Church to protest DP bill and LGBT community
(CNS): Local churches are not just campaigning to raise funds for a legal battle against the implementation of the Domestic Partnership Bill but they are also planning a demonstration against members of the LGBT community this weekend. Despite claiming that their actions do not constitute hate speech and are not homophobic, some of the messages circulating on social media from Christian leaders go well beyond objections to same-sex marriage.
Pastors, preachers and ministers of Christian churches are calling for a stand against the proposed law, which would provide a legal framework to protect the rights of same-sex couples to a private family life. But they are also protesting against the people themselves.
“Let’s not open the flood gates of the LGBT+ and their cohorts and all that they are desiring to do to destroy the Cayman Islands,” said one church leader.
Other pastors are busying campaigning to raise money for a legal challenge against Governor Martyn Roper’s move to steer through the Domestic Partnership Bill under his reserved powers. Plans to have MLAs collect that money were changed due to concerns about politicians handling the cash. Parishioners are now asked to donate directly to the church where they attend.
Despite very clear warnings that the UK would act to uphold the rule of law if legislators voted down the compromise legislation, the Legislative Assembly rejected to bill by one vote. Consequently, the governor has moved to republish the bill and take final consultation before a number of amendments will be made to the draft. Roper will then give assent to the bill early next month.
The need to pass the legislation is a result of a combination of factors, notably that Cayman was in breach of its international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights as well as its own Bill of Rights. In addition, following the well documented Day-Bodden gay marriage legal case, the government has ignored a directive from the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and is also facing a further appeal before the Privy Council in London next year.
Unless government implements some kind of legal framework that the courts deem functionally equivalent to marriage, the government will almost certainly lose that appeal and the chief justice’s original ruling legalising same-sex marriage will be reinstated with no further road to appeal.
On Friday the governor said the homophobic comments being made in public and on social media were unacceptable and urged people to think about the discrimination being suffered by some Caymanians.
Nevertheless, certain factions of the Cayman community, including most opposition members of the Legislative Assembly and some members of the government bench, as well as several conservative Christian congregations and other members of the community, continue to openly degrade and discriminate against members of the LGBT community.
According to various social media messages, the church demonstration is planned for 4pm on Saturday outside the Government Administration Building.
Category: Community, Laws, Local News, Politics
Locked down for months in our homes, can’t go see family or friends, can’t go to church because someone old might die from the flu, no protest. Governor uses his right to enforce laws that the UK wants, protest. What a bunch of sheep.
THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!
If you do indeed believe in hell and that the LBGT community are going there you will be sitting right next to them for your disgusting judgement of other peoples rights!
Most Caymanians see the homosexual lifestyle as something that is harmful to traditional family values, the institution of marriage and the best interest of children. This will not change when the governor forces his will on the people of the Cayman Islands.
I am confident that ‘most’ Caymanians share neither your bigotry or your stupidity.
Homosexuals also aren’t going to go away just because you think they’re harmful.
Recognising same-sex relationships doesn’t affect anyone but the couple who is in the same-sex relationship.
I know for a fact a lot of the churchgoers protesting are not from Cayman. Please please pack up and go home. It is not that long a journey. You might be killed, or robbed by your own bredren but at least you will be home where you can kill your own gay people after your church service ends. Bye!!!
Most people of faith that I have spoken with don’t actually want anything to do with homosexuals or their supporters. They actually would be be happy to allow homosexuals to do whatever they want to do once they could find a way to separate themselves from what they consider to be sin.
CNS: Apartheid is generally frowned on these days.
Except, no gay person is stopping you on your way to church and asking you to convert your beliefs and/or sexual orientation less you burn forever..
There is no need for CNS to try and further inflame the issue by throwing around the word apartheid. It would appear from the comments that both sides would like to be free of the other.
CNS: OK, use ‘segregation’ if you like. It’s the idea that is deeply offensive to all right thinking people, not the label. But the suggestion that the way to deal with discrimination is to keep a minority being discriminated against separate from those doing the discriminating is apartheid, whatever you try to call it and whatever lies you tell yourself. A better solution is to stop the discriminatory behaviour. That means treating people equally.
Yes there is with an asinine comment like above.
That is hopefully going to speed up implementation of same sex marriage here.
Parishiners are asked to donate directly to the church that they attend. Hmmm that says it all. That money should go to school supplies and food for poor children. Nothing else on this island seem to bother them except gay people. It is funny how the so-called Christians seem to be the ones spewing hate and ignorance. They have no idea how stupid they look to the rest of us.
MARRIAGE IS A LEGAL INSTITUTION.
The level of tasteless and hateful comments that have been directed towards members of the CMA and other religious groups and individuals is disturbing. It originates from the lack of respect that local and foreign leadership has for religion and people of faith.
Suck it up buttercup. All self inflicted and well deserved.
Have a word with your invisible friend. If only he hadn’t disappeared for 2,000 years other people might be more inclined to listen to him too.
Why would you possibly think that your beliefs are worthy of other people’s respect?
It originates from the lack of respect that the CMA has for human rights, and the lack of tolerance and compassion they have for their fellow human beings.
Maybe CMA are the false prophets. Maybe they need to read their Bibles better. All I know is that quite a few so called Christians will be in for a surprise. The Bible says ,”Love one another”. It doesn’t teach hate. What happened to the Ten Commandments? The adultery going on in the churches, the domestic abuse, the idols (money)….
Every major religion commands its followers to love each other, to not judge, to seek peace. To feed the hungry and care for the needy, welcome the stranger and comfort the despairing.
The time and money wasted on this hypocritical display of bigotry could be better used to feed and support the many, many hungry and impoverished souls on this island.
Shame on them. What would Jesus do?
I encourage us ALL (gay or not) to avoid the area while the protest is going on. Let’s not give them an audience, let them show off their narrow-mindedness amongst themselves.
I think we show up in tight tight tight and bright.
The irony is, if there really is a God, these intolerant, ignorant fools preaching hate for their fellow man will be turned away at the pearly gates, while the same-sex couples stroll on through.
What Bible are you reading?
What if we were to implement a Gay Tax and allocate 10% of revenue to the CMA? Then it would be cool, right?
All this and yet innocent helpless children are being targeted and abused by some of the most “upstanding persons” in this community. Women and men are prisoners in their own homes. I guess child abuse and domestic abuse is not as important as the worries of how two consenting adults choose to live their lives. I wonder sometimes if the so call church community is just jealous at the fact that these people are free to be who they want to be and don’t have to pretend to be who they are not to get the approval of a bunch of other fake ass people.
So one headline today is about how we save the decimated tourism industry and seek to bring people to our lands
The next is how the people of these welcoming lands intend to protest the gays
You couldn’t make it up
Ugh…give it a rest already…
They should feel ashamed.
It’s their right as humans/citizens of this free democratic state to protest. Just as practitioners and supporters of the LGBT community. Why all the rude comments and attacks on this side of the argument, and total support for the other? Why should believers in christ or any religion have anything to be “ashamed” about if believers in multiple genders and same-sex relations do not?
Like morals, these people have no shame.
No one should ever feel ashamed to tell the truth.
No they shouldn’t.
What has happened to tolerance in this country? Please explain to me how this couple pictured above will be personally affected if two men or two women choose to enter into an intimate relationship in private. It’s none of their business.
If this couple and those like them truly and honestly believe that a magical sky fairy has written a book of religious laws that everyone has to follow, then perhaps they should be checked by a medical practitioner to have their heads examined.
Come on everyone, science, common sense and goodwill to others should be what governs our actions in life, not blind faith in these religious books and teachings that have been designed to control you and turn you into manipulated sheep for 2000 years. Think for yourselves. Really actually think, not be told what to think.
I don’t think you are supposed to tolerate sin.
Gluttony is a sin, right. So any Caymanian who is medically over their ideal weight or BMI is a sinner, and should be banned from Church and Heaven. Great, let’s do it. Let’s not tolerate overweight people, they are sinners. Anyone overweight should not be able to stand for office – oh wait, all the MLAs will have to go for a start. Anyone overweight should be made to register on a public register and be weighed weekly in public while we all jeer at them. etc etc. See – many of you are sinners, sitting your fat asses down on the pews in church every week. I don’t hear you saying that sin should not be tolerated as you stuff your fat faces.
This is hate-mongering, not religion. Get over yourselves. If you don’t want to marry a same-sex partner, then don’t do so. But don’t go telling me what I can and cannot do. I’ll make my own decisions, thank you. You better start getting used to it: Domestic partnerships will arrive by October. And gay marriage — yes, marriage — is very likely to arrive next year after the Privy Council has its say. (Bigots, go ahead and vote against me all you want. Gay marriage is coming to Cayman regardless.)
Hopefully someone records the proceedings so the haters can be arrested and punished accordingly. This has to stop.
The churches would be better off collecting money to help people who are struggling to put food on the table while the local economy is in turmoil.
Before the Christian bashing starts, please remember the CMA does no speak for all Christians.
But where are the Christians speaking out for non-discrimination and equal rights?
In the end, God will be the judge of all of us, including those who say they are Christians.
Doubt it
Prove it
Or dirt will. My body belongs to the earth. The real live proven as a fact earth. It will fertilize this beautiful planet as many have before. Praise Mother Earth!
Disgusting and disgraceful. These church leaders should be arrested and tried for blatant discrimination and abiogenesis rhetoric. No place for such abhorrent views that these church leaders have in a modern democratic society,
If these people had their way they’d put the LGBT community in quarantine facilities at the Holigay Inn. Keep testing them till they are “straight”. Peace and love to all.
What would Jesus do?
Jesus died for their sins so they can be free from the bondage.
Turn water into wine and celebrate the girls wedding.
Did Jesus stutter when he said to love one another? The LGBTQ community deserves the same rights as everyone else. Otherwise, we are no better than those who opposed black people/people of colour receiving equal rights, nor are we better than those who opposed women receiving the right to vote, the right to open a bank account in their name or have a credit card in without using their husband’s name. By the way, all those people who opposed giving equal rights to others also called themselves Christians.
How is denying the LGBTQ community equal rights NOT hypocritical? How does granting them the same basic rights as every other human, including the right to legal marriage, impact your life? No one is stopping you going to church. No one is shutting down your Sunday services. No one is telling you to stop praying. No one is asking you to change a thing. It is still your right to believe that being gay is a choice and therefore wrong. It is your right to believe that opinion if you want to. What you do not have a right to do is deny someone’s access to human rights because of your personal religious beliefs. Church and State are separate for a reason. Better believe those who voted against this bill are being voted out of the LA come 2021.
Well, tell all that to God. Glad you are feeling so confident.
Which one exactly? Zeus?
See, this is the reason we need to get that mental health facility built. It’s going to need to be bigger than originally planned as well apparently.
The Gays are coming! The Gays are coming!! Run for the hill.
The only hill round here is Mount Trashmore
How about marching and raising funds to prevent and treat the sexual abuse of CHILDREN that is so prevalent in Cayman instead of worrying about domestic partnerships between adults, whether hetrosexual or homosexual? So hypocritical of the churches and so called christians.
I wholeheartedly agree. What about spending some of that money on feeding families in need, providing housing for the poor or helping under privileged school kids? Oh wait, that’s governments job as well as the nonjudgemental charities, sorry my bad.
A Christian demonstration on the Sabbath?
Sad to see that there are people with so much hate in their hearts that pretend to be good Christians. Yet where are your protests over the multitude of men that beat women here? Where are your protests with all the rape, incest and child abuse cases? Why aren’t you out there yelling and screaming and wanting to stone the abusers then? HYPOCRITES!
You had your chance but chose to ignore the human rights of a section of the community. Well done Governor Roper. We are a BOT and our constitution should reflect, for the most part, that of the mother country. I LOVE the seethe from the sky fairy followers 🤣.
They dont want gays no way near the churches but, rapest, child molestors, murderers, perverts ya all are Welcome!
you forgot to add wife beaters and misogynists to your list
And crack dealers
And pimps.
The picture of this couple is so ironic. He seems to be black and she seems to be white. Up to the sixties in the US several states did not permit inter-racial marriage but the rule of law eventually prevailed. Racism is the same form of hate as homophobia.
What are they seeking to achieve by this palaver? An absolute waste of time. Please go and donate more hours to looking after our poor who must have increased over the past several months. Do something useful.
You make no sense with your apples to oranges comparison. Snooze.
How ironic that the couple pictured holding the sign, don’t realize that their union would not have been possible without social changes to overturn unjust attitudes.
Finally, people standing up for what is right, just, and fair!
You’re a clown.
These people think they are God.
Oh for Christ’s sake, people, stop it!
Stop this hatred against our own people and families. Go find something better to use those talents where with God has blessed you.
I wonder if the couple pictured are aware that they would have had the same issues getting married elsewhere years ago as an interracial couple. How would they feel about people stopping them getting married because of their skin colour? People fought for the rights to allow this and you are throwing it in their faces by not showing the same courtesy.
If we started auditing these churches and tracking where the funds that they receive go, im sure there would be no churches left to protest this as they would all be in jail. Bunch of thieves.
McKeeva funnelled millions to the churches through the “Nation Building Fund” that he oversaw personally.
For wotes and nothing more. They will reward him in December, just wait and see.
They have no legal basis for any challenges so let them waste their money,
Not to mention are gatherings in the numbers that the churches cough up the same 2000-3000 old people with nothing better to do on a Saturday even allowed under the current regulations?
As far as I am aware public gatherings over 50 people are still prohibited under the regulations and this would be the dictionary definition of unnecessary gathering, The CIG gave themselves special dispensation to put on that event for the regiment last week, and even then they did not allow an influx of persons to attend
If any of these regulations are selectively relaxed for a bunch of religious nuts to stroke their own egos and act holier than thou in public it would be an the final death blow to the idea that these regulations are for the protection of all without fear or favour
Dear Christians of Cayman:
If this is how you evangelize to attract people to your church and convert, you’re doing a horrible job right now.
I hope someone, anyone has the balls to go counter-protest these hateful people.
They are hating no one. They honour God and seek to uphold His values.
They are trying to do you a favour.
For the couple in the picture, marriage is not a divine institution. It’s not even a religious one. It’s a civic institution, which confers legal rights and obligations. Because of this, you can get married without any religious involvement.
That being understood, there is no possible justification for denying marriage to anyone who wants it, irrespective of sexual orientation. It must be available to all, gay and straight.
The belief of fundamentalist christians that they ‘own’ marriage is as deluded and inexplicable as their need to control others’ lives in accordance with their own religious beliefs.
I do not believe in the existence of any God, and so resent the suggestion that my rights should be constrained in such a way as to accommodate the prejudices of those who do. But even if I did believe in a God, who’s to say that particular God is real, among the 5,000 or so that are worshipped on Earth?
The sad, bitter individuals who will join this protest do not understand how absurd they look. It’s a shame that their anachroniostic prejudices are still able to inflict such harm on their fellow humans.
Excellently stated.
Atheism is a constitutional right!
You cannot demand Caymanians to live by your Bible!
I stand for minorities!
You stand for bigotry!
So do you.
As my mother would say, nothing to do and nothing but time to do it with
The middle of a pandemic and a economic downturn hundreds of people have been affected by job losses or lost income, people are looking for where their next mean will come from, or how they will afford to buy school supplies and masks for their kids for months
What are churches and ‘religious officials’ concerned with?
Acting as if they are the 4th arm of government and their issues should come above all else
Remember all that noise about how they didn’t hate gay people it was just about defending marriage as a religious institution? Well marriage is untouched yet here we go at some point these people have to admit this is not about marriage or laws at all, they have hate in their hearts and they use religion to justify it plain and simple
Let the churches and the idiots they con waste their money hiring lawyers to challenge the Governor’s clear usage of his allocated power in order to maintain good governance and the rule of law. They will soon encounter the fact that their religious and traditional arguments have no merit in any court and will be paying the governments fees faster than you can say “dumb and dumber”
Well we now are seeing the true colors come out
SHAME ON THEM
Waste GOD money to promote hate
I was wondering why the churches were not helping the community in these difficult times and now this.
That why I will never go to church because they are BIG HIPOCRITES Gays are humane beings.
I would come out and Demonstrate against them at their OWN DEAMON STRATION The rest of the world is having riots so we may as well join in and the CHURCHES would be the first to start hate speech ETC ETC!!!!
Eldemire
CAYMAN Food Bank is a church charity feeding the poor before and during Civid1o pandemic.
Let’s be fair and speak truth.
No, it’s not.
Waste of time, but more power to them.
The local churches need to remind themselves that Christian values involve acceptance and love not judgment and hate.
Sorry, love but not accepting. Nowhere in the Bible you will find that acceptance of sin is acceptable in Gods sight.
If local churches don’t like the legislative assembly following the orders of the Cayman Islands courts, they should leave!
These are our islands and if these churchgoers don’t like it, they should go elsewhere.
Stop trying to impose your disgusting churchgoing lifestyle on everyone!
Finally, we have a true prophet in our midst.
Matthew 10:22
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
Counter protest. Love wins. What would Jesus do?
Punt?
That is actually pretty darned funny. Well done.
Julianna wanted us to crash a gay wedding.
Let’s go counter-protest! Only fair!
Hang out with a bunch of disciples dressed in skirts.