Role of the Clergy in Bahamian Politics

by Sir Arthur Foulkes

Someone once said that there is no one more to be despised than an inconstant saviour, and there is no more intense hatred than between comrades turned foes. In the political arena, it seems, there is no one to be more vilified than a defector.

Some politicians tend to see things in an erstwhile colleague to which they were previously blind. That may be so because the defector is seen as a more dangerous threat than the regular opponent because he has inside knowledge of the weaknesses and bad habits of his former friends.

So in the face of a defection from a political party the assassins are likely to pounce with all the savagery they can command. The PLP is very good at this, perhaps because they have had a long history of dealing with defectors.

The first thing a defector should expect is a full force frontal assault on any perceived weaknesses. But as devastating as this can be, the defector still stands a chance because he anticipates and is ready to deal with the onslaught.

What is worse is the sly, covert attack which usually comes in the form of a coordinated and persistent whispering campaign designed to undermine the defector in the eyes of the public.

This is infinitely more dangerous because you have to repeat the slander publicly in order to deal with it and at the same time run the risk of giving credence to it in the minds of some. The damage this kind of attack does can last a lifetime.

The Rev. Dr. C. B. Moss must have anticipated all of this when he decided to leave the PLP because he no longer thinks that the leadership of that party is trustworthy.

The assault was led by no less a person than Prime Minister Perry Christie himself. He was backed up by Bradley Roberts who has had much practice maligning opponents of the PLP and who took to the attack with finger-wagging relish, apparently oblivious to the irony of it.

Dr. Moss has conducted his defence with vigour. He has responded to the frontal attack but he has also gone public against the whispering campaign. It was a risky but courageous thing to do and his friends can only wish him luck.

But Prime Minister Christie and Mr. Roberts also opened an unusual line of attack on Dr. Moss. After talking about his lack of support in the party for a nomination to run for the PLP in the next election – all of which sounded credible -- the Prime Minister made this astonishing statement:

“Further, at an even more profound level, the party, including myself, had for a long time been receiving very firm and very clear representations from many prominent clergymen that the idea of having an ordained, practicing member of the clergy serving simultaneously on the political frontlines in the House of Assembly was abhorrent to the principles and practices of the church.”

The statement is cleverly worded to target Dr. Moss – “ordained, practicing member of the clergy” – but it clearly opened up the whole question of ordained ministers participating in politics, offering as candidates and serving in political office.

Both Mr. Christie and Mr. Roberts made a telling point when they referred to a letter written by Dr. Moss in 1986 in connection with the candidacy of Ruby Anne Darling. Mrs. Darling was at the time host of the Baptist Radio Hour. Dr. Moss said this:

“It is my opinion, however, that your public confirmation of your candidacy in the upcoming General Elections of one of the local Political parties made it mandatory that you immediately withdraw from the program. Your failure to do this has among other things, placed the Baptist Convention and indeed individual Baptists in an embarrassing position. It has also cast a shadow upon your Christian integrity, or your good judgment; for surely you will agree that a partisan speech on national radio on Saturday, which is divisive and creates wounds, then return on Sunday as the voice of the church which seeks to bridge divisions and heal wounds is incompatible.”

It would be a good thing if Mr. Christie and his colleagues were sincere, but this looks more like the same old politics of expediency rather than the politics of principle. Mr. Christie and Mr. Roberts should not have brought it up in this context because it looks like just another excuse to disqualify Dr. Moss.

They cannot make a statement of principle because they have no intention of applying it across the board. Mr. Christie’s Deputy Prime Minster is an ordained minister of religion, and she never lets you forget it. The fact that she is not a pastor of a church is irrelevant because a member of parliament who becomes a minister of government is required to give up professional practice.

In most democratic countries there has been a debate about whether it is a good thing to have ministers of religion in elected political office. For many years there was a prohibition against priests running for the British House of Commons even though bishops sat in the House of Lords.

Most modern democratic constitutions do not exclude ministers of religion from holding elected political office but it seems the weight of opinion is growing in favour of those who say it is not a good thing for the church nor for the state.

Most churches today either frown on the idea or have disciplinary rules against members of their clergy running for office.

Elected clergymen have risen to great heights in some countries. Some have become prime ministers and presidents. Archbishop Makarios of the Greek Orthodox Church led the independence movement in Cyprus and became the first president of that country in 1959.

In the United States, Roman Catholic priest Robert F. Drinan, became involved in the campaign against the Viet Nam War and in 1970 ran for the House of Representatives as a Democrat. He won and was re-elected several times.

Fr. Drinan, a Jesuit scholar, was so popular that the Republicans did not bother to oppose him in the 1978 election. But in 1980 Pope John Paul II decided to invoke canon law against clergymen running for political office and Fr. Drinan’s political career came to an end. He chose to remain a priest and to give up politics. One other priest was affected by the order.

One of the great civil rights leaders of the 20th century was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, a Southern Baptist minister. Dr. King led a powerful nonviolent movement against racial discrimination in the United States and he is celebrated around the world. Although Dr. King had a profound impact on the political and social life of America he never sat in the Congress.

In The Bahamas the Rev. Dr. H. W. Brown, a Baptist minister, played a major role in the struggle against racial discrimination and for majority rule back in the 1960s but he, too, never occupied a seat in our parliament. Dr. Brown was pastor of the historic Bethel Baptist Church on Meeting Street.

Other ministers of religion have sat in, or offered for, election to our parliament and they have been nominated by both parliamentary parties. In 1987 Fr. Addison Turnquest, an Anglican priest, ran for the FNM but was unsuccessful. His superiors were reportedly not happy about his candidacy but said nothing publicly.

Nobody would suggest a constitutional bar against any qualified citizen running for office in The Bahamas but it may be a good thing if, as Prime Minister Christie indicates, more church leaders are now coming around to the view that practising ministers of religion should be discouraged from running for political office.

Leaders of the political parties should think about it.

Comments

[EB Christen]

The separation of church and state is essential to a functioing first world democracy. If ours hopes to be a first world country, then that is the only path to be pursued.

When can we elimiate the archaic Christian council? When can whatever movies that people want to see be shown in the theatres, using the ratings system of the US to guide parents choices? When can there finally be a national lottery with proceeds going to an education fund?

The sheep will only control their destiny when they realise the shepherd isn't solely there to help them, but that the shepherds usually have another agenda as well. Nassau is full of crooked shepherds - wake up Bahamas!