The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE amount of outright hypocrisy and double standards that exists in this country we call the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is truly astonishing.

By now, you’ve probably heard of an allegedly gay pastor who was recently ordained in a local church. The event was viewed by many Bahamians through social media, and in typical fashion, an overwhelming majority expressed shock, outrage, and disgust over the event, including an extremely aggravated young woman who interrupted the ceremony, loudly condemning both the pastor in question as well as the entire church, and had to be physically escorted out of the building by church staff.

It’s no secret that Bahamians hate, loathe, despise, and absolutely revile homosexuals. You hear it from the mouths of babes, with young school children screaming the age old phrase, “you like man!” at each other. You hear it in the dancehall reggae songs played ad nauseam in nightclubs and on jitneys, with the singers calling for “batty bwoys” and “chee chee men” - to be violently killed, with Bahamian listeners gleefully singing along.

A few years ago, our homophobia was put on full display for the whole world to see when a LGBTQ cruise ship, hosted and sponsored by well known lesbian celebrity, Rosie O’Donnell, attempted to visit our country. The Bahamian populace was having none of it, and vehemently protested.

It was quite a spectacle, with hundreds of demonstrators waving placards with statements reading “IF YOU GAY, STAY AWAY!!”, “GAYS NOT WELCOME!!”, and “EVEN ANIMALS GET MORE SENSE!!” And of course, our local pastors and prominent religious leaders were leading the fray, standing on the backs of pickup trucks and using megaphones to hurl holy condemnation at the “Sodomites”.

We Bahamians are so focused on what the “broke wristed” amongst us are doing, so worried about “sissies” infiltrating our world, that we either fail to acknowledge, or choose to ignore the many, many acts of immorality and sexual depravity committed by “straight” people.

Where’s the outrage over the staggering cases of rape and abuse against women and children?

Where’s the outrage over reports of female tourists being attacked and sexually assaulted on our beaches?

Everyone’s “freaking out” over a gay pastor being ordained, where’s the outrage over a certain bishop, a convicted sex offender, who served only two years of a three year sentence of statutory rape of an under age girl (a slap on the wrist), being commissioned as senior pastor of a newly formed church, an event that was attended by the very same pastors who preach “hellfire and brimstone” against gays?

Apparently, being LGBTQ is a far, far worse sin than being a child rapist and sex offender. Or maybe it’s because the victim was female. We all know how most of the pastors, as well as a majority of their followers, feel about marital rape.

God may hate gays, but, He also hates hypocrites and false prophets.

INDEPENDENT THINKER

Nassau,

June 13, 2018.