18TH APRIL 2004

ON THE THEME:  YOU ARE A CHOSEN GENERATION

  Bishop Simeon Hall, the Pastor of this beautiful church and my brother in the struggle, the officers and Members of this church. My friends who have joined me on this occasion.  It is good to be with you this morning in the House of the God.  I am grateful to be here, honored by your invitation, inspired by your graciousness, impressed by your courage, and humbled by your choice.  I hope that what you hear this morning shall serve as a blessing to you, but that in addition it will inspire you to do good in this world, improve the international condition, and help you to serve all people so that justice and peace will reign throughout the world.

 Bishop Hall, I am sure that this morning by your choice of Speaker you have probably raised a few eyebrows.  In fact, when I was speaking to friends about this, one of them asked me the question: who is converting whom?  I must say that I had my answer at the ready. It is a clever answer.  I told them that I did not know that conversion was necessary since as far as I knew both of us are Christians, born and raised and practicing the faith. So if that is the conversion that they are talking about, and it must be the only conversion that they are talking about since we are in church, then no converting needs to be done.  All we are doing here this morning is sharing in the word, and enjoying a greater understanding of the common ground that we share in our Christian heritage in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

 That I am pleased to be here is an understatement. I am happy to be here.  This morning as Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service, I will speak as a minister in the truest sense of the word.   Someone who assists people in times of need to understand where it is they are, where they have come from and where it is we need to head, and perhaps further where it is that we are actually heading. I think that this is a wonderful teaching opportunity, and the Prime Minister has mandated us to go wherever people are and try to share with them the visions that have brought us to where The Bahamas should be, and try to cause people to join with us in working toward that vision.

 I have some of my dearest friends with me this morning. Ron Pinder, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Philip Miller, an Under Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is a Bible scholar.  My godfather Levi Gibson who on 5th April past celebrated his 90th birthday, so I am especially pleased to have him here with us. Ms Nadene Rolle, a friend from primary school days and who cuts my hair. Henry Dean, who is the People’s warden at St. Agnes Church where I was christened and of which I am a member today. Once again it is good to be here.
 This year 2004, we mark the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in The Bahamas and throughout what was then known as the British Empire. In the march of progress that saw million and millions of Black slaves brought across the Atlantic Ocean to this side of the world against their will, in 1834 there seemed at last a recognition that there was a common humanity under God that had to be recognized.

This year in Fox Hill the constituency I represent in the Honourable House of Assembly, we shall be celebrating that anniversary in a special way.  And we would like you to join us in Fox Hill.  The freedom of the slaves in The Bahamas has been continuously celebrated in Fox Hill from 1834 to now. It is part of the African heritage of The Bahamas. The Director General of the United Nations Education Social and Cultural Organization along with our own Ambassador to UNESCO Sidney Poitier will join us in Fox Hill on 21st May to speak with the people of Fox Hill and to mark the occasion of this 170th anniversary.  UNESCO has declared this as a special year to mark the struggle against slavery throughout the world.  We ask you to come and join us.  Having regard to all of that, it is especially pleasing that you have chosen this day to mark as your African Heritage Day.

 When I was born in The Bahamas just over 50 years ago, and if you examine my birth certificate even today, you will see the designation of my race.  For the birth certificates of persons born in later years in The Bahamas, that designation has disappeared.   The key down below on the certificate will say: A for African, E for European and M for Mixed.  My birth certificate bears the legend A for African.   That is in part who I am.  I am a child of the Africans who came to this part of the world, some as free men, but most of them as slaves.  The descendants of these islands came at various dates and times, and through various means, but none of us came from here. We have all inherited this land, having been occupied first by European settlers who decimated the indigenous population, and then in the latter centuries governed by the descendants of African slaves.

 Many of the people of African descent who live here today came in the 20th century from the British West Indies, from Cuba and from Haiti.  In 1973, together with the descendants of our European brethren and others, we defined a new state in these islands and we today call that state 30 years after the fact the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.  We are the Bahamians, the sons and daughters of immigrants who came to this country by one means or another and as occupiers of this land for the time being who have a larger duty to mankind.  We are the occupiers of this land and we are doing well, relatively speaking and certainly by most objective measures. There is no malnutrition or famine here. Our population has a general life expectancy at birth well into the upper sixties for men and the early seventies for women. We are free to speak and to practice our religion, to change our religion, to have no religion at all, and to encourage other people to join our religion. There are no political prisoners here.

By any objective measure then, we can call ourselves a blessed nation.  It is clear if one studies the stories in the Bible that the history of the world is replete with stories of people who have had to leave their homes and wander into other areas in search of a better life. Even in the midst of our wellness, there are some of us who have to leave these shores in search of education, health care or just in search of a better life. And yet again, we can call ourselves blessed because wherever in the world Bahamians have gone, they have generally not been abused, and they have been welcomed.  The history of The Bible shows us that this has not always been the case for all people, but it is also clear from The Bible that we have a responsibility to carry out the charge given by God to Israel to treat all strangers kindly.

The question then today is: what are we doing with what we have?
 
And so I begin in earnest with this prayer and I ask you to begin our meditations this morning with these short words adapted from a prayer for Africa by Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s prayer for Africa. While you are pondering these words, you should also pray for the safety of our diplomats abroad.  They do a wonderful work for The Bahamas and as we have seen it can often be a dangerous work.  Ambassador Eugene Newry and his wife are returning to The Bahamas today from Haiti.  It appears that his wife and her security aide Mitchelet Meronard were wounded in what is reported to be a robbery attempt and they were slightly wounded in the attempt. Their wounds are not life threatening and they will be able to return to full health, but I believe we ought to pray for them and all our workers overseas. The words to the prayer are these:

God Bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas
God Bless Africa
Guide their rulers; Guard and protect their peoples
Give wisdom, peace and understanding to all, especially to your servants gathered here this day and to our workers across the world.
In Jesus name
Amen!

 Listen to some words from the First Epistle of Peter Chapter 2 Verse 10:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
A peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 Those words of St. Peter are the starting point for today’s discussion, which is an eclectic discussion; it draws on many themes but leads to one inescapable position.  At the end of all I say here this day, I hope that you will come to the inescapable conclusion that Bahamians are the leaders of the Caribbean, that we have a mission to perform.  That we are the nation with the highest per capita income in the Caribbean and the third highest in the hemisphere is not just for that fact, not to be gloried in and for itself.  We are well off for a reason. Some people of other nations come to The Bahamas because it is well off, and the fact is that our wellness has been built up in part by the work, talent and labour of those many strangers who have come amongst us. We have a duty to use the wealth which we have to perform a leading role in the region and in the world.  Small as we are, that is what I believe; we have that mission to perform.
 The words of Peter in the epistle are not new words.  In fact, and as you know, the Bible repeats many of its words and stories throughout the Old and New Testament.  The Bible was written and compiled not by one person but by many authors, some of whom are unknown.  The texts were edited over many thousands of years.  The stories were written down after passing through an oral tradition but it is remarkably rationalized to come to one compelling conclusion that all people have a right to exist in freedom and in dignity.  That there is an objective right to exist whether you are large or small.  That what counts is not one’s size, power or status but you and me and each individual has a right to exist in freedom and in dignity.

Yes indeed it can be argued that in many respects, we are a chosen generation…an holy nation, a peculiar people.

  A study of the Bible reveals that many of the changing scenes of life and people have happened before.  We are certainly not the first rich nation in the world.  We are certainly not the first religious people in the world.  And most certainly we are not the only people in the world who were once slaves.  The Bible shows us that it has all happened before.

 The Bible also shows us that the struggles of mankind and nations are also not new, that the business of diplomacy and the law and relations between nations and peoples have existed from time immemorial back to the days of the flood.    It is interesting to trace back to those early times and to see what the Bible shows us about how we ought to get along.

 The founder of the modern monotheism of belief in one true God is generally accepted to be Abraham.  Abraham is embraced by all of the major monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.  And the Bible tells us that Abraham was a man of great faith.

 In Genesis Chapter 12 verses one to three, Abraham the descendant of Noah was called by God and told: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 If you cast you mind back to Bible history, you will also know that prior to the choice of Abraham, the tower of Babel had been destroyed. This was a tower that was built up after God promised Noah that he would not destroy the world by water again.   The theologians argue that God had destroyed mankind in the flood to try a fresh start at goodness in the world, but it had happened again when mankind in its arrogance had decided that it was in ultimate control and tried to build a tower to reach the heavens.

 The Bible says in Genesis Chapter 11 and Verse seven: “Come let us go down and there confuse their language, that ye may not understand one another’s speech.” And in verse eight: “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city”.

 Karen Armstrong writes in her elucidating work ‘In the Beginning’: “The New World order planned by God after the flood had come to nothing.  If anything humanity was now in a worse state.  By making fun of the great Babylon, whose ancient civilization dwarfed his own, God showed that the world view of his pagan contemporaries was doomed.  Civilization and technology could not be a source of blessing.  The next person chosen by God to give human beings a new start was born in Mesopotamia but it would be necessary for him to leave his culture and begin afresh.”

 That person was Abraham. And he answered the challenge of God with faith.  Abraham, unlike his contemporaries believed in one God, and he left his land in what is now modern day Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria and went to the land of Canaan, which was to become the seat of a new nation and people.  But the land that he moved to was in the midst of a famine, and this caused him to go to Egypt.  There he had to negotiate his way into Egypt.  He remained there for five years, before returning to set down his roots.

 His generations prospered, and remained in that place until the Bible tells us the story of Joseph who found his way into the kingdom of Egypt once again. Joseph was a slave but once he began to exhibit his talent he found favour with the Pharaoh, and was raised up to the heights of Prime Minister.  He helped to protect Egypt from famine.   And as a result of the gratefulness of the Egyptian people to Joseph the foreigner, his brothers were allowed to come with their father Jacob and all of their families.

 The nation of Israel, with their separate identity and customs remained in Egypt until the time of Moses.  By that time, their fortunes had changed and the leaders of Egypt had forgotten the good things that the people of Israel had done in saving the nation of Egypt.  They made life difficult for the people of Israel and they were forced to leave and go once again to establish their own nation in their own land but it was a land that they had left hundreds of years before.

 Today, we are still seeing the fall out of those ancient conflicts in that’s same area of the world.   What the Bible history teaches us is that the movement of humankind is not static.  People are constantly moving and life is constantly changing.  It also shows that as people move from one place to another, there are rules that govern their behavior, and rules that govern the behavior of those who are receiving them.  The lessons of the Bible also show us that the migration of people from one area to another brings benefits as well as burdens.   That even as someone comes to your land as an immigrant, that immigrant brings a value of work and worth and talent to his adopted land.  They who come have an obligation to follow the laws of the receiving state, but the receiving state has an obligation to treat all people with respect, dignity and respect accorded to all human persons.

 Surely then there is a lesson from all of this for the modern Bahamas, where there is the fear that we are going to be swamped by immigrants.  There is a lesson to be learned of tolerance but there is also lesson to be learned in protecting our identity.  It is a balancing act but there is also a lesson to be learned in rationality, and an abiding faith in God.   The fears that many express today about what is going to happen to our country and its identity are real fears but with our abiding faith, and we are constantly boasting in the country about the faith which we have in God and our Christian values, there is no need to fear.

 Surely that is a lesson that we as descendants of African slaves in The Bahamas should know all too well.  We ought to know that notwithstanding the lowliness of the beginnings of our history, it is possible by hard work, self assurance, sacrifice and an abiding respect for Christian values and a belief in God that we can become the rulers of a nation.  That is what Peter was saying to those Christians in his epistle when he told them that they were a chosen generation…. A peculiar people.  Throughout that whole epistle Peter was telling those people who are Christian that they must be an example to those around them, even as they are different.  Peter writes in verses 15 to 17: “ For so is the will of God, that with well doing, ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.  Honour all men. Love the brotherhood.  Fear God. Honour the King.”

 And remember that the Bible is a great teaching book.  It lays down in some telling ways the previous history of a people, and is replete with examples of how others have dealt with various crises.  The one thread throughout it all is the faith, which Bible figures display that all will be well, that God will protect them.  It must then follow that we in this generation who having enshrined the notion of Christian values in our constitution, should also share that abiding faith that all will be well.

 But as a government, we have to deal with people’s real fears.  The fear that with the coming of new people to the society there will be rapid change and that our culture and way of life will be swamped.  No Government can expect to survive without paying attention to those fears.  But it also has a responsibility to look at the facts and show the fact that over the history of our country ours is a history of immigration. Our economy has done well in part because of it, and in a short time we believe that there will be great demands in the economy again. That economic activity that is coming will create a huge demand for labour, and not all of that talent may be available inside our country.  The church has to help us with the transitions that might be necessary so that we can protect what we have.  It must mean that we must be training our young people so that they know their history, and develop the skills and have a greater sense of who they are, and what they are capable of doing.

 One of the most problematic legacies of slavery on African peoples throughout the world is that it has given many the feeling that they are without worth simply because of the colour of our skins. And it is still heard in so many ways in our Bahamas even today.  He is black but good looking.  He is black but he has good hair.  He is black but he is smart.  We speak often as if black is the opposite of all that, a negative to a positive. And yet time and time again it has been shown by science that there is no rationally based significance to the differences in skin colour.  Skin colour is no more significant than the place of one’s birth. It is an accident of nature, part of the rational design of nature.  It is part of the variety of God's world. No more or no less.  Our children have to know that.  It has to be taught to them that being different does not make you inferior.  All being different means is that you are different, and being different is something to celebrate.  It is something about which we ought to be proud.

 Christianity is in some respects a fatalistic religion and in other respects it is deterministic.  In fact, the ontological nature of God contains those same cleavages: determinism and fatalism.  And by those fancy words we simply mean this.  Our tradition teaches us that on both counts we have no reason to fear the future.  Why should we fear whether we will survive because there are larger nations that may bring pressure upon us.  We have no reason to fear because the Bible has told us consider the Lilies of the Field how they grow.  If he takes care of the lilies why should he not take care of us?  That is the fatalism of our religion.

 And then there is the determinism, the fact that we have the free will to determine or choose how we will make our way in the world.  We have our mind that has been given to us and we have the right to choose.  The essence of Christianity is that by the choices you make in this world, by the life that you choose to lead, you can find God’s saving grace.

 That is why as a Minister of the Government, I have no fear for The Bahamas on any score.  We have survived and we will survive.  There are many who are more powerful than us, but we have a right to exist.   Bahamians ought to realize, accept and embrace that right to exist.  It means we have a right to exist in the face of superior power. There is nothing more disconcerting than to hear public opinion that supports the view that there is nothing for which The Bahamas must stand.  Those who subscribe to the view that The Bahamas must only say yes because the powerful are making the request, are misguided and just plain wrong.  We have also a right to exist in the face of those who are weaker but more numerous than we are.  But it does not mean that because we have relative wealth we must allow ourselves to sit back, accept and be swamped.  We must be active in our faith and our beliefs. We must defend our country’s interests.  To do so, we protect our own best interests both individually and collectively. We must be well trained to meet the challenges of today’s Bahamas.  Those who know me can look in my eyes on any given day and see that in those eyes, I have no fear of the future. That has been bequeathed to me by a generation of God fearing Christian ancestors.  That is a part of the rich African heritage of which we are all a part.

 Abraham had to have faith.  He responded to the peremptory call of God to get up leave his own people and go to another land. He did so. He was 75 years old at the time that he answered the call. But answer it he did.  Karen Armstrong writing again in her book IN THE BEGINNING says: “ Abraham lived in a violent, dangerous society.  He had to wait in the dark, contending with peril, doubt and loss.  Faith was neither easy, comforting, nor life enhancing.  The divine did not reveal itself to Abraham in lucid, incontrovertible apparitions or in clearly defined doctrines.  Abraham had a constant struggle to make sense of his circumstances, catching at best glimpses of the sacred that sometimes seemed baffling and even hostile. Blessing was neither effortlessly bestowed nor effortlessly received.”

Ms. Armstrong writes further:” In the ancient world, faith did not mean theological conviction, as it does today, but rather a total reliance upon another. ” Abraham was constantly tested but whenever his faith flagged God would appear and he told Abraham in Genesis 15 verse one: “ Do not be afraid, I am your shield; your reward will be very great”.

 When Hestor Argot, the descendant of African slaves came here on a boat with her three children of colour in 1804, what choice did she have?  She had to have faith.  And one of those three children born of a white French man and Hestor Argot, a descendant of Africa, was Stephen Dillette.  Stephen Dillette was Haitian and he came here as a child.  He grew up to become the first man of colour in the Bahamian House of Assembly.  And so it was that a Haitian broke the political colour barrier in The Bahamas. History tells us what has happened in the past.  There are those who now predict doom and glom because of immigration. But we have survived the trials of the past, and our nation is intact. I have faith that it will remain intact.

 Our country was occupied at two times in its history, once during the American War of Independence and another for one year under the Spanish, but we survived.  We survived the hurricanes and pestilences of nature.  We survived the recessions and the departure of the men of the country to find work out of the country.  We have survived before. We can continue to survive.  But we must not lose faith.

 Small countries, like The Bahamas have our moral voice. It is a voice that reminds us of the passage “blessed our the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons if God.  Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”. It is our responsibility to make our voices heard by speaking up for the right to exist of all peoples, and by ourselves setting an example of respect for human dignity within our own shores.  Our biblical heritage commands us to do so. Our natural history as a formerly enslaved people, dictates that it must be so.

 When Moses stood before Pharaoh, he represented a relatively weak people in physical strength, political power and wealth.  But he had his faith, and a strong moral voice.  And he used that to good effect to negotiate his way out of Egypt to set off for the Promised Land, freeing his people from bondage.  If there is any lesson in that for The Bahamas it must be this, that small as we are we can use what we have, ourselves, our faith to carry us where we want to go and where we need to go.  Our faith makes the nation strong.

 It is that faith that our ministers of the government take with them when they meet with other more powerful states. It is that faith that we have a right to exist and we have a right to our way of life.  No one has the right to take that away from us.

 If we accept that this is so, if we have faith then we should have no problem embracing our role as the leaders of the Caribbean, not closing our doors to new people and to new influences but embracing them as a way to build our country.  Egypt was made rich by those who came. But we also have to protect our country, and we best protect it by our faith in ourselves and by learning that our heritage demands of us a sacred responsibility to protect this land against the rich and powerful who might try to subvert it or against the weak and poor who may misuse our good nature to subvert it.
 
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once again, it has been a great honour and God bless you all!