I'm amazed that Prime Minister Perry Christie feels vindicated about his recently concluded carnival. Since the prime minister was a first-hand spectator of the live pornographic displays by women whose heads were more covered than their bodies, I thought he would have felt shame instead of vindication. But sadly, he feels no shame. And what is sadder is he is not alone; countless others participating in that plagiarized festival that promoted live pornography in our country also feel no shame.

I did not attend the prime minister's carnival, but I saw pictures of virtually naked women parading in public, and as a Bahamian husband, father and pastor, I felt and still feel a deep sense of national shame. The carnival road parade with women in strips of cloth was nothing more than an opportunity for thousands of Bahamians to publicly debase themselves in an orgy of cultural promiscuity. It was a national disgrace about which we should feel national (and in some cases personal) shame.

Public indecency
I was deeply saddened to learn (and then to see) that Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson not only graced the carnival road parade with her presence but also participated. Because our country has laws against public indecency and lewd conduct, police officers go into night clubs and raid them as strip clubs and arrest half naked women like many of those who paraded around Maynard-Gibson and police officers who worked the parade. It makes me wonder if the laws against public indecency were waived for the carnival, since those laws were clearly breached and there was no report of anyone being arrested for public indecency

No economic benefit
No doubt, the prime minister and others who support his carnival idea believe that the end (economic benefit) justifies the means (importing a foreign festival notoriously known for promoting public sexual promiscuity and reckless, alcohol influenced behavior). However, the fact that there was no measurable economic benefit from the carnival doubly underscores why the prime minister should feel shame and not vindication. Yes, I know that Paul Major will continue to use his "web shop mathematics" to produce rosy figures for the economic impact of the carnival, but like his figures for the economic benefit of the illegal numbers racket, they can't be validated.

The only economic aspect of the carnival that can truly be measured is the $9 million that were wasted to facilitate and promote immoral behavior and values that make a weaker Bahamas. We plagiarized and funded the promotion of a foreign festival by slapping the words "Bahamas Junkanoo" on it. But a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Misinterpreting sunshine
Knowing that the heart of the carnival being imported would be nothing more than the debasing and sexual objectification of women in an environment of alcohol-influenced recklessness, I and others prayed for rain to restrain such immoral and ungodly behavior. However, the Sovereign Lord, who alone controls the weather, gave three days of sunshine. Some have misinterpreted the sunshine as God's blessing on the carnival, but clearly they are ignorant of Jesus' own words in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says that God makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45).

But the question still remains: Why did God not send the rain for which some of us prayed? Well, my simple and honest answer is: I don't know. But here is what I do know: I know that when people refuse to acknowledge God, he gives them over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28). I also know that God is not mocked; we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7), and this is true on both the personal and national levels.

It would have been better for us as a nation to have had three days of torrential rain rather than the three days of sustained sunshine, and our nation would have been spared the coming harvest from the unrighteous seeds that were nationally sown in the prime minister's carnival. Led by Christie, we nationally sowed seeds of ungodliness to the winds of sexual degradation, promoting women as objects of sexual lust and pornographic gratification, alcohol abuse and public debauchery; and we will nationally reap the whirlwind of it all.

National repentance
For a nation whose constitution's preamble commits it to self-discipline, industry, loyalty, unity and an abiding respect for Christian values and the rule of law, the prime minister's carnival was a betrayal of these values. His carnival moved our nation further away from these values, not closer toward them, and we have been nationally disgraced in the process. And we need to repent.

Those of us who know better and who follow Jesus Christ need to pray that God would give us a sense of national, godly shame that will bring us to national repentance and remove our national disgrace. Righteousness still exalts nations, and sin remains a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). This is an unbreakable law which I pray our leaders (present and future) will seek to abide by.

o Cedric Moss serves as senior pastor of Kingdom Life Church. Comments may be sent to him at cmoss@kingdom-life.org.

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