Pastor says church protects Constitution of God

Scott Stirm

While the Council of Churches is yet to meet with P.M. Barrow to express its views on the inclusion of the term sexual orientation in the Revised Gender Policy, the alliance of regional church leaders representing the Cayo District says it has sought advice from lawyers, teachers and sociologists on the possible far-reaching effects of the addition.  According to Pastor Frank Wade, the duty of the church is to protect the Constitution of God, which prefaces the Constitution of Belize.

Pastor Scott Stirm, Belize Action

“We made a very clear point that we represent the Belmopan area coalition of churches.  We are putting together a broader, comprehensive report being reviewed by not only attorneys but sociologists, education leaders, business leaders and we are compiling that report.  That is, ultimately, I would say that’s our real feedback because, you know, some of the specialists in different areas caught words that, you know, circle that and say that is a huge word right there.  The rest of us just glanced over it.  So, we did make clear to the prime minister that there is a larger, comprehensive report which we are going to be submitting to him in writing.  So, but we did agree in principle that these are some of the areas where there are some major red flags.  If these areas are changed it helps change the document tremendously for us.”

Luis Wade

“Who identified the red flags?”

Frank Wade

Pastor Frank Wade

“We did really.  They didn’t see the red flags and so our position to them was simply the reason why there must be, must be dialogue between the government and the church because there are some things that they will not catch and we will catch those things because it is our job to safeguard the way of life for us as Belizeans and also to safeguard what we like to call the Constitution of God which happens to make up the preamble to our constitution.  So we red-flagged those things and the truth is they were very open to those things, not only the accepting of those things but the changing of those terminologies.  And so, of course, we know that after all is said and done more is normally said than done so we will be on the lookout to make sure that the things we speak about or spoke about this morning would be implemented.”

Earlier this week the coalition met with Leader of the Opposition Francis Fonseca to discuss its position on the content of the National Gender Policy.