Dear Editor,
The debate on the recent legalization of web shop gaming between several prominent members of the Bahamas Christian Council and the Progressive Liberal Party government reached a new crescendo after Prime Minister Perry Christie scolded a group of pastors for questioning his integrity; and after Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis defiantly announced that he will not apologize to church leaders for postulating that some of them accepted financial donations from gaming operators.
Christie and Davis' nonchalant attitude towards the Christian Council suggests that they do not fear any political ramifications the PLP might suffer as a result of standing diametrically opposed to the church on the matter of legalizing web shop gaming. Based on their attitude, the two obviously see no need to propitiate the council, whom many secular Bahamians view as politically impotent. The council is right to be wary of humanist secularism's encroachment of Christendom Bahamas.
For years the church has traditionally remained aloof from active politics. Now its hands are deeply mired in political activity, due to its relentless opposition to same-sex marriage and gambling. Regarding the former, the debate on same-sex marriage reached a new nadir after Bahamas Faith Ministries President Dr. Myles Munroe was ruthlessly excoriated in an article by a pro-homosexual advocate on a PLP news website. The ill-fated diatribe may have even been endorsed by a leading PLP politician.
Openly defying the church with reckless abandon is a common trend we see developing among several prominent PLP politicians in the past two-plus years. It is a calculated risk the PLP is evidently willing to take.
Why is this so? For years the state cowered to the church. Christie is not a naive man. He is a very perceptive politician who is keenly aware of the collective Bahamian church's moral condition, which is abysmal. Perchance Christie, during his rebuttal to the Christian Council, was cogitating on the convictions of two prominent pastors who were accused of molesting minors. Both cases received national publicity.
Or perchance he wades through a popular biweekly tabloid publication that prints gossip stories of men-of-the-cloth having extra marital affairs with their female parishioners. There is a grain of truth to some of these stories.
I can probably count married 20 clergymen and women who have had extramarital affairs. This is a situation which has become rampant. Many parishioners are aware of their pastors' philandering, but have chosen to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the cheating is just an illusion. Or they would just offer the rationale that their pastors are fallible human beings.
Either way, the Bahamian church has lost its moral authority to lecture the PLP government on matters of ethics and morality. The late Francis A. Schaeffer made a poignant argument in his book, "The Church Before the Watching World", that the church as the bride of Christ must remain pure and spotless before the divine bridegroom. The Bahamian church has woefully failed in this regard.
There is a reason many former U.S. presidents fraternized with internationally acclaimed evangelist, Billy Graham. Graham has lived a life of moral purity and was faithful to his wife of 64 years, Ruth. His character is impeccable. That is why the late U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower confided in Graham and held him in high esteem.
Until the Bahamian church emulates Graham's sterling example, it will continue to be treated with contempt by the political establishment.
- Kevin Evans

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