Prominent pastor Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee said yesterday that controversial Lyford Cay resident Peter Nygard "has a good heart", and said he will use a $10,000 "love offering" he recently received from Nygard to help people.

McPhee said he is "bothered" by criticisms leveled against Nygard.

He spoke to The Nassau Guardian a day after he locked horns with Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay member Rev. C. B. Moss on the Guardian Radio talk show "Reality Check" with Chrissy Love.

While calling in to the show, McPhee defended his decision to accompany Nygard during a recent walkabout in Bain Town and said the intention was not to have a confrontation with Moss outside his church.

A video of Nygard's exchange with Moss has made the rounds on social media in recent weeks.

During that exchange, Nygard told Moss, "I have been dedicated to this country more than any single person in this whole country. There's testimonial after testimonial."

McPhee said he along with other pastors invited Nygard to see the conditions of Bain Town because Nygard is interested in helping to uplift the area.

McPhee also recently accompanied Nygard to Freeport where he was greeted at the airport by Minister for Grand Bahama Dr. Michael Darville, other officials and a Junkanoo rush-out.

McPhee said yesterday that his relationship with Nygard is not an indication that he is for sale. "Nobody could buy me," he said.

"I'm not for sale. I live a comfortable life and God has been good to me. "I don't need to take anything under the table from [anybody].

"I didn't do it with the number boys.

The number boys didn't buy me.

They didn't give me anything for what I did.

"I did what I did for what I believe in. "No man can buy Philip McPhee.

I'm not for sale. Nobody has enough money to buy me."

Nygard presented the $10,000 love offering during McPhee's 23rd pastoral anniversary service recently. "He said he would do something to enhance this ministry," McPhee said.

McPhee recently helped to organize a regatta at Jaws Beach which he said Nygard sponsored. "I feel that the man has a good heart," McPhee said.

"I have visited Nygard Cay and I have never seen anything that was amoral or wrong. Never one time.

"This man treated me with the utmost respect and dignity, and I have never seen the man do anything that was not becoming of a billionaire or a white man or a man living in Lyford Cay."

McPhee was also a vocal supporter of the Vote Yes group ahead of the January 28 gambling referendum.

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