By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

GREAT Commission Ministries president Bishop Walter Hanchell said yesterday that opposing the death penalty is against the will of God while retired Mount Tabor Senior Pastor Bishop Neil Ellis said if the government won’t enforce death penalty laws it should remove them from the books.

The comments of Bishop Ellis and Bishop Hanchell came after the Bahamas Christian Council held a National Day of Prayer event on Bay Street in response to the growing murder rate.

Dozens of Bahamians, government officials, and religious leaders from the Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, and Pentecostal denominations united in praying and singing in Rawson and Parliament squares.

 Eleven people have been killed in one of the deadliest starts to a year in Bahamian history, with the victims ranging from a 16-year-old girl charging her phone in her home to a 57-year-old grandmother driving her family.

 Last week, Reverend Harry Bain, during an Opening of the Legal Year event at Christ Church Cathedral, said he does not support the death penalty because “life is a gift from God and must be cherished”.

 Last night, Bishop Hanchell said: “I believe in capital punishment because it is completely biblical.

 “We need to go back to it and it is the only way we are going to see true change in this country when we start obeying the laws of God, when we go back to capital punishment, we go back to corporal punishment.”

 Bishop Ellis said: “Well my views are simple, I don’t know if you bring it back because it’s here, it’s here.”

 “You don’t have to bring back what’s here. My thing is if you are praying to solve problems and crime, at least keep the law you know.

 “If you are not going to follow the law, take it off the books, but I don’t think it’s a question of bringing it back because it is already here now.”

 Increased calls to reinstate the death penalty are common when serious crimes rise and typically decline when crime ebbs. Nothing suggests the recent expressions would lead to government action on the issue.

 Last week, former Cabinet minister Leslie Miller said legislators lack the guts to make corporal punishment happen again. Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martín, however, said she wouldn’t join the bandwagon calling for the punishment because its return is unrealistic.

 In 2006, the London-based Privy Council ruled that the country’s mandatory death sentence for convicted murderers was unconstitutional. Many believe the Privy Council would never uphold the death penalty.

 Yesterday, Mr Davis said the prayer event allowed the country to come together to pray for God’s guidance and intervention.

 “We must never lose faith in our power to make change, and we must never lose faith in one another,” he said.

 “This is not blind faith. It is faith in the love and mercy of our God and in the courage and resolve of the Bahamian people. So, we pray, as King Jehoshaphat did when he faced crisis.

 “He sought God in prayer, and the Lord responded, saying: ‘Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.”

 Bishop Fernander said the prayer service was the beginning of a movement within the nation.

 “We know that peace will not come to our streets until we take the gospel to every part of The Bahamas. In the weeks and months ahead, we will take over every part with a popup worship,” he said.

“Every place where they gather, every place that they smoke, get ready for God to show up.”