We continue to be surprised by the flawed reasoning that some use in their efforts to silence the voice of the church on national issues.
One recent example is The Nassau Guardian’s senior reporter Taneka Thompson’s comments in her November 16 National Review article “Where do we go from here?”
Thompson wrote: “Our religious leaders like to get in a huff about gays, gambling, and a good time but fail to make an outcry when little children are raped and women are killed.”
Sadly, Thompson, and others like her, fail to see why we don’t cry out against instances of rape and murder: we already have laws against such crimes, and the law in each case takes its course. In addition, Thompson and others like her seem to conveniently overlook the fact that religious leaders have called for the age of sexual consent to be increased to 18 years and for the Constitution of The Bahamas to be appropriately amended so that the death penalty can be carried out, without exception, for all persons convicted of murder. However, successive governments have ignored and continue to ignore our calls, and individuals convicted of violating minors and committing murder continue to receive lighter penalties than their crimes deserve.
However, despite the futility of it, Thompson and others like her want religious leaders to cry out when these horrific crimes are committed. On the other hand, they want us to be silent as the government seeks to legalize the ruinous activity of numbers gambling (while refusing to enforce the existing laws against it).
We wonder why they are not calling on the government to enforce our laws against numbers gambling. And before Thompson and her like-minded critics wrongly accuse us of being silent on casino gambling, we remind them that the church spoke loudly and clearly against casino gambling in The Bahamas at its inception, and one of our fellow ministers, the late Rev. Carlton Francis, resigned from the PLP Cabinet in 1973 as a matter of conscience over the issue. Our opposition to casino gambling remains.
It should be remembered that, as we religious leaders participate in the gambling referendum debate, we are exercising our rights as Bahamian citizens and our responsibilities as gospel ministers. And we would be less than faithful if we do not urge Bahamian voters to vote “no” on gambling referendum day. Why? Because we believe that a Bahamas where people work for a living and save to get ahead is far better than a Bahamas where people selfishly and greedily risk losing their money in attempt to benefit from the losses of other gamblers, all facilitated by a coalition of criminals who really don’t care. So we urge all voters to vote “no” to the legalization of web shops and the introduction of a national lottery. Thompson and others like her might disagree with us, but they should not try to silence us.
From: Save Our Bahamas Vote ‘No’ Committee
