The Church in the Public Sphere

Mon, Feb 4th 2013, 11:19 AM

The main combatants in the gambling referendum were the numbers bosses and the church. The church won after being outspent by millions. The victory speaks to the continued significance of the organized Christian community in a society that, while being quite hedonistic, enjoys the outward signs of religiosity. There are many pressing problems in The Bahamas today beyond the divisive gambling issue. The crime rate remains too high; education standards are consistently too low, just to name a few. In recent times, political administrations have come and gone and the problems remain.

Citizen groups of all types have to increasingly step forward and apply more direct pressure on the government and its various agencies to do better, to try harder. Coming off this referendum win the church is in a prime position to do this. Many churches already perform significant social outreach, be it feeding the hungry or helping to provide shelter for the homeless. They do this without asking for media attention or commendations. But here we talk of another type of intervention.

We refer to the act of being a consistent and powerful voice in the public sphere holding the state to account for the quality of governance it gives its people. This goes beyond the traditional commentary from the church on a narrow range of moral issues. When many pastors hear the words gay and gambling they get outraged, have much to say and make many demands of the government. However, that same rigorous intervention is not there regarding other issues of public life such as the state of the education system and the issues of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the dispensing of the people's money by our elected officials.

We are not suggesting that The Bahamas become a theocracy where the clerics run the show. What the church is is an established, respected and organized stakeholder. It is able to mobilize people and make politicians fearful. This power should be used more regularly by its leaders to intervene in the public sphere regarding a more broad range of policy issues. Other large organized stakeholders have similar presence and power - take, for example, the unions and the hotel association.

After the referendum when asked about potential job losses in the local gaming sector as a result of the no vote, some pastors said glibly that their focus is on souls and not jobs. Such a narrow and uncaring position seems to fall short of the heart of Christian teaching, or for that matter the message of all the great religious traditions. Hopefully the pastors who have that position are in the minority. The public sphere would be enriched if the compassionate majority in the religious community continues to lend its voice to issues of national development, while also accepting that in a democracy the church is just one of many stakeholders to be considered. Its views and positions cannot always be followed or adopted.

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