The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The most venerable Pastor Cedric Moss threw down a gauntlet in his passé crusade to deny rights to some Bahamians. His crusade is drenched in intolerance, obstinacy and biblical irony.

First year law students are allowed to prattle on as they attempt to impress their professors with their intellect. At the end of their soliloquy they are brought crashing back to earth by a simple question: “Where’s the legal argument”?

Pastor Moss’ latest missive is proselytising disguised as a legal argument. His argument does not pass muster in a democracy. Pastor Moss seems more like a theocrat living in a country like Iran rather than like someone committed to democracy.

He could have made a textual argument that current practice supports his civil union blockade. I doubt he canvassed the framers of our constitution to see what their intent was back in 1972. But even the most belligerent in that bunch would have evolved on many issues, including marriage equality.

The core of the argument was (is) that marriage and civil unions are legal constructs and any application for relief must be settled by the judiciary not the clergy.

We were treated instead to an argumentum ad populum. In Pastor Moss’ world his anti-civil union proposition is justified because it is what many people, maybe even a majority of Bahamians believe.

But civil rights must never to subjected to a popularity contest. And it certainly won’t be judicial activism, as the Pastor believes, should a judge eventually extend equal protection rights to same-sex couples wishing to marry.

When it comes to equal rights our courts are legally bound not to infringe the rights of minorities in society.

This point is completely lost on the pastor. He meandered into a circular logic implying that marriage equality opens the door to polygamy and incest. He completely missed the point that same-sex couples are being denied access to marriage while it is available to everyone else.

Polygamy and incest are banned for straight people and therefore the very precept of equal protection under the law would ban same-sex couples from partaking in either.

It boggles the mind how the good pastor can’t appreciate the very foundation of human rights. All persons are equal before the law and have the right to enjoy its protection without discrimination.

The reference to a ban on marriage by minors was this writer’s, who never meant to put those worshippers in Pastor Moss’ mouth. He’s got enough there to chew on, most of which he has great difficulty digesting. The intent of the reference was merely to show that the law is proactive in its zealous protection of our children.

Pastor Moss knows that our laws do not allow a father to marry his daughter or a mother to marry her own son. Why then would he expect that civil unions would give consent to a father marrying his son or a mother her own daughter?

Equal protection before the law is about leveling the playing field for all citizens. If one citizen is allowed to do something (marry), then all must be afforded this privilege. If any citizen is prohibited from doing something then that prohibition must apply to all.

The state presently allows marriage between a man and a woman who are not related and who are not already in connubial habitation with someone else. Justifiably, it rules out incestors and polygamists. Sadly, it also rules out same-sex couples.

The problem for the pastor is that his reasoning seems to equate being gay with incest and polygamy. His is an illogical, unloving, prejudicial mindset which seeks to demonize fellow human beings as being less equal to himself. This is the same inhumane ground tread by those who do not support racial or gender equality.

Pastor Moss twisted the words of the learned President of the Court of Appeals who observed in a lucid legal presentation that a courageous and astute advocate might someday argue for marriage equality here.

Where else but in the fertile mind of a crotchety curate can that harmless observation be interpreted as legal jujitsu? Her words are reminiscent of the late US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the 96th person and first black man on that Court.

Mr Marshall was a “courageous and astute” 32-year-old lawyer when he successfully argued against the practice of busing black students over great distances to keep them in segregated schools. His case, Brown vs Board of Education said that separating black children from white kids didn’t make them all equal before the law.

If that is what Pastor Moss sees as judicial activism then my prayer is for a young officer of the court to show us similar courage and tenacity in this modern-day equality challenge.

The pastor might ponder a quote from Nelson Mandela who was a staunch advocate for marriage equality: “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

It is sad that Pastor Moss is unable to say amen to equality for all God’s children, whether straight or LGBT, who are equally and wonderfully made in the image of their Creator and equally protected by our democratic constitution.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

August 16, 2017