Belize Can Patriots should not be confused with Evangelical Churches
With seeming accord between government and the churches, you might be a little confused by those militaristic releases condoning shutdown of schools and strikes or giving the government thirty days to withdraw the gender policy. Well, those releases are coming from a group called Belize Can Patriots, an alliance movement led by Patrick Menzies. According to Pastor Eugene Crawford, that’s a horse of a totally different colour, not to be confused with the BAEC.
Pastor Eugene Crawford, President, Association of Evangelical Churches
“No, no, no…no, no…none of that. The work of the alliance movement does not reflect that of the Association. There are two recognized church bodies in Belize – the Belize Council of Churches and the Belize Association of Evangelical Churches. Now because we have moved to a more decentralized setting than a centralized…first of all, years gone by the Association covered the country but in actuality it was only Belize District. But we have revised our constitution…we have tailor-made it that we represent the entire nation. We have chapters from all the districts. And it was the leaders from those chapters that came together for this meeting. They form part of the executive body. The alliance of churches, or whatever that name really is and leadership under Patrick Menzies is not a part of the BAEC. We hope that we can get to all of those churches out there, and they will come under the umbrella of the BAEC, but the thoughts and actions of the alliance does not in any way reflect what BAEC is really doing or stands for. I’m not saying that they haven’t done some good things. I remember the constitution marches were well organized and took place across the country. The BAEC endorsed those and we were a part of it. But the shutdowns and the strikes and the ultimatums and the militaristic attitude and so is not what the church really stands for.”
As we’ve stated, G.O.B. and the church will meet in July to come to a final compromise on the gender policy.
