The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Philip Brave Davis seems open to the prospect of Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller and the remaining members of the Rebel Four amalgamating with his party. By all accounts, Mr Miller is a devout Christian, who for decades worked at the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas. As a radio host at ZNS Radio and an announcer, his is one of the more recognisable voices throughout the archipelago. His entrance into frontline politics may have shocked quite a few of his followers, inclusive of the membership at his Resurrection Ministries International.

Like his fellow Parliamentarians Frederick McAlpine (Pineridge) and Mariam Emmanuel (MICAL), Miller is an ordained clergyman and a Pentecostal, I think. I commend Miller for attempting to lend a evangelical voice to the national discourse, although I am not too certain that Pentecostal pioneers William J Seymour and Charles Fox Parham would have dabbled in it had they been afforded the same opportunity as the Golden Isles MP.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with politics, anymore than there’s anything wrong with nuclear power. With nuclear power, you can either generate much needed electricity or you can destroy a community. It all depends on the person using it. Politics in The Bahamas has gotten a bad name because we continue to elect individuals who don’t have the Christian values of Miller. Whether it is philosophy, science, the arts, culture, industry, education or politics, every sphere of civilisation must submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Not one square inch of this vast universe is exempted.

Miller’s main reason for abandoning the Free National Movement (FNM) seems to be stemming from his Christian beliefs and principles. His disgruntlement with the FNM is probably because of him being axed as Parliamentary Secretary for opposing the VAT increase in 2018. It’s no coincidence that the FNM’s greatest intramural opposition has come from Miller and McAlpine.

For the former, it may be his crisis of conscience and overall disillusionment with politics. Owing to the immense influence of the Dake Annotated Reference Bible and the Scofield Study Bible, Pentecostals typically subscribe to the Futurist/Premillennial view of eschatology, that is rooted in Plymouth Brethren leader John Nelson Darby’s dispensationalism. This branch of eschatology, unlike its main rival, Postmillennialism, that sees conditions improving due to the widespread dissemination of the gospel, argues that conditions will only deteriorate until the Parousia.

Second Timothy 3:13 says that evil men will become progressively worse. Assuming Miller subscribes to the dispensationalist framework, his apparent disillusionment with the FNM -- a secular organisation made up of fallible, imperfect human beings, makes little sense. Consequently, if he were to join the PLP, he would be joining a party that is just as deeply flawed as the one he left. With The Bahamas’ deeply entrenched two party system, third parties and independents are traditionally non-factors. In light of this, Miller probably should’ve stayed out of frontline politics.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama,

December 16, 2019.