The Barbados Christian Council has lost its voice and has become a weak institution routinely ignored by power brokers and fails to speak out on crucial issues affecting the country.
And that has happened at a time when Barbados is facing serious economic problems and is deeply divided racially, politically, financially, socially and otherwise.
That stinging criticism of an organization designed to bring the various churches together came from prominent Anglican priest and psychologist Rev Dr Marcus Lashley who, among other things, is helping to train the next generation of religious leaders in Barbados and other Caribbean countries.
Lashley used the opportunity of the official annual Barbados Independence service in New York City to speak about the political, financial and racial divisions in Barbados and the ineffectiveness of the faith community
“Over the years, the faith community has been conveniently left out of the Social Partnership,” said Lashley, a lecturer in psychology at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies and Codrington College.
“The result is that there is no single person or entity capable of forcing the two (political) parties to work together in unity at this trying and critical moment.
“We have seen what this kind of intransigence has done to this great nation, the United States, in recent months. But what lessons have we learnt from it?”
He continued with a half-hour sermon delivered to about 600 Bajans during a three-hour service at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Flatbush in Brooklyn.
“There is no single religious leader so revered or trusted that an intervention would [not] be appreciated or honoured. We have a weak Christian Council, one which at times loathed to speak powerfully and prophetically to the issues of the times which burden our people.
“There is no mechanism independent of party which exists solely to foster political and party cohesion on crucial national issues such as the economy, health care delivery, education, prison reform, matters [with] no room for partisan politics. We need people of integrity who are capable of taking a stance which says, ‘Not that I love Caesar less, but that I love Rome more’.”
Lashley, who was quick to insist that “not one party or person has all the answers or solutions to our problems”, turned his attention to divisions that were hurting Barbados.
“Even today, colour, money, class and politics divide us, some 47 years after Independence,” he charged, alleging that “there are social events where one has to wonder whether one is in Barbados or Britain. Some bars and places of entertainment remain unofficially but visibly segregated” along racial lines. Lashley had another major complaint, this time about the behaviour of politicians that encourages a mentality of mendicancy.
“In Barbados and other islands, politicians frequently dip their hands into their personal pockets to help constituents who are in need or sometimes just in want,” he said.
“As a faith community, we must not support this action. While it looks like charity, it creates a mendicant mentality and fosters an improper relationship between politician and people.
“In Barbados we have enough civil NGO social agencies and churches to amply meet the needs of the poor and marginalized.”