As far as seniority is concerned and as far as good sense is needed, there is today no doubting the conclusion which shouts and screams for those who now govern to do so as if they have the wisdom to lead; that they can pluck up the courage to make the hard decisions and know that they will never-ever have the wherewithal to please everyone.

As in the sad case of any number of people who would wish to please everyone, this nation’s Chief, the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie currently finds himself enmeshed in a nest of Opposition-orchestrated trickeries.

In addition, it is also clear that – in his search for consensus – Mr. Christie has only succeeded in emboldening any number of people who – in the best of circumstances imaginable, only speak for themselves and their clique.

As fate would have it this is par for the course in a Bahamas where so very many men and women have – as they have claimed – “heard” the Word.

This is all well and good in those circles.

Clearly, things can and will go awry when those who work in Caesar’s realm seek to yield to the dictates of this or that religious figure.

Had the current administration decided to do nothing about the matter at hand, Bahamians who wager their money on this or that number, would have gone about their regular business; which is that they would have gambled.

By the same token, had each and every pastor or religious continued to rail against this behavior, things would have continued as they have been for as long as we can recall.

Old-timers in the know still recall the largesse afforded this or that party, person or group in need of some quick cash for any number of noble social purposes.

In other words, the so-called debate concerning the numbers business has as much to do with ‘righteousness’ as it has to do with rampant hypocrisy and ignorance displayed in abundance.

Mercifully, this so-called ‘gambling’ referendum is trending towards denouement.

As such, the point is to be made that – when all the froth and ferment ends – we will – as a people – have to deal with the consequences of the vote’s outcome.

We have all paid a frightfully high price in venom-spewed, in character-assassination run amok and in general for all the confusion left stirred up by people whose voices routinely lead to wrath.

Curiously, much of what we have heard and indeed much of what has been passed off as reasoned debate concerning gambling, we remain unconvinced that any sect, any grouping, any small knot of people or for that matter any so-called ‘gate-keepers’ should wish to arrogate to themselves the right to drown out all other voices.

This is why general elections are such wonderful times – wonderful precisely because each X cast is the moral equivalent of every other X cast.

It is by this time-hallowed means we have chosen how to choose those who would speak and make laws on behalf of a truly sovereign people.

It is this one crucial point that today eludes so very many of this land’s religious and others such who say that, they speak for the Almighty.

Surely, they too tell themselves lie if they say that they have no sin in them; and just as certainly, each and every one of them who would wish to be dogmatic on the gambling issue should have the grace to know that they could be in error.

Whether this realization ever sets in, this land is not run by a theocracy; there is no provision in the Constitution for any Church grouping to have the last word on how laws are to be drafted and delivered to the People’s Parliament.

As so very many of our people know so very well, many who say they have been called are found to be – when searched and sieved – little more than the moral equivalent of wolves dressed to the nines in sheep-clothing.

Even as we know that we should not stand in judgment of them; so too should all of them decide that they will work [as nobody’s business] to render unto Caesar what is his and to God what is His.