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In ancient polytheistic Greece Armstrong continues, the male human body was literally deified and revered as the epitome of Greek sexuality. Like the Egyptians the Greeks believed that their gods were born through incest with other gods. He refers to Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ (begettal of the gods), replete with stories of copulation, incest, rape, and orgy which resulted in the Greek Pantheon of gods.

Since the gods who controlled much of Greek human life set such a libertine example in sexual matters, the Greek society naturally followed suit. The Greeks considered man to be naturally bi-sexual and this gave a boost to homosexuality. In militaristic Sparta for example, boys had older male ‘lovers’ by age 12, usually being their military commanders. Armstrong (1973) concludes that homosexuality was not limited to men in ancient Greece. “Women on the island of Lesbos were almost exclusively lovers of women, from where the modern word ‘lesbian’

originated. In Lesbos, the poetess Sapho ran a school for her girl lovers” (p. 17).

Rist (1969) highlights the Greeks’ effrontery in perverted sexual morality in the orator Diogenes’ argument that public masturbation should be upheld and incest to be treated with indifference. Diogenes also held that sexual intercourse should be

“a matter of agreement between parties concerned. If a man can persuade a woman, that is all that is required” (p. 56).

Armstrong (1973) commenting on the Roman Empire states: “The early Roman Empire was morally strong, helping Rome grow to its pinnacle of power. After the advent of the empire, morals reached what may be an all-time low” (p. 18). After the Grecian empire was subsumed in the Roman Empire, much of Greek religion

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and way of life were adopted, with similar effects on sexual morality. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, wrote at that time that lust was the primary satisfaction, and its consummation of the most common factor in social life. Armstrong further lamenting the situation states:

Emperors, supposedly the leaders of the people were perhaps the most depraved of all Romans. Nero, besides having frequent incestuous relations with his mother, once turned a young boy, Sporus into a girl by surgical means. He had a marriage ceremony with this young “it” with bridal veil and all. Caligula committed incest and other perversions…The Emperor Hadrian married a young Greek pageboy and orgies were common royal activity. (p.

18).

On the issue of wide practice of abortion, Armstrong quoted the Roman poet Juvenal as writing, “so subtle is the skill, so strong the drugs of the abortionists” (p.

19). The modern trans-sexual practice was also common in ancient Rome as

“hybrids of men and women …desired to be completely changed into women and went on to mutilate their genital organs” (p. 19).

Stott (1984) points out that one of the major signs of decadence in the Roman Empire was that its unwanted babies were ‘exposed’ that is abandoned and left to die. This was another alternative to abortion then. Historians agree that such depraved attitude to sex and its related issues helped quicken the downfall of the empire. Commenting on the contribution of religion to the sexual depravity of the Roman Empire, Schmidt (2004) states:

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Whether it was the craving to have sex with boys or to have sex with all sorts of women, the conscience of the Roman populace and its emperors was dead as stone. The pagan gods whom the Romans worshiped did not set high moral standards, nor did they ask for contrition or repentance–that was foreign to Greco-Roman paganism. Instead…the pagan gods were often seen as the first cause of the spiral of desire. (p. 87).

Schmidt also sees a strong connection of societies that have perverted sexual practices with the prevalence of strong pagan values. He cited Walter William's work on homosexuality among American Indians as follows:

The Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia, the Crows, the Klamaths, the Hopi, the Sioux, the Navajo, the Zuni, the Yokuts, and other tribes in the United States all practiced homosexuality before contact with Westerners.

Sometimes homosexual acts were intertwined with the religious ceremonies performed by shamans. (p. 89).

Mazrui (cited by Mbefo, 1996) referring to sexual morality in Africa states that Africans, like other human beings, are sexual beings, but by no means depraved when compared with the Euro-American sexual culture. He affirms:

The moral code was very strict in the largely conservative tribal groups.

Female and male circumcisions were practiced in order to curb sexual drive.

Men and women kept apart and carried out their functions in separated groups. There were severe actions against sexual misdeeds. Whosoever was responsible for a pregnancy had to marry the girl. A married woman that was

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found unfaithful was sent back to her parents and the bride-price paid on her head repaid. (p. 140).

The fore-going largely represents the core African approach to sexual morality, in which setting, homosexuality was rarely heard off. Mazrui goes on to emphasize that polygamy for which European writers and missionaries criticized Africa was not a sign of sexual promiscuity, but has significant reasons other than gratification of the flesh.

In African societies, the system of ethics and morals are ingrained in the people’s religion, customs and tradition, the three of which are inseparable. There is a community-based approach to moral issues in the society. Any violation of the moral order normally has a social aspect which involves serious social consequences which affects members of the society. Any negation of moral norms used to be interpreted as wronging the cosmic order, in which case the community was at risk if it condones the individual culprit. This makes righting the wrong a communal religious responsibility.

Foreign religions like Christianity and Islam to some extent disrupted African traditional life but helped in strengthening African traditional values on sexual morality. Magesa (2003) points out that Islam especially did not alter much of the African perception of the expression of human sexuality. (p. 205). With regard to the foregoing, the teaching of Judeo-Christianity is basically the same thing on sexual morality. Neal (cited by Curran, 1996) asserts that the relation of sexuality

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to religious belief can only be discussed meaningfully within the context of a religious commitment rooted in the creator's willingness to share creation with man. She states, "As long as the central human need called for was continued motivation to propagate the race, it was essential that religious symbols idealize the process above all others" (p. 240). The forces of secularization in modern society have created a tension between religion and sexual morality with visible effects in the widespread acceptance of sexual aberrations in modern times. In as much as religion has not been totally abandoned, conscious effort has been made to excise its utility value from other spheres of life like sex, education, commerce, etc. The deteriorating rejection of Christian religious norms as they relate to the problem of homosexuality could also be viewed as a 'spiritual' problem. D. K. Bello (personal communication, January 9, 2014) believes that homosexuality and other sexual aberrations are signs of the end time events predicted in the Holy Scriptures.

According to him "Things are not going to improve morally. In fact, morality shall continue to degenerate in human society and Christians must be awake lest they are overtaken by the satanic influences of the time".

Lyon (1985) posits that sexual morality like religion itself has been forced to flourish in people's private lives. The secularization of human thought produces a shrunken and shriveled view of God, who "supposedly squeezed out of the picture is safely shut off in the private areas of life with no contribution to make to operating the rest of his world" (p. 30).

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Generally, the gratification of sexual desire outside heterosexual marriage is against the mores of the people in Africa. The act was however done in a clandestine manner and was comparatively less frequent before the encounter with Western civilization. This is because in spite of the modern day permissiveness in sexual matters, no generation, age or clime can be said to be totally devoid of deviants and sexual immorality. The desire to have offspring remains the fundamental motive for marriage in most societies. However the fact that there are sexual rules guided by religion and punishment for deviants confirms the fact that every society has the probability of non-conformists who go against the morals of sexuality in it.

Human beings are sexual beings, whose sexual nature has been pre-determined from creation. Because of the susceptibility to sexual urge which may go against established religious and cultural norms, all societies have built-in restrictions on indulgence in sexual activity. Norris (2008) rightly asserts:

No doubt it is for just this reason that human beings have found it useful to restrict sexual activity by custom or law i.e. to have what might be called sexual “institutions” which are perforce at the same time social institutions, like the various forms of marriage concubinage…they represent the organization of sexual activity in a collective, social or cultural, as distinct from an individual form, and as such they are susceptible to moral judgment as virtuous or vicious. (p. 468).

Before the emergence of Western colonization and missionary enterprise, African societies were highly organized. Akhilomen (2005) states that “all things were

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functionally spiritual…thus the essentials of what constitutes the culture of the people were based on religious and in deep spiritual appreciation” (p. 51).