African UMC Delegate on Homosexuality: 'If Sin is Sin, It Has to Stay Sin'

by Jim Brown
May 6, 2004

(AgapePress) - Overseas delegates attending the United Methodist General Conference in Pittsburgh have been issuing impassioned calls for the denomination to stop considering resolutions that embrace homosexuality.

On the floor of the General Conference, delegate Mande Mutombo from the North Katanga Conference in West Africa asked why the denomination was spending so much time debating behavior that is condemned in scripture.

"I'm wondering myself by what mechanism what the church considered yesterday to be a sin, how can it turn today and it becomes a God-blessed practice?" Mutombo asked.

Mutombo told delegates he believes God loves all people, but that the practice of homosexuality cannot be affirmed. "A church should definitely take its responsibility to stop coming again and again on this issue," he said. "If sin is sin, it has to stay sin as such and be removed once and for all."

Mutombo urged the denomination to call on homosexuals in the church to let their lives be transformed by God. He told the delegates they need to live up to the theme of this week's conference.

"The theme of the conference is clear: 'Water Washed, Spirit Born.' So this is a door which is open for people to be water washed, to come to God, and to be born anew to belong to the family of God," the delegate from Africa stated. "We are [all children] of God, but we live outside the sin area. This is sin. We will not continue as a church to support what we think is not correct."

The denomination has been considering several resolutions on sexual orientations, the ordination of homosexuals, inclusiveness, and civil rights. So far, the General Conference has voted down legislation supporting same-sex "marriage" or "civil unions."