Church tough on Foote
THE UNITED States should just accept Zambia’s request to withdraw its Ambassador Daniel Foote, a senior clergyman has charged.
THE UNITED States should just accept Zambia’s request to withdraw its Ambassador Daniel Foote, a senior clergyman has said.
In an interview yesterday, Bible Gospel Church in Africa (BIGOCA) Archbishop Peter Ndhlovu said all foreign countries must understand that Zambia is a sovereign nation that determines her own destiny.
“America should just accept that we have decided to withdraw their ambassador. He is a wrong guy to be in Zambia and they cannot move us. Even those political parties advocating gay rights have no room in this era, they have no room in the Zambian context.
“Zambia is a sovereign nation and we determine our destiny and it cannot be determined by any other person. Therefore we choose our friends and nobody can choose friends for us. We have done that (request for Mr. Foote’s recall) with our clear conscience because of our values and our ethics as a country,” Archbishop Ndhlovu said.
He reiterated that even founding fathers of the US never believed in homosexuality and if Mr. Foote entertains gay right then he is a wrong man to be in Zambia.
“Let him go to other countries where they believe in homosexuality. We are not going to sell our birth right, they must just accept what we are. With or without aid we still remain Zambia. We cannot spoil the next generation by accepting homosexuality as a string to our aid, no.
“The church will rise and never vote for political parties supporting gay rights. In 2021 they have lost it, they will never get a vote from a meaningful Christian believer,” he said.
A local tabloid yesterday quoted a press officer in the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs saying that her country was dismayed with the Zambian Government’s statement that Mr Foote’s position is no longer tenable.
Mr. Foote has put himself under heavy criticism for condemning a 15-year jail term that the High Court recently slapped on two men of Kapiri Mposhi for practising homosexuality, prompting the Zambian Government to request the US to recall him.