Buju should apologise for 'Boom Bye Bye'

The senior journalist was outraged and scandalised by my view that homosexuals should not face discrimination in employment. I was equally outraged that someone of his standing could so openly advocate such backwardness as victimising gay people.

"Then what you telling me is if I know that a man is a homosexual I must hire him in my newsroom?" he asked incredulously before releasing a barrage of expletives to register his disgust with my abhorrent and apparently ungodly suggestion that gay people have a right to employment. "Dem fi dead! Whey yu a talk 'bout give them job?" This is a journalist. And this is Jamaica. Don't tell me his views are unusual and that "it's just foreigners who don't understand us" who say Jamaicans have a deep, incalculably high, sometimes violent, revulsion toward homosexuals.

This same journalist friend, in one discussion where I told him that there are instances of homosexuality in nature and offered to show him an article on this in a scientific journal, stormed out of my office, saying "I don't want to read anything written by any (expletive) b-man!" Such an article, you see, must have been written by a homosexual. If a journalist could react this viscerally and unthinkingly to homosexuality, what hope is there that 'the common man' will anytime soon begin to rationally discuss this hot-button issue?

On what basis can Christians support discriminating against gay people at the workplace? Do homosexuals have no right to employment, social services and to human dignity? It seems to me that opponents of homosexuality don't do their cause any good by taking positions like these. They could say that the Old Testament prescribed death for homosexuals and that, clearly, if they should be killed, they can't have any right to a job!

But that is theologically unsustainable at several levels. First, there is widespread theological agreement that the Old Testament civil laws can't apply in our non-theocratic society. Theologically, there is absolutely no basis on which to apply the Old Testament prescriptions for the death penalty to homosexuals today. Besides, the Old Testament prescribed the death penalty for a range of offences, including adultery and fornication, popular pastimes in Jamaica.

punitive sanctions

Buju Banton

How can Christians be consistent by insisting on punitive sanctions for homosexuals while ignoring those same sanctions which the Bible, their source of authority, applies to fornicators and adulterers? It is that kind of inconsistency which makes the charge of sheer prejudice and stigmatisation stick.

To assert the civil liberties of all human beings, irrespective of their moral status, is not to endorse any particular lifestyle. This is a fundamental point that Christians and other opponents of homosexuality need to bear in mind. Civil liberties - like the right to free association - rights which must be enjoyed by all citizens, irrespective of what beliefs they hold in the mind or what they do with the groin!

Homosexuals should be free to have their meetings without any fear of disruption or, worse, violence. It is we, as a society, who should be ashamed that homosexuals can't even have closed-door meetings without the threat of violence against them, should we know. And we call ourselves a democratic society. Remember, even speaking narrowly within the context of our buggery laws, it is the act of buggery which is illegal, not one's identity as a homosexual.

gay parties

The buggery laws, in fact, don't differentiate in terms of gender. Women can be (and are being) buggered freely in Jamaica. We might not like it one bit, but gay people should be free to have their parties, clubs and even their churches without any interruption from any of us who disagree with them. That's what a pluralistic, democratic society should do.

Worried about the moral fabric of the society being ripped apart if gays are free to associate without interruption and violence from us 'decent, Christian people'? Well, that's what free speech is about; Campaign and preach vigorously against homosexuality. Preach that the homosexual lifestyle is sinful, harmful, degrading and unholy and that people who engage in it will go to hell. That's your right. But the problem, on the other hand, is that many gay people today would be as intolerant and uncivil in opposing Christians' right to say that the homosexual lifestyle is disgraceful, harmful and sinful.

Many are beginning to see that as 'hate speech'. Nonsense! The problem we are having is that the combatants upon both sides don't really believe in democratic values and each has been seeking to impose its view upon the other. There are few genuine libertarians, even among those in the gay community, who shout the loudest about their cosmopolitanism and broad-mindedness.

Here's how I see it. We must have, as has been famously expressed by United States Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, "freedom for the thought we hate". This is the true essence of a democracy. A democracy is not one in which the tyranny of the majority is imposed upon the few. A democracy must respect dissent and dissenters. The very notion of tolerance or toleration as the libertarian philosophers held it involves acceptance of disagreement and dissent. There are too many Christians who want to impose a theocracy upon the world and too many secularists who, equally, want to impose their secularist biases upon the world. Save us from Richard Dawkins, Bin Laden and Pat Robertson!

murder music

Christians should have no qualms about supporting gay people who are organising protests against dancehall artistes who preach violence and murder against gays in their music. We must oppose murder music and support those - irrespective of their sexuality - who oppose it. We must be unequivocal about that. Buju Banton is not the only dancehall artiste who has recommended death for homosexuals and so one can perhaps make the point that the gay people should seek out all of those who do and be equally vigilant about opposing their concerts.

I totally reject the view that Buju should donate to the gay cause in Jamaica through J-FLAG and I don't think the fellows here want any money from him either. Nor do I believe it is necessary for him to hold any town hall meeting calling on people to love gay people. But he should apologise unequivocally and clearly for Boom Bye Bye. It is good (and pragmatic for him) that he doesn't perform that abroad, but I don't think the gays are unreasonable in asking that he apologise for that signature murder music against gays. I don't think he has any obligation to make any new song proclaiming his love for gays.

All violence is wrong and must be condemned. Christians must be clear about their principles and must not play fast-and-loose with them. If we do, we run the risk of being justly typecast as regular bigots. My position on violence in dancehall music has been clear and consistent over a long period and the particular targeting of gay people also earns my condemnation.

immoral artistes

That these hypocritical, foul-mouthed and often immoral artistes who routinely and brazenly flout the sexual ethics of the Bible while supposedly "standing up for Bible" and proclaiming their "Christian heritage'' in condemning homosexuality should have the nerve to do so galls me. You see, some of these 'gyallis' artistes with their multiple baby-mothers, some of whom are not supported; some of these artistes are rapists and child-molesters, and yet they give interviews quoting from Leviticus about homosexuality being an abomination, while they continue their abominable practices.

And yet, we can have a headline about 'Finally Church and deejays agree'. My issue with the gays is that they should not target Buju alone, but get CDs of other artistes who do murder music targeted against gays and use their economic and political influence to burn their pockets, too.

It's just a pity that we in the heterosexual community are not as organised as the gays so that we can similarly force the gun-hawk artistes to stop their murder music generally. It is a pity that some of our so-called 'respectable' corporate sponsors still bankroll concerts and festivals for these violence-promoters because of these fat cats' selfish and greedy ends.

If dancehall artistes have the right to call for the murder of homosexuals, why don't homosexuals have the right to say you have no right to preach your violence in my hometown? And if we, who don't preach violence against homosexuals, have the right to say homosexuality is wrong, sinful and abominable - a right we must retain - then homosexuals must have the right to organise against us. Democracy is about the contention of various forces. The gays have more resources and influence in critical spheres, but as long as liberal democracies cherish democratic ideals, we have soft power.

equally obnoxious

The problem is that there are worrying signs that the gay lobby is intensely anti-democratic and anti-libertarian. The lobby seems intent on not simply toleration, but legitimisation and affirmation, without which they arrogantly dismiss opponents as homophobic. (They have successfully manipulated both language and science in their campaign.)

I find a number of gay people to be equally obnoxious, intolerant and hateful as fundamentalists. Just watch the responses from some gay people to this series of articles. They are as emotional and glandular as my journalist friend quoted above.

They feel that appeals to the Bible are inherently prejudicial and bigoted. They can't tolerate the view that homosexuality is inherently wrong, immoral and sinful. They don't feel comfortable with people openly advocating those views. But as one of the most well-known US justices, William Brennan, said: "If there is a bedrock principle that was protected by the first Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

The problem is that we have two vociferous camps, many of whose inhabitants compete with their irrationality, intolerance, bigotry and arrogance. But there must be a middle ground.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reched at ianboyne1@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.