Desmond Tutu: “I’d rather go to hell than worship a homophobic God.”

King Henry VIII left the Catholic Church in order to divorce and fornicate. Desmond Tutu is apparently willing to abandon theism altogether in order to support and promote homosexuality. From The Daily Mail:

Although gay relationships are legal in South Africa, the country has had some of the worst incidences of homophobic violence, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said.

‘I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level,’ the 81-year-old archbishop said at the launch of the Free and Equal campaign in Cape Town.

Same-sex relationships are illegal in more than a third of countries around the world and punishable by death in five, Ms Pillay said.

In Africa, homosexual acts are criminalised in 38 countries, according to the rights group Amnesty International.
Tutu, who retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996, has long campaigned for gay rights. 

‘I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place,’ he said.

‘I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this.’

Now, it would be one thing if Tutu were making a stand in opposition to violence against homosexuals, a stand that is laudable and certainly supported by the Catholic Church, despite the ignorant protestations of many (including many Catholics, who think that making a proper moral judgment about homosexual acts is somehow an act of violence). But “gay rights” rarely means such a thing; it usually refers to the wholesale endorsement of homosexuality, including the call for “gay marriage”. And we know that “homophobic” is increasingly used to slander anyone who thinks homosexuality is disordered and that homosexual acts are sinful and contrary to both nature and moral truth.

Tutu, the article reports, says, “I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level.” That is a sad bit of commentary on the sort of confused “thinking”, touted by so many politicians and religious leaders, that cannot distinguish between race/ethnicity and freely chosen actions.

The piece also notes that “same-sex relationships” are still punishable by death in several countries. Oddly enough, those countries are not identifed, perhaps because all of them are under Islamic rule. As a February 2012 piece in The Economist noted, “Of the seven countries that impose the death penalty for homosexuality, all are Muslim.” Well, goodness, that’s rather embarrassing for certain world leaders, as the Mail article indicates:

When US President Barack Obama visited Senegal at the start of his visis to Africa in June, he urged African nations to decriminalise homosexual acts.

But he was publicly rebuffed by President Macky Sall of Senegal while the pair were sharing a podium. President Sall said Senegal was not ready to make the step.

Yet the Obama administration has openly and actively supported radical Islamic movements in Egypt (leading to riots and chaos) and in Syria (leading to 100,000 dead, many of them Christians). Put another way, we in the United States hear about acts of homophobic violence, which are indeed reprehensible and evil, but hardly ever hear about about the persecution and killing of Christians in Muslim countries, or the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them Christians, in countries where Islamic insurgents are making difficult and imperfect situations even more difficult, and often far more deadly.

So, yes, let’s certainly denounce injustice. But making ridiculous pronouncements about going to hell rather than worshipping a “homophobic God” is simply activist, secularist hysteria dressed up in clerical, pious garb.


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About Carl E. Olson 1241 Articles
Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight. He is the author of Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?, Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"?, co-editor/contributor to Called To Be the Children of God, co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius), and author of the "Catholicism" and "Priest Prophet King" Study Guides for Bishop Robert Barron/Word on Fire. His recent books on Lent and Advent—Praying the Our Father in Lent (2021) and Prepare the Way of the Lord (2021)—are published by Catholic Truth Society. He is also a contributor to "Our Sunday Visitor" newspaper, "The Catholic Answer" magazine, "The Imaginative Conservative", "The Catholic Herald", "National Catholic Register", "Chronicles", and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @carleolson.