By NICO SCAVELLA
PRESIDENT of the South Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Paul Scavella yesterday said he would “never” marry anyone in the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community and encouraged them to “live by the laws of the land”.
Speaking with The Tribune yesterday, Pastor Scavella said if “God doesn’t make it (same-sex marriage) a right, man can’t make it a right”.
He said that from a biblical point of view the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community might choose to, but has “no right to go against God’s law” or the laws of the Bahamas.
His remarks came in response to LGBT activist Erin Greene’s recent assertion this week that laws that prevent same-sex marriage are “discriminatory” and “diametrically opposed to the principles of democracy, equality and the Rule of Law.”
“The minute our Christian country begins to accept and to accommodate these types of behaviour, which in my view is going to eventually happen, all it means is that it weakens the fabric of the nation,” Mr Scavella said, when contacted by The Tribune.
“The fabric of our society is based upon Christian principles. If they (the LGBT community) have a right to be married and I’m a marriage officer, they can come to me and say ‘Listen you need to marry me, I have a right in this country to be married.’ I am never going to marry them; you’d have to take my license away. I’m not going to participate in something that is not Christ-like because the law says so.”
“What I uphold and espouse, and as a church we espouse,” he said, “is that they (LBGT) must live by the laws of the land, and if the laws of the land don’t permit it, then those are the laws of the land. We as a (SDA) church believe we must be law-abiding citizens to the extent that the law does not conflict with God’s law. Based on our present situation, the laws of the land are based on the Bible and the rule of faith. We must not confuse the rights of individuals when it comes to what the Bible says. God permits certain things to happen, but it doesn’t mean that it is all right.”
Earlier this month MP for Fort Charlotte Dr Andre Rollins asked the Christie administration to consider constitutionally defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. He also urged the government to include the definition as a part of its proposed amendments to the Constitution in the upcoming referendum in order to prevent “a torrent of speculation and opposition” to gay marriage that could derail the referendum.
In response to Dr Rollins’ claims, Ms Greene said in spite of Bahamians holding “varying attitudes” that “same-sex attraction and intercourse are an affront to God, nature and society,” a greater affront would be “the idea that a citizen or a group of citizens would give up a right rather than ensure that all other citizens could enjoy the same right.”
She called the laws which prevent same-sex marriage discriminatory and added that Dr Rollins’ proposals “also stand in direct opposition to the Biblical concept of free will and the message of Christ.”
Ms Greene concluded her statement by saying: “I am a citizen of the Bahamas. The Christian God is not.”
Pastor Scavella refuted the idea that the laws are discriminatory because “they are based on God’s programme” and “God doesn’t endorse marriage between anybody else.”
He added that God gives freedom of choice, but does not “endorse illicit or lewd behaviour,” something he said needs to be “clearly understood by people like Ms Greene who grew up in the Adventist church and knows very well what the Adventist church believes.”
“The Bible becomes a means of convenience for people to justify their beliefs. That’s on one side of their mouths,” he said. “On the other side of your mouth they would declare that ‘I’m going to use the Bible against you.’ You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Why use the Bible on me when you declare that you don’t believe in the Bible? You don’t accept the Bible as the basis of your life.”
Pastor Scavella said, however, that he supports marriage being defined as constitutionally between a man and a woman, but said it should include the provision of being born a man or woman “at birth” to prevent transgender marriages.
Pastor Scavella said the SDA’s North Bahamas Conference and the South Bahamas Conference will soon make a joint statement on the constitutional amendment bills.
Question four of the upcoming referendum will ask voters to eliminate discrimination based on sex in the Constitution by inserting the word “sex” into Article 26. Some like Dr Rollins still think this could one day lead to gay marriages, but the government has denied this as a possibility and stressed that the focus is solely on gender equality.
The referendum is set for November 6.
Comments
EasternGate 10 years, 2 months ago
Preach Pastor, Preach!
banker 10 years, 2 months ago
Scavella is not God's press agent.
Altalk 10 years, 2 months ago
My God it took a SDA preacher to come out first at bat swinging.....but he is speaking truth,but we have a lot of gay pastors and bishops who will marry alot of ppl same sex ppl for the almighty dollar because mammon is there god........but I say repent all you gay people and yall supporters ..repent or may the earth open up and swallow you whole,or may fire from heaven fall on you immediately...
TheMadHatter 10 years, 2 months ago
Wow, what a vengeful attitude. Remember the Bible was written by the Pharisees and Scribes. They were the ones always at Jesus' heals as he went around trying to preach brotherly love, and forgiveness, ate with sinners, and healed the sick. The Scribes took out all the stuff about Mary Magdalene as well, and Jesus' children.
Jesus came to the Earth as a real man to show that God is not ashamed of what he created. A man with a penis and a woman with a vagina who reproduce and have children. The Scribes took all of that (and much more) out of the Bible when they selected only those 66 books (edited them too) and made what Christians use today as a guide as if it came from Jesus' time.
If Jesus came to Earth today and saw Christians in action, he would wonder seriously why he wasted his time the first time. Everyone must have been deaf, he would think.
TheMadHatter
Bahamianpride 10 years, 2 months ago
Agreed Banker..
EasternGate 10 years, 2 months ago
I have no interest in what people do in private. But there is no adjective that can sanitize gay behavior. Having the anus as a pivotal "position" of sexual activity is just plain gross and nasty!
TalRussell 10 years, 2 months ago
Oh really now. God took you Comrade Scavella into his divine confidence to tell you that? How special of Him. Comrade Preacherman's Proverbs should have taught anyone wishing to enter the ministry that there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers and sisters. We eyes are haughty when we look down at other people as if they are lower or lesser than we are. For no other than we see them as being too damn different. Let us all pray that your decision not to marry any couple, regardless of their sexual makeup or religion is ranked a distant second to the loving relationship of the marrying couple. Wasn't too long ago when a practicing Catholic would not have even been welcomed to sit in the pews at many churches across our Bahamaland. Thankfully, we have matured as Christians and those days are long gone? I can think of so many other pressing issues that urgently need to be addressed that would exhaust all the time our preacherman’s are spending on this one single issue. Over many, many years The Seventh-day Adventist Church's have accomplished so much with their ministry across our Bahamaland. Why spoil it now? I too was educated at your school on Wulf Road.
Amen!
sansoucireader 10 years, 2 months ago
TalRussell, I was there from grades one to form four. Not my favourite learning institution. My aunt taught first grade for many, many years.
xtreme2x 10 years, 2 months ago
Pastor Scavella, Am with your thoughts, but the (LGBT) will have their way. I can see at the end of it all. GOD WILL SORT THEM OUT, FOR SURE.
Altalk 10 years, 2 months ago
so yall gingoks and gingok lovers can express yall belief and opinions and this Scavella cant...hypocrisy of the highest....from time ppl always wants to control preacher..tell him what to say or what not to say!..Are yall God or gods or just mere men like the rest of us..who needs guidance..from God Almighty....God in His all knowing all wisdom told His ppl the Jews(his earthly chosen ppl)and us christians(his Spiritual ppl) that if we want to live long ,if we want to prosper as a nation...how to treat one another and how to abstain from certain practices ,like homosexuality,withcraft human sacrifices adultery incest ...in order to continually be bless and sickness free..from generation to generation.......heed Gods word or perish...Righteousness still exalts a nation.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 2 months ago
Salem witch trails, inquisition, Jihadist, mid east conflict, september 11, conflict in Ireland, slavery, etc etc I can go on forever about the hertrosities committed or justified in the name God. Using scriptures considering the murderous history of religion y'all cannot be serious. How many millions have died as a result of religious wars, persecution. Religion was used to justify slavery.
DreamerX 10 years, 2 months ago
Shhhhh! Don't let them know that. They'll have heartaches if the realize religion has historically been used to rubber stamp hate crimes and the dehumanizing of people, mostly in respect to the Jews in the Christian context through biblical and recent history. They are ashamed of their failures of prayer and realization that their believed god didn't pick The Bahamas as his favorite team. So they got to make sure vent by using hate.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 2 months ago
Good post Bahamianpride
jt 10 years, 2 months ago
What society is this man talking about based on Christian principles? Not that I care about living according to a book written 2,000 years ago but this corrupt, sweethearting, teenage baby making nation has nothing to do with Christian values. What people do in the privacy of their own homes of their own free will hurts nobody. Tired of these bible banging hypocrites telling people what to do.
daTruth 10 years, 2 months ago
Don't know where to begin with this dinosaur.
“The fabric of our society is based upon Christian principles." - are these the same Christian principles that see our brothers robbing, shooting and killing each other every night? Taking away that precious gift of life without a second thought? Those same Christian principles that are embodied by many married men committing adultery and neglecting their outside children yet sitting up in these same churches on a Sunday praising the Lord God Almighty? What about the members of your congregations who are giving and tithing (10% - HA!) to the Church but who are offering up larger sums Monday to Saturday at the illegal web shops waiting for their numbers to drop?
“The minute our Christian country begins to accept and to accommodate these types of behaviour, which in my view is going to eventually happen, all it means is that it weakens the fabric of the nation,” - The Bahamas will eventually accept, accommodate and end discrimination against ALL of its citizens so why don't we look at pushing that Agenda NOW to build up and strengthen the fabric of our country - a country that we can be proud of!
Scavella our beautiful country may have been built and founded on Christian principles but The Bahamas has NOT been a Christian nation for a long time and your bigoted interview above does nothing but prove that you are truly not a man of God.
Emac 10 years, 2 months ago
Well said, I agree with you 100%. Bahamians have played the pretending game of being a Christian nation far too long. THERE IS NOTHING CHRISTIAN ABOUT THE BAHAMAS. Only in people minds.
Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 2 months ago
The reproductive organs of a man and a woman were created or have evolved the way that they are for good functional and purposeful reasons; hence their well designed meaningful fit to one another is about as natural a thing as one will ever find anywhere in nature. The misuse of these organs is about as unnatural a misfit as one can possibly conjure up and by every standard of decency runs counter to or afoul of nature's own natural order of things. As for our body's waste disposal system, it is fully intended by design to be just that, and nothing more! Church leaders and decent God fearing Bahamians must implore Government to take an unequivocal stance in having marriage clearly defined in our constitution as a sacred union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all other combinations of a union whether it be man and man, woman and woman, man and animal or woman and animal. The proposed legislation and related referendum questions as currently worded leave the door wide open to same-sex marriages and therefore should not be supported under any circumstance. VOTE NO YOURSELF AND TELL MANY OTHERS WHY THEY TOO MUST VOTE NO!
DreamerX 10 years, 2 months ago
Utilize google you ignorant scab. Google homoesexuality in other animals.
Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 2 months ago
We are humans, the highest form of animal on the planet. While you may wish to take us notches down the animal chain to suit whatever comparisons you wish to make, there are many more of us who choose to remain at the very top of the animal chain, which is a privileged position bestowed on us by the good Lord himself.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 2 months ago
Well Mudda as the highest form of animal on the planet we have killed more people to prove who has the real sky god ,then both world wars combined ..The muslims got aways to go to catch up w/ the christians ,,,We have been here 4 million years and have made human sacrifices to the gods for at least 1/2 a million ,but in your mind 2000 yrs ago finally god got the blood he needed ..
TalRussell 10 years, 2 months ago
It's OK, if you picture angels flying around heaven with beautiful wings. But do angels really have wings? Comrades being a predominantly Christian Bahamaland does not require Sunday morning Church attendance. Hopefully, it will forever remain a Sunday morning attendance option. But to list your profession as a Preacherman's does expect you as in any job you hold to be well versed-in the tools of your chosen profession. if the Bible is pretty your tool then you shout not only have read it many times over, you should both understated and be able to interrupt what Jesus practiced and preached during his 33 short years on earth. Not too many Preacherman's does realize that many of the most iconic features of Christianity were never mentioned by the the very Bible they preach from on Sunday mornings and nights. Find just one mention of angels donning beautiful wings anywhere in Bible? Give no thanks to God but to the artistic expressions of mankind deciding he wanted angels to best resemble, yes wings and all.
CommonSense 10 years, 2 months ago
I'm confused...is Paul Scavella not a homosexual himself? :S
Greentea 10 years, 2 months ago
rumor has it....
TalRussell 10 years, 2 months ago
Comrades if there is sexual revolution evolving in we Bahamaland, I can more picture some transgender with they flapping angel wings. Can't you?
DEDDIE 10 years, 2 months ago
Good tactic but I don't buy your attempt to deflect the disgust towards the homosexual lifestyle onto the pastor.Being gay is synonymous with been confused.
TalRussell 10 years, 2 months ago
Comrades I thanking my sweet Jesus for guiding me tune-in Steve McKinney's Talk Show this glories gaining knowledge day, cause how else would I now know how a new-born kangaroo does fall from they mommy's vagina? Oh, yes I knows. So informed too why elephants don't go no hospital when they's feeling sick. Plan on tuning-in on Monday, no telling if they might cover lubrication?. They talking now about hard-on's. Like I say, I couldn't possibly make this stuff up
TigerB 10 years, 2 months ago
For thousands of years marriage was accepted to be between a man and a woman. When Columbus got to the Bahamas that was what he met in place here by the Indians and it was good, now in the past 15 years it suddenly looks wrong.. hell no! its still right!
jt 10 years, 2 months ago
@tiger B when Columbus got to the Bahamas there was no marriage. Many Native American (or First Nations for Canadians) tribes recognised gay people as "two spirit" people and held them in high regard. Maybe, just for fun, read a book sometime.
Altalk 10 years, 2 months ago
these ppl chose this lifestyle ,choose to be transgendered gayed,bisexual,chose to be pedophiles ..now they talking abt rights and same sex marriages.
Bahamas676 10 years, 2 months ago
If youll want earthquakes and cataglory 5 hurricanes and an economic collapse vote yes!
bismark 10 years, 2 months ago
I am sick and tired of everybody finding excuses for this lewd and immoral behavior which they are trying to impose on Godfearing people.HOMOSEXUALITY IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOTHING CAN MAKE IT RIGHT!if you follow the teachings of the bible you will find that god destroyed SODOM AND GOMMORAH FOR THIS WICKED PRACTICE.These so called activists are nothing but a bunch of demons pushing their evil agenda.
DreamerX 10 years, 2 months ago
Imposing? The only imposing force is the force that seeks to limit, abuse and create disenfranchised groups of of society. Maybe you can't handle your own emotions when you see someone of another persuasion. Maybe it's taunting because when you wanted to express your queer side you were made a shame of. So how dare they desire to do it shame free in the OPEN! Maybe like you they'll hide it away under super charged hetersexuality an religiousity. God also killed for eating shell fish, not screaming when being raped, mixing fabrics, mixing cheese and meat, etc. If you felt this way, every time you see a freaking Whopper w/ Cheese you must have a breakdown and take aspirin because your heart palpitating from all the imposed immorality.
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