Dear Editor,
I believe the group or groups which refer to themselves as the “Church” are making a very big mistake. They have started to ask various Ministers of the Government to apologise and the like for wanting to establish casinos here. The “Church” (and I am speaking mainly of Christianity here) has openly criticized the legislation which would allow casinos here in Guyana. However, I think that they are going too far in “attacking” the government on this issue.
As Mr Al Creighton rightly said on a VCT discussion last week with Christopher Ram. Guyana is not governed by a “religious State”, meaning that the government in office does not have to listen, if at all, to any religious body regarding issues such as these. For example, Sweden is governed by the Church of Sweden (the branch of Lutheranism in that country); hence if they were to make laws for that nation, the laws would be in keeping with the beliefs of the Church of Sweden. In Guyana, on the other hand, there is a distinct separation of Church and State.
Now some of these Christian church groups in Guyana are suddenly vocal on issues of morality. Groups such as the Georgetown Ministers’ Fellowship, the Guyana Evangelical Fellowship, all of whom are against this legislation are all of a sudden concerned about Guyana. Why are they making their presence felt only now on certain issues? Where were they when Guyana needed to hear about their stance (and Guyana still does) on more important issues like abortion, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, prostitution, all forms of abuse, the crime wave, etc.? All of a sudden they just spring up out of nowhere ready to condemn the government’s move to legalize the operation of casinos here.
Mr Vincent Singh rightly said in the January 12TH edition of the Catholic Standard that the Roman Catholic Church here in Guyana needs to be very careful in joining forces with these evangelical and Pentecostal movements towards this issue. The writer voiced his concern from past instances where “bitter taste in the mouths of Catholics
