The country of Zambia has forced the recall of our Ambassador after he criticized the country for jailing two men who engaged in the act of Sodomy:
DAILY MAIL – A senior U.S. State Department official criticized the government of Zambia on Thursday after the Trump administration called its ambassador back to Washington amid a fight over gay rights.
Zambia’s high court sentenced two men this month to 15 years in prison for engaging in a sexual relationship ‘against the order of nature,’ a euphemism for gay sex.
Ambassador Daniel Foote was openly critical of Edgar Lungu’s government in Lusaka, saying he was ‘personally horrified’ by the imprisonment. Lungu shoved back publicly, saying he wanted Foote to leave.
‘We don’t want such people in our midst. We want him gone,’ Lungu said in a public speech at a revival tent-style church fundraiser, broadcast by the state-owned TV network ZNBC. He also thanked churches in Zambia ‘for voicing out against unchristian values such as homosexuality.’
A State Department spokesperson declined on Friday to say why it was ‘required’ to recall Foote. The spokesperson said that the Zambian government had called Foote’s position ‘no longer tenable,’ a declaration ‘which we consider to be the equivalent of a declaration that the Ambassador is Persona Non Grata.’
The Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs tweeted yesterday that he was “Dismayed by the Zambian government’s decision requiring our Ambassador Daniel Foote’s departure from the country…”
Dismayed by the Zambian government’s decision requiring our Ambassador Daniel Foote’s departure from the country.
— Tibor Nagy (@AsstSecStateAF) December 26, 2019
Fifteen years is a very heavy sentence for sodomy. I get that Zambia wants nothing to do with homosexuality, but when governments become overly oppressive many times it leads to the opposite effect, creating a huge underground movement. Look at how China dealt harshly with Christianity for so many years and how it has flourished.
I’m not saying the two are the same at all. Sodomy is despicable in the sight of God and one day soon it will be gone, along with all sin, when Jesus returns to reunite us to Himself. But until then, I just don’t think unreasonable prison sentences like this one are going to have the desired effect of eradicating homosexuality in Zambia.