The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Reading The Nassau Guardian heading of a news report about Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis’ claims about God calling him to lead the Free National Movement (FNM) brought to mind Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson making similar claims about being divinely called to lead the Republican Party and the United States in 1987. Robertson’s presidential bid would come to a screeching halt in early 1988, when he would subsequently endorse then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who would win the presidential election that year, succeeding President Ronald Reagan. About a decade prior to Robertson’s entrance into frontline politics, he, along with Jerry Falwell and Tim Lahaye, founded the Moral Majority, with the goal of influencing Capitol Hill and the White House to enact laws conducive to a Christian framework. Admittedly, Falwell and Co. committed several missteps, one of which is appearing to attempt to Christianize America through legislation, which led to the accusation of the lobby group attempting to establish a Christian caliphate. Historians have long pointed to the Calvinist theocratic experiment in Geneva during the height of the Reformation in Europe, in which a Unitarian heretic, Michael Servetus, was executed for publicly rejecting the Trinitarian doctrine.

Another issue observers had with the Moral Majority was its penchant for cavalierly joining forces with other conservatives whose theology veered far off from orthodox Christian theology. The FNM troika of Michael Pintard, Kwasi Thompson and Lewis are all born-again Christians. Assuming that one of the trio is christened FNM leader at the party’s November 27 National Convention, it would then mean that an evangelical is head of one of the two major political organizations in The Bahamas, which would be a first. And assuming that the FNM is successful in the presumed 2026 general election, we would then have the very first evangelical Christian as prime minister. Pintard, Thompson or Lewis would then be in the position to emulate Robertson and Falwell by establishing a Bahamian Moral Majority that would enact pro-Christian legislation. I am not lobbying for a theocracy, similar to what John Calvin and others attempted in Geneva.

What I would like to see is a government that would not make laws that are spiritually detrimental to Bahamians, while appreciating the fundamental tenets of democracy. What we want is a government that will recognise its divine mandate to govern according to biblical principles, which includes placing an intrinsic value on human life, inclusive of the unborn. That would entail carrying out the death penalty on convicted murderers, which will send the message to the criminal enterprise that killing another human being will no longer be tolerated.

With the Bahamian Moral Majority and an evangelical Prime Minister, the possibilities of promoting a fundamentalist worldview would be endless.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama

November 15, 2021.