‘Gay cure’ pastor says that homosexuality is a ‘demon’
A South African pastor has said he can drive out the “gay demon”.
Pastor Hamilton Nala has told his 30,000 fervent followers that homosexuality is comparable to AIDS, which he claims he can cure with his own brand of bottled ‘holy water’.
During an episode of South African channel eNCA’s show, Checkpoint, the pastor, who calls himself King Nala, said that homosexuality was an “unseen spirit that torments people.”
He added: “We don’t believe God created homosexuality.
“We believe homosexuality is like when you get a child with three legs.”
The pastor, who preaches in Durban, claimed he had two women in his congregation who he had cured of homosexuality.
He told the interviewer: “I have come to realise, homosexuality is a spirit, whether you are born with it, whether you got it after you were born – it’s like AIDS.”
The pastor also compared being gay with being disabled or addicted to drugs.
“Someone can be born blind, lame, and if you search for why gay people are gay on the internet, no one will explain why someone is born this way,” he said.
“But it is abnormal, so we do something for those who want help.
“There are those who like dagga (cannabis), but I have seen those who developed those along the way, who can be helped.”
He also vowed to continue with conversion therapy, which the World Psychiatric Association has said is unethical, unscientific and harmful to those who undergo it.
“I feel in South Africa, they want to criminalise those who want to heal with the gift God has given us.
“If they can’t prove it scientifically, then they want to criminalise it, but I will carry on.”
Following the episode being aired, Nala said: “I was misquoted, I was framed,” to HuffPost SA, despite being filmed while saying all of these comments.
Earlier this year, Cindy Maotoana, chairperson for a South African LGBT group, said that their community was being targeted, especially lesbians, who were falling victim to so-called ‘corrective rape’.
Maotoana said that LGBT+ people were “hiding because they are scared of being raped and being brutally burned”.
Watch a clip from the episode here:
