Less than two weeks after the BVI Christian Council delayed a legal challenge to the territory’s same-sex marriage ban, BVICC Vice President Rosemarie Flax used the council’s “Weekly Devotion” to deliver a short monologue that appeared to equate homosexuality to social ills such as domestic abuse, environmental destruction and war.

“When we stand with God, we are standing against a number of things, such as immorality, drugs, abuse of alcohol, abuse of the planet, abuse of our women and children, homosexuality, wars, confusion and so many others,” Ms. Flax said during the devotional, which was broadcast Sunday on YouTube. Shortly thereafter, she stressed the importance of
compassion.

“We are standing with the love of God against all those who seek to perpetuate prejudice, hatred and animosity; those who prefer confusion rather than neighbourly love,” said Ms. Flax, a lay preacher in the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and Americas. “When we stand with God, we are standing as one, standing against everything that Christ is against.”

‘Saddened’

Caribbean LGBTQ+ advocate Maurice Tomlinson said he was disheartened by the broadcast. “As a person of faith married to an Anglican priest for over a decade, I am saddened but not surprised to hear another person who calls themselves a Christian equate my loving consensual relationship, which harms no one, with deadly acts of violence,” the attorney told the Beacon on Mon- day in an invited comment. “I don’t have to remind your readers that this type of fearmongering was used to keep blacks enslaved and women barefoot and pregnant.”

He added that religious views are a matter of “private conscience.”

“In a functional democratic state, no one must impose their beliefs on anyone else,” stated Mr. Tomlinson, a Canada-based Jamaican who serves as an LGBTQ+ advisor with the HIV Legal Network in the Caribbean. “If we did, religion would no longer be free.”

BVICC leaders

Ms. Flax swore an affidavit in support of the BVICC’s successful attempt last month to delay a hearing in the ongoing lawsuit opposing the territory’s same-sex marriage ban.

As the council’s vice president — and the only BVICC member mentioned by name in the VI court filings that have been made public so far — she is part of a new executive committee elected in February during the BVICC’s general meeting at St. William’s Catholic Church in Road Town.

The BVICC president elected then is Bishop Ishmael Charles, who heads the New Testament Church of God International Worship Centre in Baughers Bay.

Other members of the new executive committee include Apostle Ava Baird as secretary; Pastor Lesia Grazette as assistant secretary; and Pastor Nolma Chalwell as treasurer, the release stated.

Also appointed at the February meeting were Pastor Winston Salmon as assistant treasurer and public relations officer; Apostle George Rodney as assistant public relations officer; Pastor VeAnna Thomas as media officer; Bishop Paul Ricketts as an ex-officio member to Virgin Gorda; and Reverend Dr. Keith Lewis as an administrative assistant, according to the release.

The release also explained that the BVICC includes members from different Christian denominations who work together to “make a difference” in the lives of VI residents and others.

“The BVI Christian Council can be called upon to provide guidance and assistance in spiritual matters, as they are the watchdog of the nation and conscience of the community,” the release added.

Methodist Church

Senior officials in the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and Americas, which Ms. Flax serves, have also opposed same-sex marriage.

In 2020, Reverend Derrick Richards, the bishop of the organisation’s South Caribbean District, opposed a plan by the Barbados government to recognise same-sex unions.

“The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas emphasises that homosexuality is a deviation from Christian principles (Romans 1: 26-27), which is neither condoned nor accepted by us,” Mr. Richards said at the time, adding, “Our practice remains that no Methodist minister, and furthermore no person acting in the name of the Methodist Church, has the authority to conduct the marriage or bless the union of same-sex partners.”

Other Methodist denominations and groups, however, have expressed more tolerant views of same-sex marriage and other same-sex partnerships.

Attempts to reach Ms. Flax, Mr. Charles and a media contact number on the BVICC press release were unsuccessful.