“Dame Joan blasts Ellis and Gomez – Former judge says bishops’ comments on Gibson divisive” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Former Court of Appeal President Dame Joan Sawyer yesterday accused Retired Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez and Senior Pastor of Mount Tabor Baptist Church Bishop Neil Ellis of seeking to divide The Bahamas.

She charged that the two clergymen are not qualified to speak on judicial matters and should ‘shut up and stay within their bounds.’ Gomez and Ellis have said they believe former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Cabinet Minister Shane Gibson was treated ‘inhumanely’ when he was escorted into court last week to face bribery and extortion charges.”

I must admit that I cannot totally agree with Dame Joan Sawyer because to tell someone to ‘shut up  and stay within their bounds’ would preclude many of us from expressing an opinion on subjects that are not in the realms of our expertise and would make all of the contributions by “My Morning Paper” null and void; indeed we all have opinions and sometimes they are on subjects that are out of our bounds but we should feel free, none-the-less, to express these opinions but there is a reason to be concerned about the manner in which these two ‘men of the cloth’ have seemed to have by some miracle found their voices as they go on to claim that former Cabinet Minister Shane Gibson was unfairly treated; Ellis going as far as to claiming that it ‘pained him to watch the video of Gibson hopping up the court steps.”

While he may suggest that ‘there was no need for the police to handcuff the former minister, as he was no flight risk and contributed greatly to the country’, and he may be right; I would ask where was his voice [Bishop Neil Ellis] and the voice of retired Archbishop Drexel Gomez in instances when other non-violent offenders were brought to the court handcuffed, shackled with clear signs of physical abuse, which did not occur in this case as Shane Gibson had injured his foot in a boating accident. Why not speak to these cases also and ask questions of why some young men, after being arrested, were leaving their cells in body bags.

While I do not fully endorse the sentiments of Dame Joan Sawyer, I can understand her frustration as these two top clergymen seemed to have ‘picked their battle’ carefully here when coming out in support of Shane Gibson, seemingly solely based on the fact of who he is and what he has contributed to the country and not based on that fact that he is a fellow human being and fellow citizen of The Bahamas.

I would consider the bishop’s comments divisive not only because it would appear that he has chosen to defend, rather fervently, a political figure but that as a member of the clergy he has not sought to defend all of the other alleged acts of ‘inhumane’ treatment by the police against the ‘average’ citizen, thereby creating a class system – does this mean that one life is more valuable than the other even in the eyes of the clergy?

So by this standard the bishops’ comment can be considered divisive and maybe since his comments tend to do more harm than good, on this basis he should “shut up”.

END