By Dr. Philip Castillo
I will not bother to define a church, because a church could be a gathering of believers or a family home such as the one in Belmopan where recently, a woman was abused and held hostage. Whatever the definition, though, there are hundreds of churches in Belize. And there are nearly two dozen denominations. Ironically, the percentage of Belizeans who profess NOT to be a member of any church or denomination has been consistently increasing over the decades and recorded its highest level to date at 31% in Census 2022.
Declining religious affiliation is also occurring globally, where there are over 45,000 different denominations. While the Christian denominations profess to believe in one God, there are vast doctrinal differences and worship practices among them. Even the Christian God in his first commandment, a set of rules likely plagiarized from the 42 Laws of the Maat, acknowledges that there are other gods. Indeed of the thousands of denominations, the largest ones - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism - are all in Belize. All have holy books and of these, the Bhagavad Gita is considered as the oldest. Older than the Bible. The modern Bible is a combination of the Old and New Testament – largely attributable to Emperor Constantine - and the latter book is considered a comparatively new text. The oldest Belizean bible is the Popol Voh, regarded as the Maya Bible.
The above is by way of introduction to the influence of the church in Belize and the United States. The church has long sought to influence political outcomes and governance in countries in which they exist. Long gone are the days when the church had armies at its disposal and its Inquisition and councils could condemn thousands of persons deemed as heretics to imprisonment or worse. Now unable to influence political and governance outcomes from the pulpit, the church now seeks to influence those outcomes by alliances with governments of the day.
This is most recently exemplified in the alliance between President Elect Donald Trump and some elements of the church in the USA. Mr. Trump was voted into office on the strength of overwhelming white evangelical support. Exit polls show he won white evangelicals by a record 65%. Give credit to Mr. Trump. In his successful quest for political power, his alliance includes the hitherto mentioned evangelical church paired with the worst elements of American society – its racists, neo-Nazis, and far right militia groups. In the USA, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre are the two organizations that track “hate groups.” There are over a thousand such groups in the USA and a notable rise in membership was seen subsequent to the election of America’s first black President, Barack Obama. The hate groups include many who are labeled as “Christian identity.”
In this alliance, the evangelical church’s support remained steadfast for the now President Elect despite his felony and sexual abuse convictions, his rape accusations, his admission to grabbing women by their private parts and his publishing his own bible. Yes, there is now the Trump Bible, joining the over 80,000 versions of the bibles already in existence.
The church justified its support by citing Persian King Cyrus in the book of Ezra in the Old Testament. King Cyrus not only freed the Jews, he assisted them to return to Jerusalem and helped to rebuild the Temple. For Christians, the lesson is that God works through imperfect men. And in Donald Trump, it is easy to see an imperfect man, but for some in the church, he is supposedly the second coming of the long awaited Jesus.
And so then in the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump, expect the religious right to seek greater influence on public policy by advocacy for issues they regard as important. One such issue is abortion. Whatever your views on abortion, as a researcher and a social scientist, I can definitively say that the stark reality is that abortion will not cease by making it illegal.
As noted by WHO, in countries where records are kept, the lowest rates of abortion are in countries where there is full legal and universal access AND women are provided with varying levels of state support for varying lengths of time – after leaving the maternity ward. Such is the situation in virtually all Western European countries and also Israel. More recently, Mexico - a strongly Catholic country – decriminalized abortion.
For a political party and its fervent church supporters to be totally against abortion while simultaneously being against support for the new moms is misogynistic. Outright bans always discriminate against poor and marginalized people. Look at the women who have died in the USA in the states where abortion is now banned or severely restricted? Where the procedure is denied, there will always be the non-poor women who will have access to the procedure. “No matta wat.”
Some abortion activists are so extreme that any abortion – even for ectopic pregnancies are considered against god’s will. Of the estimated 7 billion people in the world and the billions who have lived and died, not one was born as a result of an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized eggs implants itself outside the womb. Such a pregnancy can never be viable. To be against all abortions including where the woman’s life and health are at risk is not pro-life since neither mother nor child will survive. And to do so in the name of your god is colossally hypocritical.
Donald Trump, now as President Elect, has started to walk back some of the promises he made to secure his election. Perhaps the easiest of these to renege on was seeking the passage of federal legislation to criminalize abortion. Though one country at the federal level, the USA is really a collection of united states having different laws at the state level. Some of these states have now codified the right to women’s reproductive health in their laws.
Mr. Trump and the church have other issues of consensus such as staunch support for Israel and being against gender fluidity. Regarding the former, Israel has achieved stunning military success and has vanquished its enemies. Some Christians view this as prophesy being fulfilled, even at the continued expense of the deaths of thousands of women and children. A similarity among all religious wars, past and present, is that they bring out the worst in the combatants, who feel justified in committing any atrocity in the name of their god. There is at this time, however, genuine scope for a durable settlement in the Middle East. Israel no longer has a military problem on its borders, it has a humanitarian and an administrative crisis.
If Israel is magnanimous in its victory, the two state solution, long advocated by the United Nations, is a distinct possibility. If it is not, then students of history will say that there is nothing to learn, except that history repeats itself.
Regarding Israel, the political divisions in Belize are clear. The Leader of the Opposition is pro-Israel while the Government of Belize is not. Most Belizeans are mostly indifferent.
Regarding gender fluidity, there are organizations in Belize that are indeed pushing for gender issues to be at the forefront of national discourse. They appear to be well funded. They are facing pushback from the church, which has deep rooted organizational capabilities.
Expect battles to continue. In Belize in addition to being prominent in all levels of the education system, the church assists in reducing recidivism, helping recovering addicts, assists in health care for seniors, food and shelter for the homeless and more. These efforts must be applauded by all and elicit continued support by the state. But there are church members who wish to use the state to impose their perspectives on a population however reluctant.
Drawing lessons from their American counterparts, they want a focus on the Ten Commandments but not the Beatitudes. From the protestant ethic to the prosperity gospel, the church has made some men, mostly men, extremely rich. For these men, mostly men, Peter Tosh’s song “Stand Firm” remains a classic mockery of their proselyting hypocrisy.
At this time of the year, many Christian churches say “Peace on earth goodwill to all men.” Bible scholars say it’s a mistranslation. The real translation is “Peace on Earth to men of goodwill.”
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