The Church of Ireland says the visit of a controversial evangelist to a congregation in Wexford was not timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Marriage Equality Referendum, writes Joe Leogue of the Irish Examiner.
Argentinean speaker Ed Silvoso, who has described the marriage of gay couples as “blatant immorality”, was due to speak at the Redcross Church north of Arklow on Sunday, a year to the day since the Marriage Equality referendum was held.
The Church of Ireland has said that the invitation to Silvoso has been cancelled, but would not say when asked if Canon Roland Heaney, Rector at Redcross Church, was aware of Silvoso’s pronouncements on homosexuality when he invited him to speak.
“Canon Heaney has seen Dr Silvoso speak in Dublin and his message was about prayer and encouraging people to be the light and salt of their communities,” the spokesperson said.
“He spoke about how to transform the world by being a church in the community and it was in this context, and no other, that he was to speak in Redcross.”
The spokesperson said that Silvoso was expected to speak “about churches getting involved in their communities” at the church before his invitation was cancelled.
“Redcross Church is not aware of the timing of Dr Silvoso’s visit. It is understood that he is visiting Ireland to attend a conference which is not connected with Redcross Church, the organiser of which contacted the Rector to say Dr Silvoso was free on Sunday morning if the Rector would like him to preach,” the spokesperson said.
Silvoso’s appearance at Redcross Church was cancelled after Cork-based campaigner Fiona O’Leary contacted the Church of Ireland to raise the issue of his controversial stance on homosexuality.
Silvoso has written on the subject in a number of his books, and critics say he has influenced Ugandans who introduced a death penalty in 2009 for those found to have engaged in homosexual acts.
In “Transformation: Change The Marketplace and You Change the World”, Silvoso describes the legislation of marriage equality as “blatant immorality”.
“Sustainability, not to mention additional progress, depends on the new South African leaders’ embrace of Judeo-Christian values and ethics, instead of the existing drift towards amorality and the emerging push toward blatant immorality, as evidenced by the recent legalisation of homosexual marriage,” he wrote.
Footage on YouTube, purportedly recorded in Singapore in 2008, shows Silvoso deliver a speech about ‘Joey’, a taxi driver who followed Silvoso’s teachings and then later baptised a gay man.
“He dunked him three times, in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. When the new believer came up from the water, the power of God hit him, delivered him of all the demons, rewired him correctly, he felt like a man and he said to Joey ‘Man this is great’,” Silvoso told his audience.
Silvoso later describes the baptised man as “the ex-gay”. This anecdote also appears in some of Silvoso’s books. In “Anointed for Business” Silvoso writes that as a result of the man’s baptism “All of his homosexual desires disappeared.”
In another book entitled ‘That None Should Perish’, Silvoso describes homosexuality as “a challenge in the natural”.
“Abortion, homosexuality, violence and bigotry are spiritual problems within a human shell,” Silvoso wrote.
