Guest Editorial
Originally published as a column for the Freeport News and the Nassau Guardian, February 23, 2007.
Reprinted here with the kind permission of Mr. Brown.
BEYOND the incredibly bad judgment exercised by former Immigration and Labour Minister Shane Gibson in the Anna Nicole Smith scandal that has derailed his once promising political career and brought a whirlwind of bad publicity to The Bahamas, there are other aspects of this sordid affair that are equally as mindboggling as Gibson’s astonishing behaviour.
Certainly, every Bahamian who knows the true definition of hypocrisy must have at some point in time expressed amazement over the fact that the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) has remained absolutely silent while the titillating details of this scandal were making headlines internationally and receiving almost around-the-clock coverage on American television.
As the umbrella religious organization for all churches in The Bahamas – although its support comes mainly from the Baptist community – at the very least, the BCC had a moral obligation to make some sort of a statement on the incredible chain of events that led to the resignation of Gibson. In fact, the BCC should have had something to say from the very outset last year when the Immigration department granted Smith, a former Playboy magazine playmate with a questionable moral background, permanent residency in less than a month after she submitted her application and it was alleged in newspaper reports that Gibson was the reason why she received such special treatment.
Having failed to do what the supposedly preeminent Christian governing body in this so-called Christian nation most certainly should have done, surely it was reasonable for Bahamians to expect that the BCC would have had something to say after Anna Nicole Smith died and the subsequent events that convinced Gibson that it was futile for him to continue to swim against the tide of public opinion that from all appearances he had not conducted himself in a manner that one would have expected from a minister of the government and should resign.
But the leadership of the BCC has remained as mum and silent as the frozen body of Anna Nicole Smith in that refrigerated room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a court battle waged over who should get control over her body to determine where she should be buried.
The reason why the BCC has remained silent, of course, is very well-known to most Bahamians. It is no secret that virtually every president in the history of the BCC has had strong political leanings in one way or the other. Some of them, however, have been judicious enough to camouflage their political bias and exercise their authority with a degree of impartiality.
The most recent president of the BCC to demonstrate this quite effectively was Rev. Simeon Hall, who led the council from 1997 to 2000. Hall was generally believed to be a supporter of the Free National Movement, but he was not timid when it came to speaking out on controversial issues, no matter what the political ramifications were.
The same cannot be said for his immediate successor, Rev. Sam Green, nor the current BCC president, Rev. Dr. William Thompson, both of whom make no effort to hide the fact that they are staunch supporters of the governing Progressive Liberal Party.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with persons who profess to have committed their lives to preaching the gospel and saving souls for the Lord having political favourites or, for that matter, being actively involved in politics.
Rev. C.B. Moss, for example, who is himself a former president of the BCC, has been actively involved in politics for a number of years and is currently seeking the nomination of the PLP to run for the Bain and Grants Town constituency. As a matter of fact, he has reportedly made it known that if he is not successful in getting the nomination of the PLP, he will run as an independent.
But the people over whom these religious leaders have a tremendous degree of influence have every right to expect the men of the cloth that they religiously follow to be fair-minded and not allow their personal interests to supersede their commitment to their “profession.”
Oftentimes, however, with some of our religious leaders, it is difficult to determine which profession comes first. Take Rev. Green, for instance. As chairman of the Bahamas Public Service Commission, he reportedly earns a salary of $80,000 a year and one of his perks is a luxury car. This may or may not have anything to do with his political affiliation, but it certainly is an excellent part-time job for a minister of the gospel, assuming that this is his principal profession.
It is not known whether Rev. Thompson has a similar part-time job, but currently in his second three-year term as president of the BCC, he has tremendous influence politically within the hierarchy of the PLP. Without a doubt, his degree of influence in this regard is second only to that of Bishop Neil Ellis, head of Mount Tabor Baptist Church, which is said to have a membership in excess of 6,000. Indeed, Bishop Ellis, who openly urged his church members to vote for the PLP in the last election, at one time was generally referred to as the Deputy Prime Minister because of his close ties to Prime Minister Christie.
Be that as it may, this being the season of Lent, when persons who profess to be Christians generally make a special effort to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, Rev. Thompson should seriously examine his conscience and ask himself whether – as president of the BCC – he is acting properly by pretending as if what transpired in this country over the past several weeks that led to the resignation of Shane Gibson did not happen.
This is not one of those situations where he can make reference to the scripture quote from John 8:7, which states: “Let the one among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” It is true that we all have faults and weaknesses, but in this particular case the Bahamian people – while they may be inclined to forgive and forget – deserve to be treated with more respect than having the head of the Bahamas Christian Council pretend as if Shane Gibson did nothing worthy of a comment from him primarily because he is a member of the political party that he supports.
As matters now stand, he is running the risk of not being taken seriously as a religious leader by those Bahamians who do not share his political beliefs.
Oswald T. Brown is editor and general manager of The Freeport News. You can contact him via e-mail by clicking here.
