Tutu told the broadcaster.

"God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another.

"In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality," he said.

Tutu also chastised Church conservatives who say that homosexuality is a choice and gays and lesbians need to repent.

"It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual," the Nobel laureate said.

"You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race infected society."

[Vanessa White]

What courage and tenacity to consistently speak out in this way. He has not hesitated in being openly confrontative on this topic and I feel so grateful for that. He is right: who would choose it to be exposed to such hatred?

He is a great human being.

[dsdrane]

Loving him...!

[tdogg]

...for telling it like it is. Speak the truth, speak love!

[Emproph]

I read that the other day in another article which included this quote:

Archbishop Tutu referred to the debate about whether Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, could serve as the bishop of New Hampshire.

He said the Anglican Church had seemed "extraordinarily homophobic" in its handling of the issue, and that he had felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at the time.

Asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes.

"If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."

Agreed.