Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com
Published on 31 January 2006
A cruise ship carrying “up to 3,200…active homosexuals” is scheduled to drop anchor today in Grand Cayman. However, pastors representing the Cayman Ministers’ Association (CMA) are raising holy hell about the prospect of these passengers setting foot on Caymanian soil.
I understand the CMA’s opposition implicitly. But I disagree with it…explicitly!
My Daddy was a doctrinaire preacher man (an ordained Deacon) who lorded over his family according to the tenets of Christian fundamentalism. But, at about age 12, I developed an acute sense of apostasy that inspired me to question much of the religious dogma that was being taught (at home and in Church) as the word of God. Indeed, I was sufficiently precocious – perhaps even anointed – that whenever my parents and Church elders attempted to dismiss my queries as “the work of the devil”, I remember countering: “No, it’s the work of the Lord because Jesus did the same when he was 12…”.
I share this personal story not because I’m so proud I pricked my Daddy’s religious conscience so. I just believe it’s important to disclose my Christian bona fides before challenging the CMA on this very controversial issue. I’m clearly not a Deacon or a pastor. But I am blessed with absolute conviction that my reading of the Bible is just as valid as theirs.
That said, Pastor Steve Blair is the CMA’s spokesman. I pray he can appreciate the informed exception I take to his association’s use of specious moral reasoning to justify its opposition to this cruise. After all, Blair reportedly insists that:
I do have a problem with a gay cruise coming, and I also have a problem with adultery and things like that.
This purported statement of principle, however, is fraught with unsustainable implications. Because it conveys the wholly untenable and inherently prejudiced notion that a gay cruise – no matter how law-abiding and orderly – is as much a sin as the commission of adultery.
Never mind that the other six cruise ships scheduled to drop anchor in Grand Cayman today are surely carrying adulterers, fornicators and, no doubt, their own contingent of gays. Yet Blair and the CMA have expressed no moral objection to these ships disembarking.
But it does not take much thought to arrive at the CMA’s base motivation for wanting to quarantine the “gay cruise”. Indeed, CMA Chairman Pastor Al Ebanks claims that:
…as a society we have a responsibility to our citizens to promote certain behaviors and to not promote certain others.
This, of course, is true. But by not censuring cruise ships filled with adulterers, drunkards and other practitioners of iniquity, the pastor is implicitly promoting their “behaviors” as acceptable. It is undeniable, however, that as a society, Caymanians (like all Caribbean natives) have a proud history of welcoming people inclined to all kinds of unsavory behavior.
Frankly, what would be the state of our tourist economies if we did not? All we ask is that they comport their behavior to the requirements of our laws. Therefore, it is abundantly clear that CMA pastors are promoting a cause that not only makes them liable to charges of hypocrisy, but also threatens the livelihood of all Caymanians. (And trust me, if their protest gains any traction, it won’t be long before 24/7 news channels in North America and Europe begin branding Grand Cayman as more Osama’s Taliban Island in the Caribbean than one of Condé Nast’s most favored tourist destinations.)
But anyone remotely acquainted with Christian dogma knows that these CMA pastors are proselytizing their Pharisaic belief that gay people are an abomination unto God. Indeed, no matter how fervently they express that hackneyed refuge of religious scoundrels – “we condemn the sin, not the sinner” – it is self-evident that it’s the “sinner” they condemn when it comes to homosexuality.
However, I challenge them (especially Pastor Ken Love who claims “…the Bible speaks out against it”) to cite a scripture that condemns gay people (or gay-themed cruises). Because, for any scripture they cite that implicitly condemns homosexuality, I can cite one that explicitly condemns adultery, lying tongues, sowing discord and a host of other sins that are abominations unto the Lord.
Many pastors are fond of preaching that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because they had become populated by a bunch of marauding, promiscuous and orgiastic gay men. But the Bible plainly states that these cities were destroyed because people (men, women and children) “gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion,” including rape, incest, adultery, “onanism” (masturbation) and other “sinful” acts that are more associated with heterosexual than homosexual behavior.
Yet, notwithstanding my challenge, I am as respectful of the religious role clergymen like Pastors Blair and Ebanks play in our society as I was of the religious role my Daddy played in my family. But, just as I did not accept the moral inconsistencies in his teachings, I do not (and nor should any Caymanian) accept them in the protestations of CMA pastors.
Finally, I am disappointed that Ebanks would attempt to disguise what smacks of rank homophobia where he’s quoted making the utterly fatuous assertion that:
…if there was a ship full of people coming promoting themselves as tourists then he does not believe there would be a problem with it.
After all, are gay men by any other name not still gay?
Moreover, does anyone believe this pastor can defend jeopardizing the wholesome reputation and resurgent economy of the Cayman Islands just because he does not like the name a tour group is using to promote its Caribbean cruise? Mind you, it will only stopover in Grand Cayman for a few hours today. But would he really deem it acceptable if these same 3,200 men were coming on shore as part of the of “The Largest Men-Only Back to Nature Cruise” (as the all-male Christian group “Promise Keepers” might well promote one of their familiar retreats)?
Alas, as a matter of law, religion and common sense, the CMA’s protest is utterly without merit. And, I applaud the Cayman government and loyal opposition for ignoring their demagogic posturing on this issue.
Finally, I feel constrained to assert that I take exception to the CMA’s protest not only in the interest of (Presbyterian) social justice but also because my personal morality compels me to. I’m enough a student of history and religion to know that white pastors used specious religious reasoning to keep blacks out of schools, churches, neighborhoods and other places of public accommodation – just as CMA pastors are now doing to keep gays out of Grand Cayman.
And, what is particularly insidious about this CMA protest is that they are casting aspersions on gays as immoral, perverted and degenerate exhibitionists; whereas, in fact, gay tourists are inclined to show the same level of respect for the rule of law and local social norms as their heterosexual counterparts.
Therefore, as this cruise visits other ports of call in our region, I pray that local guardians of morality and social order show more regard for Bible teachings than CMA pastors have demonstrated. After all, their protest clearly ignores the lesson Jesus taught us by embracing the woman who was about to be stoned to death simply because religious elders deemed her a woman of ill-repute.
All the same, I’d be remiss not to admonish the few gays who might feel inclined to make a public spectacle of themselves – just as unruly, randy and drunk heterosexuals do during their spring break pilgrimages to our shores.
Accordingly, please do not assume that flagrant exhibitionism that might be the norm back home is just as acceptable throughout our islands. Show respect not only for our laws but also for our local customs and values. And rest assured that, notwithstanding the fulminations of the CMA, we welcome all of God’s children to our island paradise regardless of their race, religion or sexual orientation.
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