LONDON, UK  --  South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is slamming his own Anglican church for being "extraordinarily homophobic" in an interview scheduled to be aired on BBC radio this Tuesday.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said it is a shame that the church chooses to focus its attention on gay issues at a time when the world is beset with other pressing problems.

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and AIDS - a devastating pandemic, and conflict...In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality...God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another," Tutu said.

Tutu said the Anglican church has appeared "extraordinarily homophobic" when handling issues of gay leadership in the church, i.e. the discussions surrounding wether or not to allow gay priest Gene Robinson to become the Bishop of New Hampshire.

The Anglican church's attitude towards homosexuality alienates those who may want to join, Tutu told BBC. And added that he is saddened that his church wasted much of its time on such row.

In the interview, Archbishop Tutu also rebuked religious conservatives who said homosexuality was a choice.

"It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual.

"You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred.

"It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society."

Last update: 11-19-2007 11:58