Churches knock gay pride parade

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN churches are calling Saturday’s gay pride parade in Port of Spain a serious wake up call for the churches. They are also warning that the gay lifestyle is a threat to the family structure and would eventually destroy the nation.

The various church leaders said they are not raising their voices in condemnation but speaking the truth in love. They said they are also open to ministering and counselling members of the LGBTQI+ community.

In sharp contrast was Roman Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon who said the LGBTQI+ community has legitimate concerns which must be taken seriously by the country, the Government and people of TT. His response was shared via the Archdiocese of Port of Spain’s Facebook page yesterday.

On Saturday, for the first time in TT, scores of people from the LGBTQI+ community participated in a gay pride parade at the Nelson Mandela Park in Port of Spain .

President of the TT Evangelical Council of Churches, Rev Desmond Austin, which represents over 40 evangelical churches, says while freedom of expression is guaranteed under the Constitution a difference must be made between a right and a fundamental right. He called the parade part of a global cultural shift and said TT should not be surprised that it has come home.

He said he is concerned about the idea that people feel that they can use everything under the sun and feel that government, church and the people must bow to these rights .

“Now people want rights that are not fundamental and is based on orientation which basically is a choice, because there is no empirical evidence that backs up the notion of what is called sexual orientation, none whatsoever. The evidence is nowhere that people by nature are born that way.”

Agreeing with Austin was director of the Trinidad School of Preaching and Teaching, Dominic Dos Santos. He said the gay lifestyle is not appropriate and is a challenge to the Christian community.

He said there is no war between the churches and the LGBTQI+ community and that the parade is all about advertising and recruiting members because there cannot be any reproduction taking place in a gay lifestyle.

“That to me is the core of the war – they want us to accept it, that they alone are being infringed. They take up this position socially and isolate themselves that everybody is against them, but what they are practising is against normal social operations.”

Outspoken Seventh day Adventist pastor Clive Dottin called the parade “worrying” and said it is a sign for the churches to wake from their slumber to deal with the issue.

Dottin said the gay pride parade shows the church has taken too much for granted and must become more aggressive on what the Bible teaches.

Bishop Keith Ramdass of the Redemption Worship Centre in Chaguanas said while everyone has freedom to express themselves, the country as a whole has a right to determine the values it wants to promote and not a group such as the LGBTQI or any other group.