Pastor Scott Stirm in Hot Water

Scott Stirm

Evangelical Pastor Scott Stirm has come under fire for remarks he purportedly made about the sacred “Dugu” ceremony of the Garifuna on a webcast beamed to the U.S. earlier this month. So controversial were his remarks that during last week’s House debate, Minister of State Frank “Papa” Mena called on him to take the next plane out. While Stirm maintains he is not racist, his remarks have angered persons all over. For context here is part of what he said.

Pastor Scott Stirm [File: March 24^th, 2016]

“We have a reasonable…a pretty good amount of witchcraft that still takes place in Belize. I have a dear friend…there is a people group called the Garifuna in Belize, and they are the closest descendants to the African slaves that came over. They fought and resisted slavery so they never submitted to the colonial rule. And then that people group…two of our adopted sons are from that people group. I got to know a wonderful, wonderful lady in the Southern part of Belize…amazing, on fire woman of God….leading people to the Lord, praying for healing and signs and wonders and what happened is that one of her family members was an extremely, extremely powerful witch and also a multi-millionaire off of her witchcraft. This is a real story…this lady told me I was invited to come to a family reunion and when I got there I realized that it was not a family reunion. I realized that it was what is called a dugu, which is the ancestors are upset, this witch lady said, with you, you, you and you. When they started beating the drums all these people fell to the ground except for this lady. And she stood there. She said Scott I lifted my hands to heaven and I said Father I am under the covenant blood of Jesus Christ. She said I looked down and I was floating two feet in the air. I can’t go into all the details of that story but she had asked me to be a prayer cover for her. I knew her and so we were locking in. When I started to lock in and prayer cover for her all of a sudden we started going through crazy warfare.”

This afternoon, the National Evangelical Association of Belize staunchly defended Stirm, their VP, and stayed on message. In a release, the Association states that as Evangelicals, it is their strongest belief and conviction that, “any and all practices, spiritism, ancestral worship, traditions that contradict the Biblical teachings of Jesus Christ and Scripture, those practices and observances must be forsaken and surrendered at the foot of the cross, in submission to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.”The release goes on to say that in the context of religious freedom, Garifuna, Maya, East Indian, Creole, Asian, Caucasian, African, Mestizo and within all cultural orientations in Belize, Evangelical Christians have the right to remain within their culture while simultaneously rejecting spiritual practices. That release was followed by another from Stirm himself. He claims the video was maliciously edited and circulated to discredit and malign him. On the controversial statement on the Garifuna, Stirm maintains that he was repeating the story of a Garifuna Christian as told to him. And that he has every right to “stand his ground” concerning statements rooted in religious convictions, but adds that in compassion and love for his Garifuna brothers and sisters, he humbly apologizes for any offense caused.