Editorial: More than one kind of love

The Christian Bible, the best-selling book of all time, contains much wisdom.Mark 12:31: “‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” However, too often, biblical scripture has been interpreted to justify the unjust. Slavery. Colonialism. Apartheid. “A specious interpretation of the Bible was used to justify an exclusive and aggressive political philosophy,” Dominique Greiner wrote in La Croix International on the apartheid-era government. We see the same strategy deployed by many Namibians to deny equal civil rights to their fellow citizens, those whose sexual identities and orientations differ from theirs.Around independence, founding president Sam Nujoma urged Namibians “to set ourselves higher standards of equality, justice and opportunity for all, without regard to race, creed or colour.”Not so long ago, Namibians were willing to sacrifice their lives to ensure a just society. Given this recent history, how can we defend the unjust by similarly applying selective scripture to justify the oppression of fellow Namibians because of who they love or identify as? Instead of weaponising the Bible to dehumanise and discriminate, let’s be guided by its overarching message of love and tolerance. After all, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus, as Galatians 3:28 so wisely teaches us.

Editorial: More than one kind of love

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

Please login to leave a comment

Editorial: More than one kind of love

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

Please login to leave a comment

Login