Where Will Our Cruise Ship Dock?  Barrington Brennen 2004

 

Where Will Our Cruise Ship Dock?

By Barrington H. Brennen, 2004, Updated 2018

 

 

Question: Is homosexuality the worse thing in our country?

Answer: There is a loud cry these days to get rid of homosexuality in our country, The Bahamas. While I agree that homosexual intimate relationship are morally, biologically, and spiritually wrong, I do not agree that homosexuality is the worse or the only wrong thing in our country.  I also support an individual rights to choose.

A few days ago, many were enraged about a ship docking at our shores, loaded with adults who chose their lifestyle. However, many persons in our country who are not old enough to choose are being hurt, abused, and used by so-called intelligent, adult citizens.  Why are our voices not heard against such evils?

Our nation is like a ship on a cruise seeking safe harbor. On board are the citizens of all kinds, all races, all colors, and all persuasions. The captains of the ship are the politicians. Those who provide healing, guidance, and comfort on the ship are the medical doctors, ministers of the gospel, teachers, and lawyers. Those who maintain the ship are the service providers--bankers, merchants, contractors, taxi drivers, etc.

The main question I want you to ponder is this: "Where will our national Bahamian cruise ship dock?"

Will we qualify to pull into the harbor of moral purity? Will we cast our anchors in the calm, peaceful waters of justice and safety? Will we travel across the turquoise waters of sexual fidelity? Will we leave the ship and walk down the pink sandy beaches of family respect and unity? Will we eat at the banquet table of teenage virginity, experiencing the cool, balmy breezes of positive parental modeling? Will we run in the subtropical sun of personal integrity? Will we climb coconut palm trees of openness and honesty and drink the coconut water of truth and sincerity? Will we swim in the comfortable cool waters of national pride? These questions are designed to help us think of the reality of the state of our nation.

Examine the following facts and answer the questions for yourselves. AIDS is no longer considered to be a homosexual disease. While increasing number of homosexuals are having monogamous relationships, increasing number of heterosexuals are becoming more promiscuous. Thus, AIDS is growing rapidly among heterosexuals. Heterosexual transmission accounts for more than 85 percent of persons infected with HIV. Females are the fastest growing group of new HIV infected persons. Between August 1985 and June 1997, records show that 6,697 persons have tested positive for HIV on this Bahamian ship. Out of this number, 2,648 (39.5 percent) have developed Stage 4 HIV infection or full-blown AIDS. Of the 2,648 persons infected with AIDS, 1710 (64 percent) have already died. The leading cause of death between men and women aged 15 to 44 is AIDS. The Bahamian ship has the highest annual incidence rate of AIDS in the English-speaking Caribbean, and is among the top three nations with the highest rates in the world.

The Bahamas Crisis Centre sees an average of 100 new cases of domestic violence each year, 100 new cases of child and sexual abuse, including incest, and at least 25 new rape cases. These figures do not represent the total abuse cases for a given year since most go unreported. In 1996, the Social Services Department of the Bahamian cruise reported 97 new cases of physical abuse, 63 new cases of sexual abuse, 35 new cases of incest, and 88 new cases of neglect. It is very important to understand that these figures do not accurately reflect the true picture because most cases are not reported.

Every day, little Bahamian girls and boys, some of them not old enough to talk as yet, are being raped by their fathers, step fathers, uncles, and brothers. Every week, a little girl less than five years old is infected with a sexually transmitted disease given to her by a passion-driven adult Bahamian male. Often medical doctors find adult semen in the vagina or anus of infants. Many Bahamian children are being used, tortured, and abused by adult passengers on the ship. We cannot hear their cries because their voices are drowned by the ship’s loud engines of invasive adult authority.

Many of these little passengers are not aware that what adult providers do to them is wrong until they get older and contract a life threatening disease. Many adult passengers are abusing the trust of innocent little children. There are many cases of generational incestuous relationships; that is, fathers and grandfathers habitually rape their daughters and granddaughters, resulting in pregnancy. It seems as though incest has become a silent family tradition for three and four generations. It’s a vicious cycle of pain, misery, and embarrassment, robbing thousands of girls of self-esteem, dignity, and sexual purity. These men should be thrown in jail and severely punished, yet we stand idly by, and say nothing while we see young innocent girls being destroyed generation after generation. How can we not get angry and raise our voices against these terrible crimes?

Acquaintance rape and date rape are prevalent. More than 65 percent of all rapes on this Bahamian ship are perpetrated by relatives, former friends, or other associates. In 1995, the police recorded more than 103 rape cases, 46 attempted rape cases, and 116 cases of unlawful sexual intercourse. Crimes against women and children are at a painful high. We must cry out against these atrocities.

[Here are the statistics for 2017:  11 attempted rapes, 146 acts of unlawful sexual intercourse]

Unfortunately, because of delinquent and illegitimate parents, increasing numbers of teenagers are becoming sexually active. Hundreds of teenage girls leave school each year because of premature pregnancies. Many of these girls become pregnant for adult men. Thus, the majority of the children born each year is born out of wedlock. Children are having children, reducing severely the national level of mental maturity and intelligence. No wonder it is difficult for many passengers to intelligently grasp the severity of the mental and social health of their fellow passengers! Before their brains are completely developed, they are trying to make more brains. If this trend continues, we will have a ship filled with demented, brain-deprived passengers, reducing the intelligence quotient to animal level.

It is painful to describe our nation in such terms. It does make you angry. It is time for anger. While we raise our voices loudly against such evil as homosexuality, we must cry even louder in protest of crimes committed against the weak and innocent. Unfortunately many of the trusted cruise ship captains and caretakers are unable to cry loudly because they themselves are guilty of such atrocious and immoral behaviors. Many of these teachers, politicians, ministers of the gospels, doctors, lawyers, etc., are involved in immoral, adulterous, and clandestine activities with the passengers. The very persons we thought we could trust in leading the ship through challenging waters are themselves governed by the baser animal passions of lust and greed.

Why are we not getting angry when the innocent suffer?  Why are we so furious when adults freely choose to do what they want but not furious at all when little children are raped, abused, wounded?

What can the remaining passengers do? Get angry. Yes, it is a time for holy anger. There is no neutral ground here.  We must march against the destructive forces on the once peaceful decks and in the cabins of this much sought-after Bahamian cruise ship. How can we show our anger? (1) Join or form an anti-violence group in your area of the ship. (2) Publically support the mental health agencies on board which are leading in prevention and healing programs. (3) Write letters of protest and concern to your area representatives, cruise captains, and caretakers. (4) Actively participate in programs and organizations designed to transform the lives of the passengers. (5) Pressure your pastors, and area leaders to speak out against these evils and help them organize programs and ministries to change the lifestyle of the passengers. (6) Live a dignified, honest, morally clean life yourself.

While doing all of this keep in mind that adults have the right and freedom, under the constitution, to choose their lifestyle.

Once again I ask you to answer the question: "Where will our national Bahamian cruise ship dock?"

 

 

 

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