Bishop Alfred Agyenta
At a time when many church leaders, including Pope Francis, have decried laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ people, bishops in Ghana persist in their support for such a new law, and even advocate forced conversion therapy.
In late February, Ghanian legislators unanimously passed a law, the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act, making even support for LGBTQ+ rights illegal with prison terms up to five years, punishing people who fail to report LGBTQ+ advocacy, and enhancing punishments for same-gender sexual activity, which is already criminalized.
Reuters reported that President Nana Akufo-Addo has yet to sign the law, facing pressure from Ghanian human rights advocates, other nations, and the country’s own Finance Ministry. Ghana’s High Court is expected to rule on April 29th on whether Akufo-Addo must do so within a week.
Ghana’s Catholic bishops have largely supported the law, which was first introduced in 2021, and are calling for the president to sign it. On Palm Sunday, Bishop Alfred Agyenta of Navrongo-Bolgatanga encouraged Akufo-Addo to sign the law because, he said, it represented the will of the Ghanaian people. He compared the president to Pontius Pilate in the Passion narrative. Adom Online reported:
“Agyenta said Pontius Pilate handed Jesus Christ over to be crucified even though he knew he was innocent.
“He said it was fear that compelled Pilate to succumb to the demands of the high priests and those who wanted Jesus Christ to be crucified and urged the President not to succumb to ‘those voices probably convincing him against assenting to the Bill’.
“‘I have been wondering whether our President is not in the shoes of Pilate because he knows that the decision of Parliament is the mind of all Ghanaians and yet some people are telling him not to sign this bill because there will be consequences.’”
Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi of Sunyani, president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, likewise encouraged the president to sign the law. He said in an interview that the bishops were “surprised” at the delay because they could “not find any basis” for the president to not sign it.
This encouragement comes even after Gyamfi expressed reservations with the law and proposed amending it to focus less on imprisonment and more on “correcting” offenders, which appears to be coded language for forced conversion therapy. Immediately after legislators passed the law, the bishop stated, in part:
“We think that in the case of this particular law and the way it is being implemented, being placed in prison as the punishment that they have chosen, it is not going to solve the problem. Because you see if you round up same-sex people and you know our prisons, they are going to end up in the same room and what is going to prevent them from going through these activities in prison? . . .They practice this and come out as more experts at it then when you sent them there. Then you release them back into society. So, what is going to happen?
“That is why we were concerned about a punishment that will correct them, that will reform them. So if the government is going this way that is why we are suggesting that in the prison there, they should add more of the corrective and reformative measures.”
3 News reported that, among these “reformative measures,” the bishop recommend engaging “some clinical psychologists” and treat gay people in comparable ways to people with drug addictions. Gyamfi added, “that rehabilitation will require some therapy or some procedure to get the person out of that behaviour.”
Ghana’s bishops have long-supported the anti-LGBTQ+ law. In November 2023, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference commended the law’s initial passage. Archbishop Philip Naameh, then-president of the episcopal conference, had written to legislators in support of the law, though he also advocated that “homosexuals…should enjoy the same fundamental rights that all people enjoy,” even while he also endorsed and supported conversion therapy. In addition, Bishop Joseph Osei-Bonsu of Konongo-Mampong released an open letter to the country’s President Akufo-Addothat criticized him for not being sufficiently anti-LGBTQ+.
Earlier in 2023, the country’s bishops joined other Christian leaders in a joint statement decrying Global North nations allegedly seeking to “impose unacceptable foreign cultural values,” namely LGBTQ+ rights. The statement suggested “our tolerance is not unlimited. . .we do not intend to compromise [our] values for LGBTQI+ investors,” adding that the signers “stand together in abhorring the despicable lifestyle practices and behaviors of LGBTQI+.” The statement was prompted by the U.S. ambassador to Ghana cautioning against further criminalization laws, reported Crux.
In 2021, the bishops helped successfully close Ghana’s first LGBTQ+ community center in the capitol city, Accra. The closure included a police raid. Then, the bishops condemned the “abominable practice” of homosexuality, yet added “it is not right to subject homosexuals to any form of harassment simply because they are homosexuals. . .Homosexuals must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.” It was this moment which led to legislators to first introduce the now-passed Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act with the bishops’ support. Archbishop Naameh even encouraged establishing “ex-gay” clinics to treat homosexuality with unspecified medical interventions.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, April 29, 2024
