If only Malta’s very own ballerina-turned-pastor Gordon Manché wasn’t so ridiculous, I might be a tad angry at his hypocrisy. I might also be slightly worried about his half-baked attempt to stall human rights and equality.

Thankfully, though, the pastor is not only ridiculous but also rather pathetic, so I’m neither angry nor worried. However, I am, admittedly, a little intrigued.

I can’t help but wonder what could possibly possess anyone – let alone someone who preaches about love and acceptance and who has admitted to having at one point in his life struggled with his own sexuality – trying to stop something that will only bring people together, get more couples to commit to each other, enhance equality, help our society to move on and accept that we’re living in the 21st century and, last but not least, hurt absolutely no one.

Last week Gordon Manché presented Parliament with a petition of 10,000 signatures against the proposed Civil Unions Bill. Of course, given his past attempts to convert gays with his witchcraft, it came as no surprise that the self-proclaimed pastor is against same-sex Unions, but is he within his rights to present such a petition, and what difference will it make in reality?

The populist argument being used to justify Manché’s petition is that if the legal process to call a referendum applies to ‘spring hunting’ then it should, in theory, apply to everything else.  

Now I’m no legal expert, so I don’t exclude the existence of some legal loophole that will make this happen, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is morally and ethically wrong to equate, or even remotely compare, the two concepts.

First of all, spring hunting does not bring people together but simply kills thousands of migrating birds and deprives the rest of us from Malta’s countryside in the springtime.

Secondly, and most importantly, the promise of civil unions with the exact same detail that is defined in the Bill (i.e. including gay adoption) was part of the Labour Party’s election manifesto. So, once the people of Malta elected the Labour Party into government, we automatically gave that government the go-ahead to enact its promise. In fact, it would be fundamentally undemocratic for the government not to enact the Civil Unions Bill into law.

And had the Nationalist Party been elected into government instead of the Labour Party, the same principle would apply because, before the election, the PN had pretended to agree with the Bill in its entirety.

Now back to Manché. He’s not the only one who intrigues me but I’m even more bewildered by how anyone takes him seriously, even for a second.

First he claims to have a cure for gayness with gay conversion sessions held at the Sapphire Hall in Haz-Zebbug, then he claims that the second coming of Jesus Christ is just around the corner – 2017, to be precise – and now, in between his pirouetting and patronising preaching on Smash TV, he has found the time to collect 10,000 signatures to stop the Civil Unions Bill. 

“These signatures were collected in just under four weeks,” he bragged to the cameras, adding that, given more time, he would find the necessary 40,000 to call a referendum, should the bill go through. He then went on to quote a ‘Lehen Is-Sewwa’ study which, according to him, shows that 80 per cent of the Maltese are against gay adoption. I swear this guy is one pirouette short of a circus if he thinks that a survey on ‘Lehen Is-Sewwa’ is in any shape or form representative of the Maltese population.

As expected, within 24 hours of Manché’s petition, a counter petition was launched online, and within a couple of days, close to 10,000 counter signatures were collected, but I too would be wrong to claim that these are representative of the Maltese population.

The real question here is: do these numbers and signatures matter?

If 80 per cent of the Maltese were really against gay adoption (or anything else, for that matter) does it automatically mean that they are right or that the government should give in to their wishes?

It is likely, for example, that 80 per cent of the population are against sharing their Christian country with irregular immigrants, so why haven’t we collected some signatures and used this as an argument to convince Europe?

Because when it comes to minority rights and human rights, the numbers argument should not and, does not, hold water. Simples!

According to media reports (forgive me, I know that I should have called Manché and asked him directly, but I don’t think I could speak to the man without retching), the pastor insisted that he is opposed to civil Unions because they offer the same rights and obligations as marriage, but he has no objection to providing “some kind” of legal recognition to gay couples to cover issues such as healthcare, for instance.

How kind of him, right? We should all take the time to write a little rainbow note to thank him for his kind gesture, and petty handouts.

What is more surprising than Manché’s patronising shenanigans is that very few (including the all-knowing pastor) seem to know that gay people have had the right to adopt since at least 2008 – ever since Malta’s Adoption Act was enacted. So why the likes of pastor Manché have not been up in arms before now is beyond me.  

The Civil Unions Bill will not give gay people the right to adopt because they already have that right. The Bill will only give gay people the right to adopt as a couple, together. The only practical difference this will make is that the Adoptions Board will also scrutinize the second parent, who will also be part of the child’s life. Up to now, because gay people could only adopt as singles, the second parent was always kept under the radar and never questioned by the Adoptions Board.

So, unless we want to go back to 2008 and change that Adoption Act, so depriving gay people from adopting at all, even as singles, then this Civil Unions Bill is the only way that the child’s interests can become a priority.

Ok, now back to my favourite pastor. You might be thinking that I’m being too hard on this guy, and that maybe I should just take pity on him instead. I’ll let you be the judge of that after reading some of the things that are on his website (The River of Love). Although written in the third person, I can assure you that these are words he personally chose to describe himself, typos and all.

While he lived in Houston - Texas, Gordon-John experienced a radical transformation in his life which ended changing the rest of his entire life, when he gave his life to Jesus Christ.

The Lord directed him to go to train at the prestigious, world renown Rhema Bible Training Centre’ (RBTC) in Broken-Arrow, Oklahoma and graduated with honors in the year of 2001. (www.rbtc.org)

Immediately after graduation from full-time Bible school, Gordon-John led a group of 10 other established ministers of the Gospel for a six week mission to North India, where they conducted Miracle Crusades and many Ministers/Pastors Conference, during which time they saw may people healed, delivered from withcraft and refreshed by the presence of the Holy Spirit and strenghtened by the teaching of the Word of God.

After spending about 5 whole years travelling around the USA and various other parts of the world, like Asia, Africa and Europe as a missionary-Evangelist, Gordon-John had a strong leading from the Lord to return to his country of birth (Malta) for a special work that God was calling Him to do. Something, which in the natural, was never part of Gordon’s plan for himself.

During a time of prayer Gordon-John heard the Lord say to Him, “I want you to go back to Malta because My people do not know Me”. Over six years passed before Gordon-John returned to Malta in Europe, after he had also received several other prophetic words of confirmation from people who did not know what was going on in His life who told him that The Lord Jesus Christ wanted him to return to Malta for the work that God had for Him.

When he came to Malta after much prayer and fasting, he also met his wife on a local popular TV program where he was invited to talk about Jesus. Three different people of God (who did not know each other) had told him that God wanted him to know that his wife is in Malta and she is Maltese!

Shortly after meeting his wife; they invited some people (while they were still courting each oother) to meet with them for a prayer meeting and share Christ with them. This was another significant sign and conformation from God that they were suppose to start this ministry since a few weeks before a man of God, Pastor Paul Goulet, told Gordon-John, “Don’t be afraid to start the work that God has called you, even if you start with just 25 people”. Their first house meeting 25 people came, where every one present gave their life to Christ and God invaded that room with His Holy Spirit and power and many were healed, and others set free!