BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, December 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Christians in many Caribbean territories being pressured by developed countries and international agencies to normalize homosexuality are joining in prayer and sharing resources to defend family values and Bible-taught sexual mores.

In a shrewd appeal to nationalist sentiment as well as biblical truth, Barbadian sociologist Veronica Evelyn told a rally of approximately 6,000 islanders gathered at Bridgetown’s Bay Street Esplanade on November 22, “A handful of wealthy nations in North America and Europe have decided to turn the world upside-down, to deconstruct society with new, ungodly versions of family and marriage.” The rally was an attempt to mobilize Christian churches to become actively involved in public affairs, including sexual rights issues.

Dr. Evelyn, a key organizer of the event, warned, “Today, family, faith and freedom are under severe and persistent attack in Barbados, the entire Caribbean, and across the world.”

Citing President Obama, who at his second inauguration likened the struggle for LGBT rights to the struggles of blacks to attain equality, Dr. Evelyn objected strongly to the notion. “How can a moral wrong ever become a civil right?”

Across the Caribbean, the message is being delivered by developed countries and international agencies, she said, that the region’s island nations must conform to the new morality.

In May, the Barbados Ministry of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development collaborated with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network to invite a same-sex couple to conduct a week-long training to sensitize police, military, prison officers, and others to LGBT issues. At the end of the week, the collaborating parties hosted a public panel discussion on the topic “How Gay is Too Gay and should they be Invisible?” The moderator of that discussion ruled faith-based questions out of bounds.

The point of all this effort, Dr. Evelyn told the crowd, is the repeal of Barbados’s anti-sodomy laws, which criminalize anal penetration. But it is socially lethal to normalize what is against the law of God, she argues. “When human governments collaborate to usurp the authority of God and to make His laws void, it is time to defend family, faith, and freedom. As a church, we must focus on being God’s ambassadors, the salt that will preserve our country from legalizing mass sexual confusion, and the light that will guide the way towards building strong families and a strong nation.”

Warning that they would be called “homophobic … haters, bigots; intolerant, discriminatory,” Dr. Evelyn urged the crowd to return this hostility with love and openness to dialogue. At stake, she said, is the moral and physical health of their country, their children and grandchildren.

“How much longer can we continue reacting to our multiple social problems by covering our sores instead of at least trying to cure them?” she asked. “We create social policies and programs, and these are good, but they don’t get to the root of the problem. And the root of the problem is sin.”

Dr. Evelyn’s speech was merely the warm-up for a three-hour event that evening. It was followed this month by a march for youth. Along with removal of the anti-sodomy laws, so-called reformers are urging for laws to be changed so that minors can seek sexually related advice and treatment without parental consent.

Unwed pregnancies are closely linked to poverty in Barbados, and anal penetration is directly linked to HIV/AIDS infection. The international organizations preaching acceptance of sexual rights were surely “not telling the whole truth” in this matter.

Dr. Evelyn told LifeSite News that homosexual activists would no doubt try to challenge Barbados’s laws with anti-discrimination lawsuits, as was being tried in Jamaica by a Canadian-based expatriate. It is significant that this expatriate was the same individual who conducted the sensitization sessions in May and who also conducted similar training in Antigua in November.

Dr. Evelyn said the “Family, Faith and Freedom” rallies in Barbados were an allied effort of church and business leaders to chart a national Christian response to sexual rights issues. A similar march in Jamaica in September drew 25,000. Over the past five years, other collaborations of church leaders and laity have developed in other island nations.

While the campaign to defend the family was starting with the churches, she said, it must move into secular society, with “rigorous arguments about what makes a society wholesome.” She condemned the idea of “twenty countries in a small section of Europe and North America who, because they have money, believe they can call the shots. It is cultural imperialism.”

Quoting a line from a well-loved calypso tune, she asked: “In a divided world that don’t need islands no more, must we be forever at someone’s mercy?” Judging from the number of church leaders and the enthusiastic participation of those present at the rally, the answer seems to be a resounding “no.”

Read the original article here:  Caribbean Christians resist homosexual agenda

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