There is a divide among some local clergymen about involvement of ministers of religion in active partisan politics.
This as Bishop Joseph Atherley, a candidate in the forthcoming General Election, said yesterday: “I have been called by God to serve in the political arena and therefore I am comfortable serving in elective politics.”
His comments came in response to Monsignor Vincent Blackett, priest in charge of Lady Queen of The Universe, in Black Rock, who recently said ministers of religion had no place in elective politics. A General Election is expected to be called in Barbados before the end of the first quarter of this year.
Atherley, a candidate for the Barbados Labour Party for the St Michael West constituency which he once represented in Parliament but was defeated in 2008 said: “My first loyalty is to the God I serve, then to the people of Barbados, and then to the party I serve.
“I am not here to be divisive, but I share my opinions from a Christian perspective during party discussions and nothing that has been brought to the table thus far in my 20 years as a politician [from a party perspective] has been morally challenging,” the evangelical bishop said. (JB)
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