‘Gays’ possessed by the devil—opponent

Press, 10 August 1985, Page 9

‘Gays’ possessed by the devil—opponent

To believe that homosexuality is a human rights issue is to get it wrong — it goes far deeper than that, says the touring anti-gay rights activist, the Rev. Louis Sheldon, from California. Homosexuality is about evil and death, he says. Homosexuals, in his view, are possessed by the demon when they go out to perform “depraved” acts on other men, knowing that they could be spreading A.I.D.S. (acquired immume deficiency syndrome). Although he acknowledges that talk of demons and evil spirits is passed off by civilised society as irrational hocus-pocus, he passionately defends his use of the terms. “A Christian believes in life, in family, in redemption,” Mr Sheldon says. “Homosexuality is selfdestructive. It is inherently adulterous, which through A.I.D.S. causes death. “We are talking about demon possession here. A medical holocaust potentially worse than the holocaust of the Jews,” he says. Mr Sheldon has been brought to New Zealand by the Coalition of Concerned Christians to speak specifically in opposition to the proposed Homosexual Law Reform Bill. An obviously seasoned campaigner, Mr Sheldon is the founder of the California Coalition for Traditional Values, and has been active in opposing the decline of traditional moral values in the United States.

He has a Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and for 20 years, he was a Presbyterian minister in California. Recently, he has become the pastor of an independent church, the Trinity Church of Anaheim. His’political activism has grown, he says, from the days when a similar bill to New Zealand’s Homosexual Law Reform bill was proposed in California 11 years ago. Mr Sheldon became a leader in both the struggle to defeat the bill, called the Adult Consenting Bill, and when it was passed in 1975 by one vote, he continued his opposition by working for its repeal. He sees the “curse of A.1.D.5.” as having dated from then, allowing for the

three-to four-year incubation period the'virus needs. Five per cent of the American population is homosexual, with the majority living in California, he says, and Californian residents account for 73 per cent of A.I.D.S. victims in the United States. “This is a clear scenario of degeneracy,” he says. “It is totally against what Western civilisation was built upon — God, the family, and the self-worth of the individual.” Mr Sheldon believes that if New Zealand passes its bill, a similar situation will occur here.

“The sleeping giant is awakening, A.I.D.S. is a total wipe-out,” he says. The gay power movement in California has taken over much of the state society, educationally, politically, familially, and medically, Mr Sheldon says. This must be avoided in New Zealand at all costs.

Mr Sheldon will address a public meeting at Majestic House, Manchester Street, today at 7.30 p.m.