By Nonduduzo Kunene | 2019-11-18

A pastor from the Fountain of Life International Church says the world would not be complete without Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender Intersex people (LGBTI).

Pastor Fana Lukhele was speaking yesterday during the closing of the Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities conference which was held at Hawane Resort since last week.

The four-day workshop was aimed at addressing and finding a way forward on the issues that the LGBTI community faces each day in terms of access to health, human rights and mental health, amongst other topics.

Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities Organisation is pioneered by Melusi Simelane. The closing ceremony was marked by a powerful and spiritual church service that was led by the church, which was then followed by discussions which were based on faith, spirituality and sexuality.

The pastor started his sermon by giving a brief background of his life.

He stated that five years ago he was  unhappy with his life, as he was not accepted by society because he was a gay man. He stated that he got married but that marriage failed as he was not living his truth.  He added that after he came out as a gay man, he moved from church to church as he was not accepted. Lukhele said he went to six churches before founding Fountain of Life International Church at Fairview in Manzini.

Discriminated

“Some gay people are stuck in marriages because they do not want to be discriminated by society and in the process make their lives miserable,” he said. He revealed that some LGBTI persons are also parents because some were married before or engaged with opposite sex before they came out. He further stated that even today, society was labelling him for leading a gay church in the country. This is the first church that allows LGBTI persons. The church’s headquarters are based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In his sermon, Lukhele said God has a purpose for everyone in this world. He boldly stated that the world would not be complete without LGBTQI people. He said this was because God is the God of order.

“If God is a God of order, can you imagine if everyone was heterosexual what the world would be,” he said.

He said the world would be in a mess if everyone was married and gave birth to children. He said God then brought order by creating homosexuals in order to control the population, which would be uncontrollable. This is because homosexual couples cannot reproduce, meaning having children naturally. The pastor said these words while quoting Jeremiah 18 verse 4 ‘and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.’ 

In the verse, the pastor revealed that the scripture meant that a person should be acceptable in the eyes of God not parent, not to the eyes of the community, hence  the LGBTI community was suitable and good in the eyes of the Lord.The flamboyant pastor strongly spoke against the pastors who discriminate against the LGBTIs. He said they were not doing what the Bible or the Lord has instructed them to do.

He quoted Mark 16 verse 15 which states; “go into the entire world and preach the gospel to all creation’. 

He said by all creation Jesus meant everyone, including the LGBTI persons. He added that John 3 verse 16 states that whosoever that believes in Christ shall have internal life. By whosoever, the verse does not discriminate but includes everyone, even LGBTI persons. Lukhele further strongly spoke against religious leaders who went around spreading rumours that they change verses in the Bible to suit them. “Some even say that our church uses a different Bible,” he said.

The pastor said that was not true, as they use the normal Bible that is used by any Christian out there. He said this while lifting up his black Bible written Libhayibheli lelingcwele.

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