CANA

July 04, 2009

In an extraordinary verdict on 2nd July 2009 the Delhi High Court de-criminalised homosexuality by striking down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It said that any sex between consenting adults should be legalised; holding that the 149-year-old law making it a criminal offence is violative of fundamental rights and not punishable.

The Evangelical Fellowship of India is shocked and saddened by the judgment.

In a secular state a distinction is made between God's unchanging moral laws and man's legislated social laws - civil and criminal. Decriminalization of homosexuality in no way changes the moral order. It is common sense to recognize that homosexual practice is a violation of the natural order. While all sin is sin, all homosexual activity is essentially sinful, whether it is done by singles or by gays or lesbians involved in committed relationships.

The real concern - shared across a broad spectrum of the Indian religious communities - is not with this one High Court judgment. It is with the potential Pandora's box it opens as has been the experience in the West: No discrimination in housing and jobs (what happens if a religious community housing society or school wants to keep out homosexuals?), same-sex unions and then marriages (threat to the definition and sanctity of the God-ordained initiation of marriage between one man and one woman), teaching in schools of homosexual behaviour and relationships as "normal" or acceptable "alternative lifestyles" ... and so it goes.

When the liberal tide of society - "high society", media, even politicians - turns in favour of gay "rights" then the church appears to be out of step, almost archaic but this is precisely where the church needs to speak up and speak out the truth in love. Yes, though we condemn the sin we are called to love the homosexual sinner as much as the heterosexual sinner, as the thief and murderer.

Rev. Dr. Richard Howell
General Secretary
Evangelical Fellowship of India
New Delhi, India

Source: EFI Press Release - The Practice of Homosexuality