The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune,

If there’s one thing that angers me about this country we call The Bahamas and its people, it’s how we’re always prattling on and on about how we’re a “Christian nation”, and how we were founded on “God-like” principles.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. This country is about as far from being a “Christian nation” as the planet Neptune is from our Sun.

Honestly Bahamians, how in the world can we, with our own mouths, continue to say that we’re a “Christian nation”? How can we continue to believe this lie? How, or why, do we continue to make this ridiculous statement when:

1. A prominent lawyer, Queen’s Counsel, and someone who really should know better, is calling on the government in power to begin flogging - whipping with an actual whip or with the dreaded “Cat o’ Nine Tails” - illegal immigrants, and in particular, Haitians, as a “deterrent” to send a “strong message”;

2. A high school student, teenager, and someone’s child, was brutally murdered by other high school students in broad daylight, in front of a number of business establishments, with dozens of people standing around, yet no one trying to stop the attack;

3. The murder rate at an all-time high, with 141 people ruthlessly slain, including said high school student, and with someone getting shot, stabbed, or beaten to death on an almost daily basis;

4. The government went against the opinions of both the people and the Christian Council, who overwhelmingly voted “No” in the referendum to legalise gambling and web shops, but legalised it anyway;

5. We say “cleanliness is next to Godliness”, yet we throw our garbage everywhere except in the bin, littering without a care in world, leaving our yards, our streets, and our beaches covered in filth, to the point where American tourists who choose to vacation here, make disparaging videos literally documenting our nastiness;

6. We raise “all hell and high water” over “homosexuality and lesbianism and fornication”, yet completely ignore the widespread, astronomical cases of abuse against women and children, especially physical abuse and rape;

7. We completely forget that Gluttony is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”, and eat anything and everything that isn’t a fruit, a vegetable, a member of the nuts family, or a grain, to the point where we’re the sixth fattest nation in the world, placing above the junk food capital of the world, America.

And finally, we completely forget Jesus’s teaching to always help the poor and weak, by treating mentally and physically disabled people like dirt, parking in handicapped spots, refusing to hold doors open for them, and laughing and making fun of homeless people – “jonsers” – battling the ravages of schizophrenia, by posting videos of them on YouTube and Facebook.

“Christian nation”? One must chuckle derisively at this preposterous claim. If Jesus and His holy army were to return right now, the Bahamas would be one of the first nations he reduces to ashes in His wrathful vengeance.

STILL CONCERNED

Nassau,

December 13, 2015.