Turff: Hi Dave
David Bondze-Mbir (DBM): Hi. How are you doing?
Turff: Fine. U?
DBM: I am doing alright, thanks.
Turff: I am going straight to the point?
DBM: Sure! What’s up?
Turff: I just found out that one of my best friends – I have known him since we were ten, is gay, and I am upset.
DBM: Why are you upset?
Turff: This guy stole my girlfriend when we were in secondary school and I never forgot about it. I never forgave him.
DBM: Do you still call him ‘your’ friend?
Turff: Yes. He has been there when I truly needed him in the past. I could call on him at 1 o’clock in the morning for literally anything, and he will be there with no hesitancy. I love him like a brother from another mother.
DBM: No one can ‘steal’ a girl from you. It’s all up to the girl. If she decided to leave you for your gay friend, then she wasn’t that much into you.
Turff: I and the girl were very much in love, Dave
DBM: A girl who doesn’t want to be ‘stolen’ in a relationship cannot be taken away by another man
Turff: I am upset because all that while he was a homosexual and he pretended as if he likes girls.
DBM: Look at it also from this angle; your girl needed a moment to step back to allow space – so you both could grow individually. It’s another way of honoring what you two shared and held dear, without forcing it into a shape it cannot hold. You were young. You were in senior high school.
Turff: Anyway, it’s in the past
DBM: The past is a memory we can still appreciate because of the people in it that impacted our lives for the better or worse.
Turff: Yeah. Back to my friend. He reached out to me telling me he needed a place to perch for like six months. He was staying with his friend but has been kicked out.
DBM: How old is he?
Turff: 36
DBM: Does he work?
Turff: Yes, but I don’t think he earns enough
DBM: Are you in a position to host him?
Turff: For six months?
DBM: Are you in a position to host him?
Turff: Yes, but I might have to ask my wife.
DBM: Okay! Ask your wife then?
Turff: My wife will not agree
DBM: Have you asked her?
Turff: Not yet
DBM: How do you know she wouldn’t agree?
Turff: She doesn’t approve of homosexuality.
DBM: Oh, okay! If she condemns people like that, then you’ve got to protect her wish.
Turff: Moreso, we have kids. Boys
DBM: What has that got to do with anything?
Turff: Moreso, we are a Christian household.
DBM: What has it got to do with the other?
Turff: I’m just saying … You know… Trumutrumu tu.
DBM: What is your memory of him? How would you describe your friend to me?
Turff: He is a very nice guy, very polite and respectful. He is thoughtful, honest and very smart. He is not a troublemaker. He used to walk like a girl.
DBM: Smh!
Turff: But it’s true. Lol.
DBM: Why is he being kicked out from his previous abode?
Turff: His roommate found out he sleeps with men.
DBM: Why, were they sharing the same room?
Turff: No.
DBM: Does it bother you that he is same-sex attracted?
Turff: I don’t know. But I know God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
DBM: Do you know why GOD destroyed those two cities?
Turff: Yes. Men were sleeping with men.
DBM: The account in Genesis 19:6-8, states that, Lot went out to meet an angry mob at his entrance and begged them to rather rape his two virgin daughters. Did you read that part?
Turff: But Dave, the Bible clearly calls homosexuality a sin in Genesis 19.
DBM: That’s not my understanding of that passage. Read Ezekiel chapter 16:49. It says Sodom was destroyed because the people were greedy and arrogant. They were prideful and wicked. They were corrupt and lacked empathy. They were also neglecting the poor amongst them. Because most people in church practice selective outrage, they would rather associate Sodom and Gomorrah with homosexuality, and not address the sexual violence against women and men.
Turff: How about Leviticus? The Bible calls it an abomination.
DBM: I don’t wanna go into this conversation
Turff: Why? What are you scared of?
DBM: I am not scared of this subject. I just don’t see the point in explaining myself to a homophobe
Turff: I am not. I am just asking questions.
DBM: You are not asking questions. You’re using mistranslated Bible scriptures as a weapon to control a narrative.
Turff: Leviticus says homosexuality is an abomination. Let’s discus.
DBM: Why do you want us to discuss it?
Turff: Because my wife will use these same scriptures to refuse my friend.
DBM: Will you be comfortable with him staying with you?
Turff: Yes
DBM: I am a Chriatian, and I am not obligated to follow the Mosiac Law. Though some commandments have been brought forward because they are deemed helpful for our faith in the New Testament, I am often tempted to ask which of the commandments are worth keeping today. And if they’re to be kept, what criteria is to be used?
Turff: I don’t quite understand what you are saying but continue. Lol!
DBM: Leviticus 11:4-7 forbids the eating of pig, rabbit, shell-related fishes (crabs, shrimps, etc.). Do you eat any of these today? Leviticus 19:19 forbids the wearing of clothes made with more than one kind of fiber. Does your wife eat fried shrimps with fried yam and shito, while wearing a mixed fabric to look pretty? Do you have tattoos on you?
Turff: No
DBM: Good! Because Leviticus 19:28 forbids it. Does your wife wear trousers?
Turff: Yes
DBM: Deuteronomy 22:5 forbids women from wearing any men’s clothing. Leviticus 19:19 forbids sowing mixed crops. Do you know how vegetables and food-based plants are grown on farms by farmers before being sold to your wife at the market?
Turff: Dave, but I don’t think it’s the same argument.
DBM: It is the same. You brought Leviticus and what it describes as an abomination, no? Leviticus 25:35-37 commands you not to charge interest on loans or take profit from people who do not have, or cannot afford. Leviticus 25:23 bans the selling of land permanently to prevent divide between landowners and serfs. Deuteronomy 21:15-17 calls out the assumption of having multiple wives or concubines a sin. Is your wife the only woman you have been intimate with since you married?
Turff: No.
DBM: Have you ever had sex with a woman on her menstrual period?
Turff: Yes
DBM: Leviticus 18:19, 20:18 calls it a sin. Leviticus 19:33-34 commands us not to treat foreign residents as though they were equal citizens. Are you friends with, and nice to a foreigner? Why do Christians choose which prohibitions in the Bible to apply if not to police and marginalize others? It’s only a small-minded bigot who will refuse to hold people accountable for what Jesus actually said.
Turff: But in Genesis, we all know God created Adam and Eve, and not Adam and Steve?
DBM: The entire creation story in Genesis, to the best of my knowledge was about roots, ancestries, backgrounds, heritage and mainly, companionship. It wasn’t about orientation. Adam and Eve, was a beautiful love story GOD created. They lived their best lives. Let other creations of GOD who find other creations of GOD attractive be. Leave them be if they have shared experiences, which requires the same effort, presence and alignment you bring to the table to make your wife feel loved. What makes you think they don’t deserve what other people bring into their lives? The laughter, the lessons, the love?
Turff: Expunge what I am about to say from our chat
DBM: What now?
Turff: I fucked him when I was in UCC. He was in Legon. He visited me a couple of times.
DBM: What do you mean?
Turff: That doesn’t make me gay
DBM: Wait! Is he the only guy you have had sex with?
Turff: Yes, or maybe, no. But I love pu$$y.
DBM: Did you enjoy the sex with him?
Turff: Yes.
DBM: What happened next?
Turff: Nothing happened next. He was catching feelings. I don’t do feelings.
DBM: You do feelings. You just don’t do feelings with a man. I don’t think you should let him come over and stay. If you can afford to help him rent a place of his own, that would be ideal.
Turff: Why do you say that? I want him to come over
DBM: In-as-much-as you say you enjoy sex with your wife, you also have a desire to engage in sexual acts, specifically anal sex, with a specific man.
Turff: But Dave, I don’t want to date him
DBM: I understand, but what you just told me tells me that your sexual orientation may be more fluid and open to exploration when it comes to sexual experiences, while your choice of romance is more aligned to acting straight and staying married to your wife.
Turff: I can afford to help him rent a place.
DBM: That settles it then.
Turff: But that would also mean, I might be going there to visit him
DBM: That is better than confusing your wife with his presence at home. She would wonder exactly what the man she’s in love with have in common with a homosexual. And by extension, what she possibly could have in common with him. You are that common denominator they both share.
Turff: We had something going. It wasn’t what I wanted but it was fulfilling.
DBM: You had friendship, and that should be good enough. He cannot force you to be what he needs, just as you cannot fix yourself in a situation that doesn’t serve you. That doesn’t erase the good times you shared. It’s okay to sometimes look back and appreciate what he once meant to you. It doesn’t make you gay. It makes you human.
Image Credit: Gweje of Africa