Tengatenga—Homophobe or Not?

This morning’s question: was James Tengatenga really the head of the Malawi Council of Churches, and if so, what was his position on the enforcement of the country’s sodomy laws, which assign five years of prison for females, and fourteen for males?

Whoa—you’re saying. Malawi? Tengatenga? And what’s the thing about sodomy?

OK—I confess it, I didn’t know a thing about Malawi either, though my computer, for once, didn’t red squiggle the word. But in my defense…oops, there is no defense. The country gained independence in 1964, so I certainly should have studied it—or at least run into it—in my elementary school days.

But first, here’s the map of Africa—locate South Africa, and then travel northeast.

Malawi is small, as you can see, and landlocked. Here’s Wikipedia on the subject: 

Malawi is among the world's least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet development needs, although this need (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in building and expanding the economy, improving education, health care, environmental protection, and becoming financially independent. Malawi has several programs developed since 2005 that focus on these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving, with improvements in economic growth, education and healthcare seen in 2007 and 2008.

Malawi was a single-party state whose ruler, Hastings Banda, stayed in power for thirty years. It’s currently a multi-party state, headed by Joyce Banda (no relation).

OK, you say, I’ve joined the rest of the group on geography—now fill me in on James Tengatenga.

He was, up until very recently, an Anglican bishop, and quite an important one. Here’s Reuters on the subject:

He served as diocesan bishop of Southern Malawi and chair of the Worldwide Anglican Communion's Anglican Consultative Council, a network of 44 churches.

According to some, Tengatenga’s views on LGBT issues are moderate, at least by sub-Saharan standards; this is what Boston.com has to say:

Close observers of gay rights issues in Africa say Tengatenga has been an ally who has publicly opposed the most virulently anti-gay pronouncements of other African bishops, and that he played a crucial role in keeping the Anglican Communion from splitting apart in the aftermath of Robinson’s election.

He has other supporters as well; here’s the Boston Globe:

The Rev. Kapya John Kaoma, who has conducted extensive research on religion and sexuality in Malawi and other African countries for Political Research Associates, said Tengatenga is widely considered a friend to gay activists there. In 2010, Tengatenga organized bishops from Southern Africa to put out a statement countering an assertion by other African bishops encouraging governments to criminalize homosexuality, Kaoma said.

Why is all of this important?

Dartmouth College initially offered the position of dean of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation; one source said that the dean is the moral and spiritual head of the Dartmouth community.

And Tengatenga accepted the position; he then resigned from his position as bishop. At that point the news erupted, or the controversy started. The LGBT group at Dartmouth wanted to know—where, in a region that is among the most homophobic in the world, did Tengatenga stand?

And there was some reason to think that he stood, well, where the LGBT community didn’t want him to stand. Again, here’s boston.com:

Controversy erupted after word circulated that Tengatenga opposed the 2003 election of the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay bishop, and asserted in 2011 that Malawi’s Anglican provinces remained “totally against homosexuality.”

But, again from boston.com:

After accepting Dartmouth’s offer, the Rev. James Tengatenga last month resigned his post as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi and publicly affirmed his support for marriage equality – a risky stance in Malawi, where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

And was Tengatenga part of the Malawi Council of Churches? Because when the prime minister, Joyce Banda, tried to stop enforcement of the anti-homosexuality laws, she ran into a brick wall, mostly from the churches. The Independent says this:

Justice ministry sources said pressure from the Malawi Council of Churches, a group of 24 Protestant churches, forced the U-turn.

And from the website of the World Council of Churches, the Malawi Council of Churches has four Anglican Dioceses, including the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi, of which Tengatenga is bishop.

Oh, and that organization did speak out firmly. The Nyasa Times, curiously, won’t let me highlight in order to copy / paste (guys, you may be “Malawi breaking online news source” but even the New York Times, for God’s sake, lets me copy and paste….). But yup, they didn’t mince words, even going so far as to cite Leviticus 20:13. 

At the end, the new president of Dartmouth College rescinded the offer, at the urging of LGBT groups and the NAACP. Tengatenga offered a few stinging remarks.

The crux of the issue, to me, is stated here:

“You are asking the impossible of someone coming out of that African situation,” said the Rev. Nicholas Henderson, a parish priest in West London, an editor of Anglicanism.org, and a vice president of Modern Church, the oldest theological society in the Anglican Communion. “Just rescinding that [appointment] is to show a lamentable lack of understanding of circumstances that are outside the confines of privileged North America.”

There’s something a bit fishy here. It’s the old story, the story we were told in the seventies when the gay movement emerged. “Go slow, make alliances, change doesn’t come overnight, we need time to educate people,” went one chorus. The other chorus was singing, “out the politicians who are screwing boys in private and voting against gay rights in congress and state legislatures, picket the fundamentalist churches, get in people’s faces and scream for your rights.”

Oh, and this mention of “privileged North America?” No one is going to deny that Dartmouth is privileged; no one can deny that North America is privileged, though I wonder if Henderson is including—as he should—Mexico in North America. But it’s interesting—Malawi can have a female head of state; that’s wonderful. And quite progressive. So why can’t it at least decriminalize homosexuality?

And I’ve spent twenty minutes trying to find it on the Internet—the story of the shameless hounding out of a job and into a mental institution of a gay academic in the 1950’s. It was Smith College, but it could have been any Ivy League school.

Schools that have gone on to have gay studies programs, gay student organizations, gay student class presidents. Yes, we have different realities—but a fourteen-year prison sentence for consensual sex among adults? Does the reality of Southeastern Africa justify that? 

Tengatenga acknowledges that his views on homosexuality have been “evolving.” My first reaction? Bullshit. “Evolving” means holding back until there’s enough of a crowd; then you step in and claim your place at the head of the parade.

The old question—which chorus should you listen to, which chorus does the work?

Both. Nobody changes without a group making a radical demand for change, whereupon the conservatives turn to the group offering a moderate voice for change.

And Tengatenga?

As always—I don’t know. But that’s OK—questions are more important than answers.