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Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by aloyemeka2: 1:21am On Apr 28, 2011
House of Rainbow church offers underground prayer and preaching to Christians ostracised by rampant homophobia.
More about it when you continue,

[img]http://1.bp..com/-nHQ3LhWV_Zg/TbgGmOYbXJI/AAAAAAAACcI/1mPWxvjZtn4/s400/222053_10150226528178488_119586108487_8683307_5855337_n.jpg[/img]

When Ade's aunt learned he was gay, the then 16-year-old Nigerian was made to go through an exorcism to expel "the demon of homosexuality". "The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to kneel down, holding candles in my hands," recalls Ade, now 25, as he sits in a cafe in Lagos. He does not wish to reveal his full name. "He kept shouting 'Come out! Come out! Come out!' in a fevered voice … I was allowed to go back to church after that but I had to pretend to be straight."

In a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, it is no surprise that many of Ade's friends – those who, like him, are both gay and religious – stay away from church altogether for fear of being outed. However, an alternative could soon be at hand. Ade is helping to resurrect a religious refuge for himself and his friends. He is part of the team restarting House of Rainbow, the country's only gay church, which was forced to close in 2008 after a witch-hunt stirred by exposés in local newspapers.

The Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay, the gay minister who founded the church, is leading the comeback even though he remains in self-imposed exile in London. "Religion is a backbone to life in Nigeria, so we all want to go to church," he says. "But we don't want to lie to God about who we are."

Macaulay first set up House of Rainbow in 2006, when he openly held Sunday services in a Lagos hotel hall decked out with rainbow flags. A public backlash culminated in members being beaten as they left church. Macaulay fled to the UK after death threats.

This year, he has recruited a small team that includes Ade as his local leader in Lagos. In his voluntary role, Ade started holding prayer sessions and Bible study groups at his house at the end of last month. A full church might be set up again if it is considered safe.

The project could even spread beyond the borders of Africa's most populous country. Macaulay has recently recruited a local leader in Accra, the capital of nearby Ghana. He is considering applications from Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Religious groups are central to Nigeria's culture of homophobia. Pentecostalism, an evangelical school of Christianity thought to have started in America just over a century ago, has blossomed in southern Nigeria and across Africa in recent decades.

The "megachurches" in and around Lagos can attract tens of thousands of worshippers to a single service. Pentecostal pastors often see gay desire as the work of demons. "You might start casually but, once you get into it, you will be possessed by the spirit," says Emmanuel Owoyemi, a pastor in Lagos.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria's mostly Muslim north, 12 states have adopted sharia law over the last decade. Gay sex carries the death penalty under sharia, although no executions have yet taken place. A national anti-gay marriage bill, which pushes for jail sentences for anyone who even assists gay marriage, has been before Nigeria's parliament since 2009. Being gay is regarded as an offence across much of Africa. Uganda's parliament continues to debate a proposed law that would introduce the death penalty in some cases. Malawi's president only pardoned a gay couple last year sentenced to 14 years in jail after an international outcry.

Apart from being on the wrong side of the law, many homosexual Nigerians say exclusion from church is one of the hardest parts of being gay. "We are brought up to believe that you should belong to a religion. We feel that, if we don't go to church, God will not answer our prayers," says a young gay man in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. "When I recently told a friend I was having financial difficulties, he said, 'When did you last go to church?'"

http://lindaikeji..com/2011/04/nigerias-gay-church-is-reborn-amid.html
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Demdem(m): 2:32pm On Feb 09, 2012
Kindly remove that picture in ur post. That definately isnt the church being reffered to.
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Nobody: 3:10pm On Feb 09, 2012
aloy-emeka:

House of Rainbow church offers underground prayer and preaching to Christians ostracised by rampant homophobia.
More about it when you continue,

[img]http://1.bp..com/-nHQ3LhWV_Zg/TbgGmOYbXJI/AAAAAAAACcI/1mPWxvjZtn4/s400/222053_10150226528178488_119586108487_8683307_5855337_n.jpg[/img]

When Ade's aunt learned he was gay, the then 16-year-old Nigerian was made to go through an exorcism to expel "the demon of homosexuality". "The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to kneel down, holding candles in my hands," recalls Ade, now 25, as he sits in a cafe in Lagos. He does not wish to reveal his full name. "He kept shouting 'Come out! Come out! Come out!' in a fevered voice … I was allowed to go back to church after that but I had to pretend to be straight."

In a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, it is no surprise that many of Ade's friends – those who, like him, are both gay and religious – stay away from church altogether for fear of being outed. However, an alternative could soon be at hand. Ade is helping to resurrect a religious refuge for himself and his friends. He is part of the team restarting House of Rainbow, the country's only gay church, which was forced to close in 2008 after a witch-hunt stirred by exposés in local newspapers.

The Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay, the gay minister who founded the church, is leading the comeback even though he remains in self-imposed exile in London. "Religion is a backbone to life in Nigeria, so we all want to go to church," he says. "But we don't want to lie to God about who we are."

Macaulay first set up House of Rainbow in 2006, when he openly held Sunday services in a Lagos hotel hall decked out with rainbow flags. A public backlash culminated in members being beaten as they left church. Macaulay fled to the UK after death threats.

This year, he has recruited a small team that includes Ade as his local leader in Lagos. In his voluntary role, Ade started holding prayer sessions and Bible study groups at his house at the end of last month. A full church might be set up again if it is considered safe.

The project could even spread beyond the borders of Africa's most populous country. Macaulay has recently recruited a local leader in Accra, the capital of nearby Ghana. He is considering applications from Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Religious groups are central to Nigeria's culture of homophobia. Pentecostalism, an evangelical school of Christianity thought to have started in America just over a century ago, has blossomed in southern Nigeria and across Africa in recent decades.

The "megachurches" in and around Lagos can attract tens of thousands of worshippers to a single service. Pentecostal pastors often see gay desire as the work of demons. "You might start casually but, once you get into it, you will be possessed by the spirit," says Emmanuel Owoyemi, a pastor in Lagos.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria's mostly Muslim north, 12 states have adopted sharia law over the last decade. Gay sex carries the death penalty under sharia, although no executions have yet taken place. A national anti-gay marriage bill, which pushes for jail sentences for anyone who even assists gay marriage, has been before Nigeria's parliament since 2009. Being gay is regarded as an offence across much of Africa. Uganda's parliament continues to debate a proposed law that would introduce the death penalty in some cases. Malawi's president only pardoned a gay couple last year sentenced to 14 years in jail after an international outcry.

Apart from being on the wrong side of the law, many gay Nigerians say exclusion from church is one of the hardest parts of being gay. "We are brought up to believe that you should belong to a religion. We feel that, if we don't go to church, God will not answer our prayers," says a young gay man in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. "When I recently told a friend I was having financial difficulties, he said, 'When did you last go to church?'"

http://lindaikeji..com/2011/04/nigerias-gay-church-is-reborn-amid.html


My brother , Kedu - long time.

I was worried they had finally got you, our jihadist friends grin grin

On a more serious note, they can deceive themselves and set up a so called 'Gay Church' , but rather than experience the presence of God's spirit , there will be an abundance of evil spirits for their company !!
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by PastorAIO: 4:52pm On Feb 09, 2012
How many so called churches in nigeria are actually the habitation of so many assorted evil spirits?

frosbel:



On a more serious note, they can deceive themselves and set up a so called 'Gay Church' , but rather than experience the presence of God's spirit , there will be an abundance of evil spirits for their company !!


Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Joagbaje(m): 6:58pm On Feb 09, 2012
aloy-emeka:

House of Rainbow church offers underground prayer and preaching to Christians ostracised by rampant homophobia.
More about it when you continue, l

I hope the prayer is to cast the devil of gay out. If not ,it's a wasted effort
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Nobody: 8:04am On Feb 10, 2012
@Joeagbaje

arent there gays in Christ embassy? Why wouldnt such a liberated church have gays?
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Areyourdayg: 8:07am On Feb 10, 2012
Get thee lost you son/daughter of the devil. Chikena!
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Joagbaje(m): 8:08am On Feb 10, 2012
diluminati:

@Joeagbaje
arent there gays in Christ embassy? Why wouldnt such a liberated church have gays?

We set them free
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by newmi(m): 10:29pm On Feb 10, 2012
It shouldn't be an issue to see people needing help of whom other people regard as bad or branded as sinners in Church it is an issue because they fail to recognize the purpose and significance of the church as the ground and pillar of truth thus Jesus said
King James 2000 Bible (©2003) Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
The church his the most suited and appropriate place for anyone needing help
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by goggs(m): 9:50am On Feb 11, 2012
Homosexuality is Condemned in the Bible!

The Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is as clear and plain as the Bible's condemnation of murder, adultery, premarital sex, kidnapping, lying and idolatry. Further, for me to openly condemn homosexuality theologically makes me no more a "gay basher" than I am an "adultery basher", "premarital sex basher", "kidnapper basher" or a "murderer basher". If you disagree, your argument is with God's Bible.

The gay community has two ways of promoting their personal choices of being gay through the religious forum. First, some will claim the Bible actually promotes and condones homosexuality. Second, others try to get the Bible banned from public use by categorizing it as hate literature.

For any to use the Bible to condone rather than condemn gay activity in the theological arena just proves such a one has absolutely no idea what the Bible actually teaches. For anyone to suggest the Bible says gay activity is acceptable to God, is nothing short of willful blindness. So to set the record straight once and for all, here is what the Bible teaches on the subject.

Anyone who has heard of the cities of "Sodom and Gommorah" knows that they were notorious hotbeds of homosexuality. Gen 19:5-8 "and they called to Lot and said to him, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.' But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, 'Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.'" The Greek word in the New Testament for homosexuality is literally "a sodomite". Jock is trying to redefine what the term "sodomite" means. (A term that has unchanged in 5000 years, even today- "sodomy"wink Apart from the fact the city was clearly destroyed by God because of homosexuality in the narrative of Gen 19, even the New Testament clearly states exactly the same thing in Jude 7 "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire." Any sinner should always remember that the God who commands us to love our neighbour is the same God who will cast any and all unrepentant sinners into the "eternal fire". Here are more Bible quotes, Lev 18:22-23 "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." Lev 20:13 "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death." 1 Cor 6:9 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals" 1 Tim 1:9-10 "realizing the fact that (civil) law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers" Rom 1:26-27 "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."

If the gay community chooses to practice homosexuality in privacy, that is there free choice. But let such persons know for certain that the Christian Bible condemns all such practices and God will judge them unfit for the kingdom of heaven if the continue to practice and openly promote gay sex.


bible.ca/s-homo=sin.htm
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by FXKing2012(m): 12:04pm On Feb 11, 2012
For those who may not know, gay-ism is an evil spirit and that is part of the reason why Sodom was destroyed by God (Gen. 19: 4-11). The people of Sodom were gays so God destroyed them with fire and brimstone.

If u are gay it's time to repent!
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by Judek2(m): 1:19pm On Feb 11, 2012
Gay is from the Devil. It is the evil spirit of condemnation.
Re: Nigerian Gay Church Reopens: Alleluia! by segeblack(m): 9:56am On Aug 18, 2014
Morally homosexuality s wrong there are more ladies for any man to say am a gay except for ritual or demonic purpose but Jesus allow u turn call for prayer evang/prophet segun ogundeyi c and s church iju ota ogun state 08084857802 21e985c9 bb pin

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