Dear Editor,
The Ethnic Relations Commission summoning Mr. Kester Deane before its “investigative unit” for the derogatory remarks about Hinduism has serious implications both for the future of free speech in Guyana and for Christian exclusivist theology in a pluralistic religious environment.
First of all, if Mr. Deane has had the courage to blast off his tirades against Hindus in the most public of public spaces, the social media, it must surely drive a chill up the spine to surmise what is inevitably going on behind closed doors. However, as ominous as this may be and as disgusting, offensive and hurtful as his utterances, he has a right to proclaim them, and it is not the business of the ERC in any way, shape, or form to hinder and police free speech. The constitution of Guyana guarantees freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. Mr. Deane is free to hold and proclaim in the public domain his religious views.
Some may wonder if speech, such as Mr. Deane’s, is not to be censored then anything goes, anyone can say or write whatever he pleases. We can only hope people’s good sense will dictate and guide their words but eventually, nasty and hurtful speech must be countered in the market place of ideas, not by the censor’s scythe, but by intelligent, compassionate and more enlightened speech. In the meantime, a dangerous precedent has been set by the ERC, and it is imperative that whatever the legal powers it claims to have should be tested at the appropriate forum.
Secondly, we have no idea how the ERC “settled” the matter, as it claims to have done. What in Mr. Deane’s remarks did it find objectionable? It must be clear to anyone who has any familiarity with thebasic tenets of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, that there is nothing that he said that is not in keeping with church teachings – the absolute inerrancy of the Bible, only one true God, salvation through Jesus alone, and an uncompromising proselytization at conversion, because all must be saved or be damned, and all that flows for these. Why, then, must this man be made the sacrificial lamb for the very hostility his church promotes?
Given the basic teachings of Evangelicals and Pentecostals, one finds the ERC intervention extremely puzzling. If the ERC found it prudent and necessary to summon Mr. Kester Deane to its “investigative unit” for uttering in public the basic tenets of his church, how much more should it not be concerned with the source that gives rise to his pronouncements? Further, if Mr. Kester Deane has been made to apologise for the pain he has caused us, then clearly all of Christianity, starting with Pentecostals and Evangelicals, owes Hindus an apology for the generations of unspeakable hurt and humiliation. Bishop John Smith, a senior leader of the Pentecostal movement in Guyana and chairman of the ERC who is so obviously concerned about social cohesion should lead the way.
Finally, if these recent events with Mr. Deane calling for the church to wake up and “take back” Guyana and the publication by the Ministry of Public Health are anything to go by, then Hindus have every right to be apprehensive about the future. Are we witnessing once more the resurrection of the old menace of Christian dominance as in colonial times? We better brace ourselves for a fresh onslaught.
Yours faithfully,
Swami Aksharananda
