"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
- Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:15)
Recently, the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC), through some of its members, has taken positions on public policy that have left many Bahamians more confused by their utterances instead of being enlightened on national issues that are debated in the public square.
For example, several members of the BCC, and a number of other prominent pastors, have become "sensitized" to the idea of how taxes generated from and regulations imposed upon a legalized numbers industry could benefit The Bahamas. On the other hand, a few prominent pastors, including BCC members, have maintained that any parliamentarian who votes in support of the gaming legislation should be voted out of office in the next election. Accordingly, this week we would like to Consider this...What is the role and relevance of the Bahamas Christian Council in today's Bahamas and does the council speak for the Christian church in The Bahamas?
The Bahamas Christian Council
According to its website, the BCC "is constituted to promote understanding and trust between the various parts of Christ's church in The Bahamas at all levels; to further Christ's mission of service by joint action of Christians in The Bahamas; to witness for the Christian community in The Bahamas on matters of social or common concern". A noble mission indeed, but has the BCC accomplished that mission?
The BCC does not enjoy the full participation of all the major denominations in The Bahamas. For example, the Roman Catholic Church does not actively participate in the council and, although the Anglican Church is represented on the council by a prominent prelate, the Methodists and the Seventh Day Adventists, along with the aforementioned denominations, often find it necessary to issue official statements on public policy that are either in contradiction to or at least more intellectually and scholarly sound than the positions that are enunciated by the BCC. Other religious groups, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, have always declined to participate in the BCC's membership, deliberations and pronouncements.
Today's BCC can be described as a select group of special interests that are dominated by a few denominations. In fact, it has morphed into an organization that resembles a "political action committee" and not a council of churches in the traditional sense.
More recently, it has become a group of pastors who seem to be more interested in telling people how to vote than addressing issues from a spiritual or moral perspective. In fact, it has been suggested that the BCC has generally abandoned the moral argument.
Confusing commentary
What has become patently clear is that the BCC does not always address moral or social issues with a unified voice. As observed in another column in this publication, Front Porch by Simon, regarding the debate on the bill to amend the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2009, the BCC's "rolling responses have been so scattered, chaotic and whiplash-inducing, that the [BCC's response to the bill] seems to depend on what day it is, how you read [its] statement, and then how you pick through the minefield of their tortured explanations on what they are trying to say.
"This lack of clarity has made the council appear amateurish, not serious and irresponsible on weighty matters of public policy."
By contrast, the statement of Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder was described by Simon as "markedly different in terms of moral imagination, pastoral sensibility, scriptural exegesis, intellectual reach and an understanding of the relationship between church and state, Bible and constitution and citizenship and discipleship".
Regarding that same sexual offenses amendment, the statements issued by the Conference of the Methodist Church and Seventh Day Adventist leaders were considerably more informed and scripturally sound than that of the BCC.
We agree with Simon's observation that "besides the loss of authority by a broad cross-section of Bahamians, [the BCC] has lost credibility among significant elements of its own membership".
The gambling debate
In his column, "WHITE FILE: Thanks to the BCC, too many still walk in darkness", the late P. Anthony White, a prominent, long-standing icon in St. Agnes Church, observed on the issue of gambling that "there has...been the never-ending case of the council's position on the matter of the numbers business in The Bahamas, an issue stretching back to years before majority rule".
"It has been an issue with which successive governments of the old United Bahamian Party, the Progressive Liberal Party and the Free National Movement have wrestled, but could arrive at no point of resolution because, it is widely believed, of the influence of the Bahamas Christian Council," he said.
"The council, an organization with what has been seen as a litany of flexible principles, has traditionally said no to gambling, beginning in the early 1960s, when the UBP government refused to bow and allowed casino gambling by issuing exemptions to the colony's anti-gambling laws.
"The Progressive Liberal Party government...back in 1979, actually drafted legislation which would have legalized a lottery in The Bahamas. The matter went to Parliament for a first reading, but never went any further.
"The then powerful Bahamas Christian Council's continuing position on gambling powerfully prevailed. Politicians were not prepared to risk their popularity and electability by angering the church.
"That position prevailed, ironic and hypocritical in its nature, despite the quite obvious fact that so much of the proceeds of winning numbers-players ended up each Sunday in the collection plate, to a great extent funding the rich and expensive lifestyles of pastors who shamelessly ascend pulpits and rave against gambling."
As we observed in last week's article, on the issue of gambling, the BCC has yet to produce one iota of evidence that the Bible condones or prohibits gambling. We maintain that if they could they would, but they have not because they cannot.
The council's future
We believe that a re-engineered BCC has a vital role to play in the orderly development of The Bahamas. That role should be to recognize the need for the council to better analyze, address and articulate the fundamental factors that have led to the inundation, erosion, and decay of our national, social and moral fabric.
The BCC should be about promoting public discourse regarding the abject poverty in which so many Bahamians live, propose realistic solutions to arrest the cancerous cankers of hatred eating away at our young, at-risk men and prescribe methodologies by which we can overcome the constant challenges for restorative justice that perennially elude us.
Above all, if the council is to actually function in the normative sense, it should be more inclusive in its membership and comprehensively reassess realistic approaches to the suffocating social ills that surround us, including equality of opportunity and the attainment of human rights for all of our citizens, without reference to color, creed, gender or sexual preference.
The council must also unambiguously address how to bridge the deep chasm that exists between those in our society who have amassed enormous material wealth and those who have not. It should also emphasize our collective responsibility to safeguard those who do not enjoy the fruits of the nation's successes.
The council's voice should be heard regarding issues that concern the environment, crime, high unemployment, positive interventions for the young and dispossessed in our society and the overcrowding of our communities. The Christian Council's relevance will also be measured by the extent to which it can diffuse deeply divergent denominational differences while simultaneously ameliorating bona fide ecumenical advancements.
If the council is to reset and restore its relevance in the modern Bahamas, it must demonstrate how all citizens can better navigate the relationship between legal rights and Christian values, always cognizant of the inviolable principle of the separation of church and state in a secular, pluralistic democracy.
If we are to have a fully functioning, prescriptively proactive and effectively engaging Christian body, we should shun those who would be wolfish on important matters and allow true shepherds to lead the flocks along the kinder and more compassionate path toward a more positive and flourishing future.
o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.
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