Do Justice! Show Mercy! Sounds good - so why does the Anlgican church fail to stand up for LGBT people's basic human rights?

Next Sunday I get to preach on one of my favorite bits of scripture: Micah's dramatic call for us to "Do justice, show mercy."


Every time I hear that commandment I remember  London in the summer of 2008. I stood in the summer heat watching hundreds of  Anglican Bishops marching through town carrying signs like the one shown at left.


Each bishop was dressed in purple clerical garb, walking with their colleagues in a column lead by then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Without pausing, they walked past the solitary protester who
had been camped out for years to protest UK  involvement in the Iraq war. 

This was a march about ending world poverty through meeting the Millennium Development Goals: no other form of injustice need apply.

These were the same bishops who excluded Bishop Gene Robinson from the Lambeth Conference simply because he is gay.

These were the same bishops who largely opposed allowing LGBT people play any role in
their church were carrying singes that said: "Do Justice! Show Mercy."

These were the same bishops who excelled at vilifying those who support LGBT people
were carrying singes that said: "Do Justice! Show Mercy." 

These were the same bishops who were petty and cruel to those who support LGBT people
were carrying singes that said: "Do Justice! Show Mercy."

How could they walk through London and not see the hypocrisy  of behaving one way in church and another while marching through city streets? The answer stems in part from a fundamental difference between our two churches centered on the way we view baptism and govern our church. That is an expanation - not an excuse - for the Anglican Church's failure to stand up for even the basic human rights of LGBT people in Africa, Russia and many other countries.

The Church of England's continuing inability to even preach justice to power is reflected in the refusal of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to speak out against the draconian new anti-gay legislation in Nigeria that has led to gay men being rounded up by the police. 


The new Nigerian laws include the following draconian provisions: 

• Up to 14 years in jail for people in same-sex relationships 
• Up to 10 years for anyone who ‘directly or indirectly’ shows same-sex affection in public. 
• Up to 10 years in jail for anyone who participates in an organisation which works to protect gay rights, including straight allies. 

Davis Mac-Iyalla

"This could criminalise human rights defenders and even two people just meeting for a coffee if they are known to be gay or bisexual," warns my colleague in the UK Davis Mac-Iyalla (at left).


"The situation is urgent. Sweeping arrests of gay people are already taking place in some parts of the country. A man in Bauchi has already endured 20 lashes, ordered by a court, for ‘homosexual offences’."


You can sign the online petition Davis has launched to call the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York to speak out against these unjust laws.