Members of the local religious and activist communities are sending a strong message to the Mia Mottley administration against any attempts to gradually remove religion from the society, warning that Barbadian men and women of faith would rise up against it.
During a virtual panel discussion under the theme God in a Barbados Republic, weighty questions were raised, including the country’s indebtedness to China and the extent to which the current Government is apparently creating an enabling environment for anti-God sentiments in the country.
The discussion, which featured House of Freedom Ministries Reverend, Ferdinand Nichols; Head of the African Foundation Paul Ras Simba Rock; Lumumba Batson of the Barbados Concerned Citizens Group; Winston Clarke of the Steering Committee for Barbados Concerned Citizens and Sean Apache Carter of the group Spiritually Aware unfolded in the midst of a debate about the extent to which the idea of ‘God’ should feature in the country’s republican transition.
The controversy appears to be driven by calls for the removal of references to God in the country’s laws from the group Humanists Barbados which also calls for an end to prayers in schools and greater recognition of the country’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community.
In fact, it fuelled a robust discussion about the appropriateness of the word “Creator” instead of “God” in the Charter of Barbados that was debated in the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday.
At the virtual discussion, panellists contended that, among other things, the removal of God from the new Republic would remove love from the society, invite moral decay and forfeit many of the protections that have shielded the country from natural disasters and the like.
Reverend Ferdinand noted that traditionally, the Barbadian electorate has been guilty of paying little attention to the moral posture of its leaders, who in most cases fell short of having a “moral right” to be in office.
“I believe our leaders have their personal lives, but as long as their personal lives do not encroach upon the societal life of the country and upon what is in the best interest of the nation, which I want to believe all of our leadership is interested in, as long as that does not happen, God bless you,” said Dr Ferdinand.
“But if that ever starts to happen, you are not only going to hear my voice, but you are going to hear the voices of thousands of Barbadians, because many people think it’s just a handful of us here speaking. But I can assure you that there are thousands of Barbadians who share the sentiments that we have expressed in this forum this morning,” the religious leader declared.
Meanwhile, Batson expressed concern about the decision of voters to elect some of the country’s leaders to the highest offices in the land, despite lingering concerns about their “lifestyles”.
“We voted people in and we knew what their lifestyles were. It’s like you voted in an orange and expected lime juice. We need to start to look at people, not based on what they say… We need to start voting for people that are practising what we believe,” said Lumumba.
“We need to pay more attention to our political leaders and don’t vote for them because they give a good speech in public, but look at their everyday lifestyles. Look at how they live every day and that is where we should judge them from,” he added.
Concerns were also raised about the country’s growing indebtedness to China which was highlighted in an article in The Times of London and who the social and religious leaders represented at the discussion, described as a “No God” country.
“I think that that is something that needs to be monitored and prayed about, because there’s a history. If you see a track record and a history of how China operates, it is as if China has studied colonialism, studied our past colonisers and seemed to have perfected it and we are seeing instances of it in Africa and they are now well entrenched in the Caribbean and here in Barbados,” said Apache.
“We have seen situations where they would lend money for Governments to pave roads, but they want to set up a military base to help police the nation. It is a debt trap that has been created that would further oppress the people. We would move from where we are now, having the Queen as Head of State to being under the rule of China, a people and a government that has no respect for God and people’s rights,” the christian spokesperson added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
