Liberia’s “Christian Media Center” has issued a new statement demanding that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf “Save Liberia from Rise of Homosexuals”; however, the author throws in a few other digs:
The Center in a release said President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is not a Christian and heads of religious organizations have to be very careful how they deal with her when it comes to such issues.
The Faith Based Media Group reminded Liberians about president Sirleaf’s prolonged attacks on ELWA Ministries one of the Christian land marks of Liberia, and it took the grace of God to redeem ELWA.
The Center said no one calling on the name of JESUS will attack any religious institution let alone the church institutions as the president did.
Christian Media Center noted that President Sirleaf and her Children have over the past six years invested huge amounts of their ill-gotten wealth from Liberia’s natural resources in the United States, South Africa and Great Britain Countries that have capped Gay rights as civil liberties and under no condition will she willingly sign such bill into law except protests from the streets of Monrovia.
The CMC’s CEO is a man named Philip Sandi, who was thrown out of the Liberian Council of Churches in 2011 for allegedly “destructive and offensive behavior” and ” inflammatory utterances, emails and publications”. He is a former Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia, and an ordained minister in the Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church (Stewart is a Prosperity preacher based in Pheonix, AZ, and the heir to A.A. Allen; his name became affiliated with the Liberian denomination after a link was made in 1986).
Sandi’s conspiratorial obsession with the subject of homosexuality rivals Scott Lively or Martin Ssempa; in July he opined that:
God abhors homosexuals and lesbians because their acts are not only sinful but one intended to end the human race… the president is inconsistent on this issue and there are close friends of the president in the Liberian clergy that are either homosexuals or supporters of the act.
ELWA Ministries (“Eternal Love Winning Africa”), meanwhile, is a radio outreach of the Sudan Interior Mission (today known as “Serving in Mission“), and it has had a prominent presence in Liberia since 1954 – today, it also encompasses a hospital, a youth camp, and a school. However, the construction of a new ministerial complex has encroached on ELWA-owned land, resulting in a legal dispute; Sandi has led protests against the development, writing a piece entitled “By Grabing [sic] Elwa Land You Are Fighting God Madam President” (“she is not only a liar but an agent of the devil… even Judas Iscariot was replaced… REPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!”) and apparently gaining the support of “a group of pastors based in Atlanta Georgia, USA under the banner ‘Concerned Pastors for ELWA (COPE)'”.
The ministerial complex is being constructed by China, and the dispute has brought the Chinese Embassy into the story; Front Page Africa reported in September:
The Chinese envoy said the Ministerial complex value US$60 million if completed will accommodate ten ministries and agencies something he said will save the Government of Liberia millions of dollars on rent and promote collaboration between Ministries and agencies in the country,
…Said Envoy Zhao: “China has nothing to do with the land issue between the Government of Liberia and the management of ELWA, and we will continue to support the Government and people of Liberia in its ongoing developmental drive.”
…”I will appreciate you to cover this issue without mentioning anything on the ELWA land issue[“] he pleaded with journalist attending a meeting at the Chinese Embassy in Monrovia.
Sirleaf met with ELWA a few weeks later; Information Minister Lewis Brown afterwards claimed that “ELWA representatives used the occasion to clarify that the Christian Mission has no desire to stand in the way of development, as it may have been misconstrued by some members of the public.”
Of course, from this distance it’s difficult to determine whether Brown’s statement is accurate or to assess the rights and wrongs of the legal dispute. But either way, does ELWA – or SIM – really want to be associated with Sandi’s ludicrous bombast and anti-gay hate?
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