The ardent followers of religion have always maintained that their guides—mainly the Bible and the Qu'ran—teach humility and compassion. These very holy books teach against judging others and about a dreaded day of reckoning where each of us will be held accountable for our stewardship on this earth, including the judgement we pass on others we view as unholy and infidel. The norm is that religious people are meant to live righteously, love their neighbours including their fearful foes and eschew hatred in all its shapes and forms. The Supreme Being has the final say as to who is deserving of His blissful eternal Kingdom! But must perceived righteousness serve as the basis for judging others and even lead to homophobic sentiments? Contrarily to the contents of the holy books, some religious people seem to have conceived—quite against the Word of God—that some sins are greater than others. A lot suppose murder a bigger sin than adultery! It is extremely preposterous on the part of any religious connoisseur to apportion certain marks to certain sins without having access to God’s marking scheme. We would want to know who has seen God's plans; we equally want them to tell us how many points one loses for which sin. If nobody possesses God's thoughts on what sort of justice will be meted out for a particular transgression, then we would want to civilly wonder why many self-righteous folks are quite ready to judge others on marriage, religion and sexuality. In fact, we should foremost stress the fact that we do not condone any sins in this world. We do appreciate our own ceaseless indiscretion for which we always ask the Holy Father for clemency. By now Jehovah, the Almighty Father, looks at us and notes how recalcitrant we are because of our penchant for sinning even when we have asked for pardon and vowed not to sin again only to return to the same sin for which we have asked for exculpation. If the Biblical contention that whoever falters at one point of the commandments breaks them all is anything to go by (See James 2:10), then we all have a long way to go! Like Jesus Christ asked those erudite Pharisees who were inclined to stone the adulteress if they were sanctimonious, we also ask modern-day religious fanatics who preach revulsion to do a self-appraisal before casting the first stone at gays. Homosexuality is an eye sore. There is nothing as appalling as a man, without mincing words, sticking his manhood into the hairy and unsightly anus (a stinking place specifically created for the excretion of faeces) of another man and trying to derive pleasure from this abominable exercise! Such people need both spiritual and medical help for anything abnormal can be alleviated. In all fairness, homosexuality is very disgusting as men with this inexplicable peculiarity finish by having to wear pampers just like babies for the rest of their miserable lives as the stinking solids have nothing to hold them back due to the aberrant use of their anal organs and the "unnatural" objects inserted into them. If the dressing of ladies in this 21st Century which bares all to the extent of bringing down the Solomons of this world does nothing to gays but forces them to want to ravish flat-chested men through the backdoor, then we believe it would not be a mark of atrocity to ask that their mental faculties be verified! Although there is something amiss with gays, however, when it comes to passing judgement as to what God will do to homosexuals, we need to ask what the Word of God says about judging others. The Bible—unless we read a different book—admonishes us against judging others for not only do we pretend to do God's work for Him; but we also give God the benchmark with which to judge us. It is always blatant that we tend to use very high standards (based on an assumed moral high ground) which we may never reach were we scrutinised in the same way when judging others. Why then do people—mere mortals to boot—try to presuppose the craftsmanship of God when their earthly righteousness is questionable and seen as filthy rags before God Almighty? And why do we elevate our level of criticism of others if we cannot pass the test were we put through the same system? Over the decades, marriage has become a most important judging implement in the hands of many. A lot of ink has been poured on paper in arguments in favour of the fact that the institution of marriage was established by God when He put the first couple into the Garden of Eden. In essence, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve irrespective of our colour, race and creed. It is for this reason that we are quite bewildered to see people judging others based on their ethnicity, colour and race. There have been white supremacists in Europe and North America who have committed atrocities due to their detestation of inter-racial marriages. The British National Party, for instance, overtly abhors mixed marriages. There are similarly black people who hate people from their ethnic groups and countries from marrying black people from other ethnic groups and countries. How sad and pathetic! There are so many controversial subjects; nonetheless, there has never been a matter more contentious that has dominated the latter parts of the 20th Century and is gaining notoriety for judgement and disrepute in the 21st Century than homosexuality. We have observed the posture assumed by heterosexuals when talking about homosexuality. And that stance is concerned with looking down upon gays as infidels who are ordained for certain destruction in the Biblical lake of fire. By so doing, these straight people do see themselves as superior beings who are very upright in the sight of God and can thus pronounce judgements on sexual sinners—they forget fornication and adultery are likewise sexual sins— who prefer anal satisfaction rather than vaginal bliss. But on what grounds do these straight people censure gays? They embark on that extraneous venture by quoting from the Holy Bible and the Holy Qu'ran! Talking about religions, let us examine what Islam thinks about homosexuality. The Hadith indubitably condemns homosexuality by stating categorically that: "When a man mounts another man, the throne of Allah shakes". In the Bible, there are instances to substantiate why Christians condemn gays. After all, for this crime, God wiped out a whole city! Remember the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? In the New Testament, Paul's letter to the Romans actually sees same-sex relationships as God's punishment for humankind's reluctance to honour Him (God), our futile thoughts and idolatry (Romans 1:21-27). In this respect, people who proudly assume the title of Christians and Muslims must not become gays. We hasten to place on record that the authenticity of the Hadith has been disputed by certain factions in the Islamic world. While the traditional orthodox Muslims assert the Hadith literature contains the bona fide sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, liberal Muslims have always doubted its validity. Talking about the accuracy of the Bible, it must also be affirmed that we have had different interpretations of the Bible because of the divisions in Christendom. The Roman Catholics thinks differently; the Jehovah's Witnesses see themselves as God's chosen people on the narrow path to inherit His eternal Kingdom whereas everybody else is on the broad way to everlasting damnation in Hell's flowing lake of fire! The Seventh-Day Adventists will beg to differ and the very numerous and still mushrooming Pentecostal and Charismatic churches will sway with what they read from the Bible that they are the real deal. In the end, there is so much rigmarole created by Muslims and Christians that, Darwinism is blooming to the discontentment and detriment of the so-called religions which claim to possess the key to life eternal. Indeed, Christianity and Islam covert-all-at-all-cost policy makes Buddhism, Hinduism and Atheism quite appealing because of their peaceful doctrines. Moreover, the discrepancies which are evident in the two main religions in the world do not take anything away from Christianity and Islam. These two religions are divided by so many doctrines. Both maintain they are on the right path and that the other is wrong. This is the level affairs have been upheld until the imposing menace by homosexuality to obliterate the very fundamentals of their credence: faith for which some are prepared to die. Homosexuality and its concomitant homophobic outlook have become a common ground for the unanimity of Christians and Muslims! The recent furore in certain parts of Africa and the unremitting moralising of abhorrence towards gays have brought about violence which is the consequential effect of populism employed by politicians and most prominently by the clergy of both Christianity and Islam. In Malawi and Uganda, the topsy-turvy mass organisation to kill gays has been given loud affirmation by politicians after it was discovered that some men who moved in twos (we could not call them couples) were planning to tie the knot! In truth, if any of the homophobic morons had murdered any of the arse-wrecking guys, they would undeniably have escaped justice—they may never have even been arraigned before court! Nevertheless, in Europe, the Anglican Church is ordaining Gay Bishops! Only the Christians and Muslims in Africa seem to be speaking with one accord. Homosexuality is therefore bound to create more divisions in Christendom that, in less than a decade there will likely be a church known by the sobriquet of "Gay for Christ International Church of God"! The great arsey-versey situation in the world at this moment is absolutely created by the fidus Archates of Christianity and Islam. Wanting to know the truth, we recently spoke to an even-tempered Muslim. From our conversation, one of the lessons drawn from Islam is that the Holy Qu'ran’s treatise about thieves having their hands chopped off, adulterers and homosexuals being stoned to death is not to be taken literally. According Afzar Ali, the rules and commandments and their mortally draconian retribution are meant to deter rather than sending sinners to early graves to be judged by the Creator. The point of the chastisement is irrelevant; the notion of the punishment should be enough to serve as a restraint to all and sundry. The commandments are comparable to knowing the effects of fire: if one knows it burns then one would not touch it! This is where we pause to ponder. First, both the Bible and the Qu'ran argue quite convincingly that none of us was born a criminal. Ergo, if we find thieves, fraudsters, murderers, lesbians and gays in the world today, it is because the system is at fault. The blemish with the system means that we come into this world all innocent until immoral traits creep upon us and make us murderers, idolaters, homosexuals and so on. From the believer's point of view, the fellow with any tendencies towards homosexuality should seek spiritual remedy. Thus, we should offer prayers for gays that God takes away the unnatural feeling towards a fellow man from them. Those who do not have any trust in the spiritual must adopt a more holistic approach by seeking psychological and medical guidance. What about Gay Bishops or Pastors then? Well, we may want to reiterate Paul’s philosophical musings to the Romans: God has given up people engaging in idolatry, swimming in frivolities and dishonouring Him to uncleanness to debase their bodies by engaging in deviant sexual acts. Learning from the Holy Writ, we can surmise that gays have no place in the House of God let alone lead His flock. In all honesty, gays should not be loathed but they ought to play by the rules of the game of religion. If they want to be Muslims or Christians, then they need to follow the commandments spelt out in the Bible and the Qu'ran. A fortiori, we can use a lame analogy of the game of football to buttress our point. An infringement is given against one's team if one handles the ball. But if one happens to be a mere spectator, this rule is definitely not binding. Thus, how can a gay become a Christian/Muslim and a bishop when they do not obey the decrees in the Bible or the Qu’ran?—an abuse of the rules of the game! In the end, homosexuals need prayers, psychological directions and medical aids to help do away with their dissenting sexual desires. Gays should not be Christians/Muslims let alone become leaders of the church/mosque. They should have privileges but not the right to adopt. Elton John may be affluent enough to give a child a better life but is he a role model for an innocent child? And if everyone took it into their heads to be gays, who will give birth to children for Sir Elton John to adopt? Believing that homosexuality must be detested and not gays, we strongly revile without reserve any attempts to make the whole world a homophobic place for gays. Killing a homosexual will not exonerate the killer from the commandment which condemns murder. Homosexuality is both a sinful and perverted deviation from the norm but, like the other sins; they are habits we acquire due to lack of proper guidance and education. Christians who adopt holier-than-thou attitudes and judge gays should take the counsel of God to Ezekiel: namely; you tell the sinner to turn away from their sins. If you do not, then God will ask you for their blood if they perish. But you are not to judge! Thomas Dickens (yesiah2003@yahoo.com) www.thomasdickens.blogspot.com