Bahamas Faith Ministries Senior Pastor Dave Burrows said yesterday he will never accept the transgender lifestyle as "normal", but added that transgender people should be treated humanely.
Burrows is one of three religious leaders who responded to comments made by members of the transgender community, who claimed the church has done more harm than good for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
Burrows said as a man of God he had to address the matter both biblically and logically.
"As a citizen of The Bahamas, again, I am constrained to look out for and help my fellow man regardless of their position or disposition in life," he said. "However, I cannot be asked to comprehend or accept something that I simply cannot reasonably deduce to be normal."
Despite his views on their lifestyle, Burrows said, "I absolutely do not believe we should mistreat transgenders... and I believe they should be afforded all basic human rights as persons who are outside of societal norms can be afforded.
"I believe the mistake we are making in the world today is trying to reclassify and adjust abnormal situations and equate them with normal and in the process we end up taking away the rights of persons in order to give rights to others."
Both retired Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez and Atlantic Caribbean Union (ATCU) President Pastor Leonard Johnson agreed that members of the LGBT community deserve to be treated with respect.
"The members of the transgender community are also creatures of God and because of what God offers to us through Jesus, we believe that all persons ought to be loved and treated in a loving, caring way," Gomez said. "That is a fundamental part of our belief but also we believe that the transgender lifestyle is contrary to the one God gives us in the Bible."
Johnson, who is the regional leader for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in The Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, said, "They are human beings and while the church may not endorse their lifestyle, the church certainly believes in the mandate of Christ that we ought to reach the entire world with the mission of Christ.
"The Bible says that Christ loves everybody. It doesn't matter who you are and as a church we cannot do any less. We have to reach out to every single person. But reaching out to a person does not mean we endorse or accept one's lifestyle or practice."
Members of the transgender community spoke out during a press conference at the British Colonial Hilton on Tuesday.
Alexis D'Marco, president and director of the LGBT activist group the D'Marco Foundation, insisted the transgender community only wants to be treated with dignity and respect. D'Marco also said the religious community has not done enough for the trans community. But Burrows said too often the church is "demonized" and "mischaracterized".
"I believe instead of pointing fingers or disparaging the church we should seek out means of working together in the best interest of our citizens," he said.
"Sometimes when the church speaks out on moral issues it is attacked for simply doing the job it was called to do and that is to alert persons everywhere of the principles of God as we see it and inform them of what we see as an error that can be detrimental to them.
"Each of us should simply listen and make a determination of the validity and veracity of the message and determine if or how we should apply it to our lives as opposed to attacking the messenger when we deem the message to be unfavorable to us."
D'Marco said most trans individuals in The Bahamas are virtually invisible because of stigma and discrimination.
Johnson said he could not refute the fact they feel alienated.
"They probably feel alienated by the church, but certainly the church of God ought to be a church that reaches out to every single person," he said.
Gomez said there is no denying that the Bahamian society is not accepting of the transgender lifestyle.
"I believe that members of that grouping are conscious of the fact that the prevailing culture in The Bahamas is not really disposed towards acceptance of that particular lifestyle," he said. "They are aware of this and I, from what I'm told, think some of them have suffered indignities to which I am totally opposed. I think all human beings ought to be respected and that does not mean you believe in what they believe in or practice."
Dana Smith, Guardian Staff Reporter
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