Anglican leader fears Nigeria gay marriage backlash

Justin Welby, head of the Anglican Communion worldwide has warned that if the Church of England accepted gay marriage worldwide, it could prove "catastrophic" for Christians in Nigeria and other African countries.
On his four-nation tour of Africa earlier this year, the former oil executive wrote to the presidents of Nigeria and Uganda warning against the "victimisation or diminishment" of homosexuals.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the spiritual head of all Anglicans said encouraging gay marriage in Africa could potentially lead to massacres of Christians.
Gay marriage became legal in England and Wales on 29 March although the Church of England, the state church, is barred from performing same-sex marriages to provide it with an additional layer of legal protection.
"What we say here is heard around the world," Welby told LBC radio. "Why can't we just do it now? Because the impact of that on Christians in countries far from here, like South Sudan, like Pakistan, Nigeria and other places, would be absolutely catastrophic, and we have to love them as much as we love the people who are here."

Anglicans number 80 million and are one of the great international groups that there is in this world.
Welby said he recently visited a mass grave of 369 bodies in South Sudan where it was believed that "if we leave a Christian community here we will all be made to become homosexual and so we will kill all the Christians".
"I've stood by a graveside in Africa of a group of Christians who'd been attacked because of something that had happened far, far away in America," he said.
"That burns itself into your soul, as does the suffering of gay people in this country," he added.
He said that the church had to listen "incredibly carefully" to gay communities in England, but also study scripture, "which is definitive, in the end", before drawing conclusions.
"I really don't want to say no to people who love each other but you have to have a sense of following what the teaching of the church is. We can't just make sudden changes."