BCC: don’t blame church on marital rape law

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Christian Council president Bishop Delton Fernander said people should not blame the council for the Davis administration’s refusal to criminalise marital rape this term, noting the church is divided on the issue and the government has advanced other controversial matters, such as decriminalizing possession of small amounts of cannabis, despite church opposition.

Attorney General Ryan Pinder revealed earlier this month that the Davis administration does not expect to introduce the legislation before the end of its term, suggesting that every administration has grappled with political calculations concerning the issue.

 Bishop Fernander noted that in 2022, the Ministry of Social Services and Department of Gender and Family Affairs hosted a sexual offences legislation one-day symposium that involved churches and other members of civil society.

 “There was division in the room in regards to it,” he said. “So you can’t say the church has a monolithic approach to this. We are divided on it.

 “We didn’t hold any weight on marijuana,” he said. “We put a whole statement when we were against it, one voice, and they did whatever they want. So they just want to use, in particular, the Christian Council, as a beating stick. I’m not trying to let our organisation become that.”

 Free National Movement Senator Michela Barnett-Ellis made a similar argument in the Senate,   noting that the Progressive Liberal Party has made bold legislative moves in the past, such as legalising gaming, despite opposition from religious leaders.

 The Bahamas has faced international scrutiny for failing to criminalise marital rape, a violation of its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which it ratified in 1993.

 In 2023, Mr Pinder revealed that criminalising marital rape was the number one human rights issue countries raised with The Bahamas when the United Nations Human Rights Commission reviewed its record that year.

Comments

birdiestrachan says...

The Fnm government could have passed this law. So never.mind . Ellis why is it so urgent now.they should all stay out of married people business. Divorce or separation is the answer. People living in the same house sleeping in the same bed is just nonsense. There is already a back load of cases people on bail for murder to long. Ellis why did you not go after your Fnm papa and doc to pass this law hypocrite for sure.

Posted 14 February 2025, 4:31 p.m. Suggest removal

hrysippus says...

Bird, has lost the plot again; Ellis was never a creature of the FNM however did he not get acres of crown land from the shuffling old buffoon and his gang of corruption smeared colleagues?

Posted 14 February 2025, 6:23 p.m. Suggest removal

Porcupine says...

Lost the plot?
Lost her mind is more apt.

Posted 15 February 2025, 8:25 a.m. Suggest removal

hrysippus says...

The Bishop protests; “It’s not my fault…” .
Our failing to stop the spousal assault. .
Everyone else’s fault, but never the church. .
Who care more about money than women getting hurt. .
For centuries the church covered up their crimes, .
Only revealed in these modern times. .
Pastors will say anything to keep their coffers filled, .
But everything is noted, and will eventually be billed. .
Sigh ,

Posted 14 February 2025, 6:39 p.m. Suggest removal

Porcupine says...

What happens when both the government and the church fail miserably?
Simply read the papers.

Posted 15 February 2025, 7:33 a.m. Suggest removal

AnObserver says...

How can you be "divided" on the issue of rape? If someone is raped, they are raped.

Posted 17 February 2025, 11:24 a.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

Wives want legal promissory State Legalization to give, sell or bargIn the pusscat away to who they want to while denying the Biblical husband emotion affection and sex. You gat to to be living it to understand. After 40 years if marriage Wives just tired if our a$$ and we only worth death insurance. So husbands take my advice and immediately cancel Wives goldmine in your insurance for their lover.

Posted 17 February 2025, 9:02 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

You'll really don't know what Wives inflict upon their husbands being jealous of the motherhood years of tears of sacrifice they miss getting jook and wild regatta dreams being influenced by the 98 percent unwed females
It's a battle married men always loose. I could see our professional moral females encouraging young females to take up a life of marriage rather than gas lighting Wives over 40 who 100% abandon 40 years of womanhood.

Posted 17 February 2025, 9:14 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

Emotional, social, sexual, years of no conversation silent weapons after 40 years by wives is no crime? God don't like that. You gat to be in the trenches to know these wife assassins upon their husbands and their support group of evangelical new day Christian children morning day after 40 years of of sacrifice we suddenly become Dracula as the spike enters our heart. Never get married.

Posted 17 February 2025, 9:28 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

Even potcake dog owners are prosecuted for abandonment but not wives who abandon their husbands. But there is a Mighty God above. Hail Mary Full Of Grace The Lord Is With Thee.

Posted 17 February 2025, 9:38 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

Wives weoponize children and grandchildren against their husbands this is an evil world.

Posted 17 February 2025, 9:49 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

And how could humanity explain than you come from sex six times a day at age 25 to to forty years later and sex is rape once in two months.

Posted 17 February 2025, 10:04 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

And the lawyers know blessed single males with a house are safe. But cursed married men with a house is prime money in case of divorce. The system ready to attack the more 5% of males them strip them to pauper. Pasters grinning with a harum in pews. He never asks them fir husbands tithes. Wives reveal more of their bodies in public exercising in the mysterious dark of morning than in the marriage bedroom. Numberman own the women pocket. It is just crazy why lawyers only after married persons assets at just a 3% margin of all that is wrong in this world. Just follow the money. After you successfully raise your daughters and they fly out the cage it it is hell to be married.

Posted 18 February 2025, 1:13 a.m. Suggest removal

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