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Our Greatest Need
By Cedric Moss

The fiercely contested presidential election in the United States is now history. I happened to be there on election-day and stayed up into the early morning hours awaiting the returns. Though not a citizen of the United States, I have a keen interest in who their president is and the simple reason is that the leader of the most powerful nation in the world is in essence the de facto leader of the world. Living in The Bahamas, the nearest offshore neighbor of the United States, magnifies this reality.

As I had hoped and prayed, George W. Bush emerged the winner. Leading up to the election, the race was very close so I am grateful to the sovereign Lord for the outcome and relieved its over.

An Instructive Lesson

Having followed that election very closely, I believe the outcome holds many instructive lessons for politicians in The Bahamas, especially those who lead and aspire to lead political parties. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will learn and heed those lessons. The one I wish to highlight in this article is this: American voters chose to follow a leader who was willing to make tough, unpopular decisions and take politically incorrect positions that were based on his openly shared Biblical convictions. They elected him over John Kerry who holds quite opposite convictions. In short, Americans chose a faith-fueled, courageous leader over a faith-neutral, political panderer. That I contend — faith-fueled, courageous leadership — is our greatest need in Bahamian politics.

Faith Foundations

An interesting side note to the election is that both President Bush and Senator Kerry are former altar boys, one Episcopalian (Bush) and the other Catholic (Kerry). However, it seems clear that while President Bush built on the faith foundation of his altar boy days, Senator Kerry ignored and perhaps altogether abandoned his.

In the case of President Bush, he was and still is unashamedly open about having trusted Christ as his Savior and says he cannot separate his private faith from how he makes decisions in his political life. He made decisions and took positions consistent with his faith but inconsistent with what the polls predicted would gain voter support. Senator Kerry on the other hand zealously went on record to say and did the opposite. According to him, his religious beliefs are private and he does not allow them to enter into political decision making. Senator Kerry evidently sees nothing wrong with personally being against abortion while publicly voting against legislation seeking to ban partial birth abortion. Similarly, in the case of same sex marriage, he claims to be personally against it but did not support legislation seeking to amend the constitution of The United States to ban it. And the list of contradictions goes on.

Bahamian Politics

Leading up to our May 2002 general elections, one of the local newspapers published a supplement with the photo and profile of each of the candidates for The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and The Free National Movement (FNM). One aspect of the profile was “religion”. Out of personal interest, I took the time to read each profile. I found it incredible that, for ALL candidates except one (his was blank), the name of a Christian church or denomination was noted for religion. Therefore, when moral issues find themselves at their political doorstep requesting a public position, I’m always keen to hear the responses. Sadly, except for a few, the vast majority seems to follow the faith-neutral example of Senator John Kerry — virtual silence or making a statement that requires a verbal forensic scientist to conclude what it means.

A prime Example

A prime example of bringing private faith to bear on moral issues is the much talked about national lottery. It is most revealing to consider the reasoning of those politicians who have offered public comment on it. Those who have been vocally supportive of a national lottery are evidently indifferent to the contradiction their public position poses to the principles of the Christian faith they are on record for espousing. On this issue, I’m aware of three politicians (Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, Minister Neville Wisdom and Minister Melanie Griffin) who have publicly expressed their opposition based on their Christian faith. Knowing the courage it takes to stand like Daniel in Babylon, I commend these three individuals for letting their Christian faith influence their political decisions and positions.

Our Greatest Need

In The Bahamas, one does not have to look far or long to see the many problems and tough national decisions we face. In terms of voter support, there is uncertainty attached to making many of these tough decisions (in the case of the government) and taking the correct public positions on them (in the case of the opposition). To be honest, making those decisions and taking those positions will likely result in the loss of some voter support. And from what I continue to see from both the government and opposition, it seems clear that both are unwilling to risk paying that political price. Across the board, the main priority seems to be success in the next general elections. This is why I contend that faith-fueled courageous leadership, like that of President George Bush, is our greatest need. Such leaders make tough, principled decisions based on what they believe is right for their nation and then entrust their political fate into the hands of the Lord who, according to Daniel 5:21, “is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.”

Cedric Moss serves as Senior Pastor at Kingdom Life World Outreach Centre. Commentary and feedback may be directed to: cmoss@kingdom-life.org or post your comments here on Bahamas Issues.

the following site provides many quotes that show
that America's contitution and great people of the past
have always held to the bible and christianity.
http://www.allabouttruth.org/moral-ethics.htm


It is amusing that many people point out all the problems of the Bahamas and say the government is doing nothing. If the government was not afraid to lose the next election they would put their foot down and make the tough descisions, and th people will be happy to vote them back into power.

It is the government that does nothing that gets voted out. The people want a change for the better, a better way of life. Logic indicates that if you are the one to make the necessary changes you will not have to try to gain the favor of the people or theire votes. Your name will be in every household.

The bible says it best when it said 'faith without works is dead'. wanting to make changes and proposing and promising changes and then not following through is the best way to lose favor and be branded as hypocrites.

religion and politics...makes me shudder just thinking about it.

I to was glad Mr. Bush won, but for different reasons than you. He is a strong leader. I did not see Mr. Kerry as strong at all. But we are not Americans and cannot vote there so let us look at us.

Should we have a strong religious leader, firm in his convictions, he would have to do way with, among other things, the idea of a Lottery. He would have to close the Casinos. If he was a staunch Methodist, he would have to do away with drinking and smoking. Women would have to dress modestly (that would be the end of sunbathing, at least the half naked kind.) Couples who visit here would have to prove they were married in order to share a room, let alone a bed! If such things were put in place we would end up with five tourists a year! Come to think of it, I don't see Mr.Bush putting those things in force in the U.S. Why? Because he is smart enough to know that there are some "hot button" religious issues that if one is seen supporting, or not as the case maybe, one can ride the coat-tails of the Bible-Belt right into office.

Our politicians know this as well. Every election we have had has been soaked with religious language. The Church is a vast block of votes. Pander to them and you will be elected. Once the election is won, the Bibles can be put away until the next time and it is "business as usual." I am surprised that the Church has not seen through this "wheeze" years ago!

yup, like I said, they promise all kinds of things and never put them in place.

and when you really look at it, this is why I say it will only get worse, because people reject the bible completely, and therefore the democratic government can never put their foot down.

people will always say I am not a christian, so why should my country be ran by christian based laws?

in the last days christians will be put to death for not accepting the mark of the beast or will be forced to run away and practice in secret.

that will be a scary time indeed, but when it does finally happen, I wonder if people will still think that the bible is fake and God is not real.

I to was glad Mr. Bush won, but for different reasons than you. He is a strong leader. I did not see Mr. Kerry as strong at all. But we are not Americans and cannot vote there so let us look at us.

Should we have a strong religious leader, firm in his convictions, he would have to do way with, among other things, the idea of a Lottery. He would have to close the Casinos. If he was a staunch Methodist, he would have to do away with drinking and smoking. Women would have to dress modestly (that would be the end of sunbathing, at least the half naked kind.) Couples who visit here would have to prove they were married in order to share a room, let alone a bed! If such things were put in place we would end up with five tourists a year! Come to think of it, I don't see Mr.Bush putting those things in force in the U.S. Why? Because he is smart enough to know that there are some "hot button" religious issues that if one is seen supporting, or not as the case maybe, one can ride the coat-tails of the Bible-Belt right into office.
That is all Bush did. He as many leaders did before him, he worked on poeples fears and ignorance(lack of knowledge) to riase to power. If gay marriage was not a issues Bush would be out on his butt.

Look at this Bush is looking to pick a fight with Iran now.

Our politicians know this as well. Every election we have had has been soaked with religious language. The Church is a vast block of votes. Pander to them and you will be elected. Once the election is won, the Bibles can be put away until the next time and it is "business as usual." I am surprised that the Church has not seen through this "wheeze" years ago!

yup, like I said, they promise all kinds of things and never put them in place.

and when you really look at it, this is why I say it will only get worse, because people reject the bible completely, and therefore the democratic government can never put their foot down.

people will always say I am not a christian, so why should my country be ran by christian based laws?

in the last days christians will be put to death for not accepting the mark of the beast or will be forced to run away and practice in secret.

that will be a scary time indeed, but when it does finally happen, I wonder if people will still think that the bible is fake and God is not real.

Christians have already gone through that or don't you know your history.

Christians have already gone through that or don't you know your history.


I am not referring to christians killing people like in the old days of the crusades and inquisition.

I am talking about people taking responsibility for themselves, without needing the government having to impose on their lives.

but people will say they have freewill, and don't believe in the bible, and teach others that God's word is for the christians not for humanity.

I am not referring to christians killing people like in the old days of the crusades and inquisition.
I am not refering to that either. There was a time when Christians were hunted down and slaughted on mass by the romans.
I am talking about people taking responsibility for themselves, without needing the government having to impose on their lives.
You mean like people taking responsibility for themselves, to love and marry who they want.
but people will say they have freewill, and don't believe in the bible, and teach others that God's word is for the christians not for humanity.

Faith and religion is a personal thing and the way to the Creator is as individual as you are.

Sent to me by my mother-in-law.

"BXXX and I have been talking a lot lately about what we perceive as
hypocrisy on the airwaves. We hear much tut-tutting about "moral
values" on the talking heads shows and how the Blue States don't have
them and the Red States do. Liberal Hollywood is to blame we are told.
We feign outrage about Janet Jackson's "costume malfunction" and a
"desperate housewife" jumping into a football player's arms, yet don't
bat an eye at ads for Viagra, Cialis, or Victoria's Secret. Sex sells
everything. And you know what? We buy it. All of us, red or blue.
Equally. And it isn't just sex we love...violence, murder and mayhem is
number two. I know I LOVE my Law and Order (all incarnations), and CSI,
and I don't want to see them go away. And from the looks of the ratings,
most of us don't either. So who exactly is "coarsening" our culture?
Hollywood or ourselves? As always, the answers are never as simple as
the talking heads make them out to be.

Check out this column, which expresses this ever so much better than I
ever could hope to. Food for thought.

XXXXXX

from www.robertscheer.com
--------------------------------------------------------------

THE INVISIBLE HAND HOLDS THE REMOTE
Red states love TV crap just as much as the blue ones

November 30, 2004 -- What does it mean that a whopping 70% of Americans,
according to a recent New York Times-CBS News poll, believe that mass
culture is responsible for debasing our moral values? It means, if the
poll is accurate, that we are a nation of lascivious hypocrites. In
fact, the lure of sin, as represented by Hollywood and the entertainment
industry, is as tempting to Americans today as apples ever were to Adam
and Eve.

Whether in Utah, Georgia or New York, the TV ratings show that we are
choosing the equivalent of fast-food entertainment over quality
programming. Sex and violence sell well everywhere; high culture does
not. So the entertainment titans keep dishing up more of the same.

The top two shows in the nation right now are a grisly crime serial and
a cynical and sex-soaked demolition of life in the suburbs, and both are
beloved in both red states and blue.

In the Atlanta market, for example, "Desperate Housewives" is the No. 1
show, while in Salt Lake City, the gory "CSI" franchise dominates local
TV sets, with "Housewives" placing a respectable fourth. Both regions
backed President Bush solidly, giving him 58% and 72% of the vote,
respectively. In other words, we have met the enemy and it is us. If
anything is to blame for what appears on our screens it is the free
market, a deregulated and hypercompetitive mediascape where a right-wing
mega-capitalist like Rupert Murdoch can simultaneously make millions off
satires like "Married With Children" and "The Simpsons" and a right-wing
news channel that wraps itself in the very "God, country, family" tropes
that those satires so crassly yet cleverly spoof.

Yet even some liberals have apparently bought the Big Lie, spewed with a
vengeance throughout this election year, that a liberal, permissive,
secular, coastal culture has perverted the otherwise pristine heartland
of our nation. In reality, what we have here is Econ 101: supply and
demand. Adam Smith's invisible hand, combined with mass media
technology, now allows the best that humanity has to offer to compete
with the lowest common denominator. And guess what is winning.

On rare occasions, the good triumphs. Religious censors, for example,
would have killed D.H. Lawrence's exquisite depiction of Lady
Chatterley's affair with her gamekeeper if he hadn't been able to find
printers who valued cash over the church's approval. Today, however, the
admixture of greed and art allows "Desperate Housewives" to cash in on
the same sex-with-a-hireling story line, with more cleavage and far less
sincerity. Catering to our base desires also finds us eagerly paying for
video games in which one can spend the afternoon slaughtering innocents
and monsters alike, while our prime-time television is dominated by
"Survivor"-style shows whose logical conclusion seems to be Piggy's
execution by the mob in "Lord of the Flies."

But hey, to each his own, right? Personally, I could do without ever
again hearing jingoistic country songs like Toby Keith's hit that warned
the world: "You'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A. / 'Cause
we'll put a boot in your *** / It's the American way." But I'd never ask
for such drivel to be banned.

The bottom line of capitalism is that if somebody will buy it, somebody
will make it. Yet instead of insisting that cultural consumers take
personal responsibility for the choices they make -- or, better yet,
providing new resources for public education and nonprofit media -- the
professional tsk-tskers feign outrage at the sullying of televised
football with Janet Jackson's breast or a naked Desperate Housewife
jumping into the arms of an NFL player.

Worse, these national moralists -- dominated these days by evangelical
Christians -- politicize the issue by blaming "liberal Hollywood" for
what deregulation and the free market have wrought. Never mind that
Arnold Schwarzenegger made all those violent movies, it is the Democrats
and their ilk who are corrupting youth by promulgating our
"relativistic" morality. But that's just bunk. The real engine at work
here, for better or worse, is the profit motive. If this patently
obvious point is absent from the complaints of social conservatives, it
is because the truth of the matter is inconvenient to their agenda.

It's much easier for them to politicize the moral decay of our culture
than to admit that its wellspring is the domination of media
corporations, along with the rampant consumerism that has led us deep
into personal debt. Let's face it: There's not much money to be made off
children's piano recitals, songs sung around the campfire or
performances by your local orchestra, but the choice to consume such
fare is always there.

So if you're upset with what's on the boob tube tonight, just ask
yourself: What would Jesus watch? My guess is PBS.


Copyright C 2004 Robert Scheer"

lol ...

that article is quite right.

we have no one to blame but ourselves.

instead of preaching the gospel, we are voting with our
wallets for everything ungodly.

and tv among other vehicles make it so easy to beam
trash into our homes 24 hours a day.

Of course we can choose what we want to watch,
and live as we please and follow whatever Holy Book
suits our agendas.

I am not clean, we are all sinners aren't we? I would never
tune into The Nanny but can't keep my eyes off her when
my wife tunes in - I can't tell you what a single episode
was about, cause I watch with my eyes not with my ears.

The reality is once you choose a religion, you find than sin
or whatever your religion calls it is everywhere and you are on
a continual path of refinement of yourself.

You are right, Mr Bush ran on the fears of the American People. History has taught us that, as long as religion and politics are entwined in the formulation of policies, nothing good can happen. The original creators of the US constitution knew this. This is why they insisted on the separation of Church and State.

By the way why are so many of our religious leaders Doctors? I get very annoyed when I read and hear so many pastors using this designation. How many of them actually earned it (through scholarly study)?

By the way why are so many of our religious leaders Doctors? I get very annoyed when I read and hear so many pastors using this designation. How many of them actually earned it (through scholarly study)?

I kinda asked the same thing already
http://bahamasissues.com/showthread.php?t=1020

http://www.bahamasissues.com/images/ads/kingdom_view_small.jpg

Our Greatest Need
By Cedric Moss

The fiercely contested presidential election in the United States is now history. I happened to be there on election-day and stayed up into the early morning hours awaiting the returns. Though not a citizen of the United States, I have a keen interest in who their president is and the simple reason is that the leader of the most powerful nation in the world is in essence the de facto leader of the world. Living in The Bahamas, the nearest offshore neighbor of the United States, magnifies this reality.

As I had hoped and prayed, George W. Bush emerged the winner. Leading up to the election, the race was very close so I am grateful to the sovereign Lord for the outcome and relieved its over.

An Instructive Lesson

Having followed that election very closely, I believe the outcome holds many instructive lessons for politicians in The Bahamas, especially those who lead and aspire to lead political parties. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will learn and heed those lessons. The one I wish to highlight in this article is this: American voters chose to follow a leader who was willing to make tough, unpopular decisions and take politically incorrect positions that were based on his openly shared Biblical convictions. They elected him over John Kerry who holds quite opposite convictions. In short, Americans chose a faith-fueled, courageous leader over a faith-neutral, political panderer. That I contend — faith-fueled, courageous leadership — is our greatest need in Bahamian politics.

Faith Foundations

An interesting side note to the election is that both President Bush and Senator Kerry are former altar boys, one Episcopalian (Bush) and the other Catholic (Kerry). However, it seems clear that while President Bush built on the faith foundation of his altar boy days, Senator Kerry ignored and perhaps altogether abandoned his.

In the case of President Bush, he was and still is unashamedly open about having trusted Christ as his Savior and says he cannot separate his private faith from how he makes decisions in his political life. He made decisions and took positions consistent with his faith but inconsistent with what the polls predicted would gain voter support. Senator Kerry on the other hand zealously went on record to say and did the opposite. According to him, his religious beliefs are private and he does not allow them to enter into political decision making. Senator Kerry evidently sees nothing wrong with personally being against abortion while publicly voting against legislation seeking to ban partial birth abortion. Similarly, in the case of same sex marriage, he claims to be personally against it but did not support legislation seeking to amend the constitution of The United States to ban it. And the list of contradictions goes on.

Bahamian Politics

Leading up to our May 2002 general elections, one of the local newspapers published a supplement with the photo and profile of each of the candidates for The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and The Free National Movement (FNM). One aspect of the profile was “religion”. Out of personal interest, I took the time to read each profile. I found it incredible that, for ALL candidates except one (his was blank), the name of a Christian church or denomination was noted for religion. Therefore, when moral issues find themselves at their political doorstep requesting a public position, I’m always keen to hear the responses. Sadly, except for a few, the vast majority seems to follow the faith-neutral example of Senator John Kerry — virtual silence or making a statement that requires a verbal forensic scientist to conclude what it means.

A prime Example

A prime example of bringing private faith to bear on moral issues is the much talked about national lottery. It is most revealing to consider the reasoning of those politicians who have offered public comment on it. Those who have been vocally supportive of a national lottery are evidently indifferent to the contradiction their public position poses to the principles of the Christian faith they are on record for espousing. On this issue, I’m aware of three politicians (Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, Minister Neville Wisdom and Minister Melanie Griffin) who have publicly expressed their opposition based on their Christian faith. Knowing the courage it takes to stand like Daniel in Babylon, I commend these three individuals for letting their Christian faith influence their political decisions and positions.

Our Greatest Need

In The Bahamas, one does not have to look far or long to see the many problems and tough national decisions we face. In terms of voter support, there is uncertainty attached to making many of these tough decisions (in the case of the government) and taking the correct public positions on them (in the case of the opposition). To be honest, making those decisions and taking those positions will likely result in the loss of some voter support. And from what I continue to see from both the government and opposition, it seems clear that both are unwilling to risk paying that political price. Across the board, the main priority seems to be success in the next general elections. This is why I contend that faith-fueled courageous leadership, like that of President George Bush, is our greatest need. Such leaders make tough, principled decisions based on what they believe is right for their nation and then entrust their political fate into the hands of the Lord who, according to Daniel 5:21, “is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.”

Cedric Moss serves as Senior Pastor at Kingdom Life World Outreach Centre. Commentary and feedback may be directed to: cmoss@kingdom-life.org or post your comments here on Bahamas Issues.


What is this stuff?????????????????