Nearly two decades ago the president of the US based anti-cult organisation the Christian Research Institute, Hank Hanegraff, published the ground breaking book Christianity in Crisis in order to expose the myriad of false teachings which had inundated the church in America.
Today, the church in The Bahamas faces a similar situation as our spiritual counterparts in the US faced nearly 20 years ago and even today.
For years, Christians were taught that gambling is a vice that must be shunned by all Christians.
We were also reminded by our spiritual heads that gambling is against the law of the land, therefore the church, as is taught in the inspired Word of God, is expected to be obedient to the civil government. It would be the height of naivety for anyone to suggest that no churchgoer patronise web shops.
The fact is, wayward believers and unsaved regular churchgoers buy numbers, albeit discreetly. Even pastors support the web shop industry.
I think many Bahamians were astonished when Bishop Simeon Hall and Dr Philip McPhee came out and publicly voiced their support for the regularisation of web shop gaming.
Twenty years ago, no pastor in his right mind would have ever come out in the national media to lend their support to web shop gaming.
The fact that ministers are now openly and unashamedly stating their pro-gambling views without the slightest fear of any backlash in their congregations is a testament of how spiritually sorry the church in this country is.
Had they done this two decades ago, probably three-quarters of their membership would have exited their respective churches.
And if that were not enough, Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd recently told the Constitutional Commission that homosexuals should be protected under the Constitution and that capital punishment should be removed.
This in light of the fact that over 800 Bahamians have been murdered since the last government execution in 2000, or thereabouts.
And despite the fact that homosexuality is a gross abomination which the Bible strongly condemns.
For Boyd’s information, the overwhelming majority of Bahamians support capital punishment. Rather than seek to abolish capital punishment, which is clearly and explicitly taught in Scripture, Boyd should be lobbying the civil government to carry it out in order to bring Biblical justice to the victims of murder.
Moreover, most Bahamians are vehemently opposed to homosexuality.
This is a conservative nation. The Anglican bishop only speaks for a minority of Bahamians who are like minded left wing liberals.
Boyd’s anti-Biblical views does not represent the views of the vast majority of Bahamians.
The issue of granting gays constitutional protection is really a non-issue in this country. Let the good bishop produce ironclad evidence of gays being harassed and persecuted by homophobic heterosexuals. He would be hard-pressed to produce just one shred of evidence.
Bahamians might be anti-gay, but instances of gays being attacked for their sexual orientation are few and far between.
Boyd’s views are not shocking, though. What I find shocking is the apparent apathy and lack of righteous indignation in the Christian community over Boyd’s statements before the Commission.
It never ceases to amaze me how people in this country are willing to sit under any clergyman, no matter how radically liberal he is.
The Biblical law prohibiting homosexuality was put in place by God in order to protect us.
It has been proven time and again that sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, HIV, gonorrhea, herpes and chlamydia are pervasive among homosexuals.
Rather than seek protection under the Constitution for gays and lesbians, Boyd should be pleading instead with these people to abandon their destructive, abominable lifestyle.
Interestingly, Bishop Simeon Hall last year criticised the Bahamas Christian Council for demonising gays and accused the religious body of being homophobic.
As it stands right now, I have a fishy feeling that some apostate ministers will in the not too distant future lobby for gay marriage. These people are setting us up for some groundbreaking announcement in the not too distant future.
Nothing surprises me anymore with the apostate, backslidden Bahamian church. When one listens to Boyd, Hall and McPhee, you would come to the honest conclusion that Christianity in this country is in dire crisis.
We are the Ichabod church. God is not in the Bahamian church.
Evangelical Christians must earnestly pray that God would bring revival to the Ichabod church and save the three wayward ministers mentioned above.
Kevin Evans
Freeport, Grand Bahama
February, 2013
