It is bad enough when members of our media get on the bandwagon over the Government sponsored Gospel Concert with Russ Taff and Michael English held on Sunday (31 December) night at the Lion’s Centre. This is the same night some businesses in Cayman had to cancel their New Year’s Eve plans due to the Music and Dancing (Control) Law, which prohibits loud or live music and dancing on Sundays. However, when Opposition Leader Hon. Ezzard Miller also called for the gospel event to be scrapped saying there is no exemption to the law when it comes to the genre of music or church events, I am ashamed.

He should know the law was enacted by his elders, his ‘men of the salt’ to PROTECT the churches. Most churches have live singing and dancing EVERY Sunday so presumably Miller hasn’t frequented one of those.

It is also not the first time a gospel concert has been organised and staged on a Sunday here and charged admission. Strange no one made any protest then. Churches go round their congregations every Sunday with a collection plate that is an implied admission charge, to pay the church administration expenses, the bulk going to the minister.

The yearly Keswick Convention has live music and people sway and sing in their seats ON A SUNDAY! A collection is taken.

This great country’s leaders, who made the law, never for once envisaged any God fearing person would imagine for one moment they had to insert CHURCHES as an exemption into the law.

Pastor Alson Ebanks, speaking recently on CITN/Cayman27, said it perfectly. He said, “With reference to the law, context is VITALLY important. And I would suspect that the framers of this law because of the cultural contexts of our islands would have excluded religious celebrations from their prohibitions when they drafted this legislation.”

The leaders would be equally ashamed that one of their own, Hon. Ezzard Miller, would not defend the concert’s right (and HELL to the Law) to take place. It is another example of political maneuvering over common sense.

An exemption was given to allow DRINKING ALCOHOL past 11pm on Sunday’s New Year’s Eve. Does Miller, and now even Speaker McKeeva Bush, really believe that RELIGIOUS singing and dancing to our Lord’s music must be banned on a Sunday because that was the INTENT of the law when it was made?

In those days, religion was the central part of life on these Islands that are founded on scripture.

It is obvious, even to a simpleton, it never crossed their minds they would impose restrictions of religious content on a Sunday, especially when monies charged were also going to our much needed food banks.

Miller and Bush seem to be saying, if it was law drinking water could not be given between the hours of 11pm and 12 midnight on a Sunday, they would forbid it being given to a person who was dying of thirst. The letter of the law is broken every day because we do not have minds of a robot. We are supposed to think.

I am ashamed to say thinking behind the letters of print to what was actually intended is used only when it suits someone’s ambitions. Then, the letter of the law stands, no matter how stupid it is.

It’s bad enough when our local press shout ‘foul play’ now because religion is taking a back seat. Members of that shameful band, along with Miller, should have been at Sunday’s Watch Night service at Elmslie Church on the waterfront in George Town. It was packed with religious ‘revelers’ who danced, clapped and sang to live music, after paying for the privilege, to welcome in a New Year.

I would have loved to have seen Miller there and try to ban it whilst shouting “It’s against the Law”!

And was I the only member of our media, there?

If so, you really missed one of those ‘magical’ moments in life. And then you would have been ashamed at starting a stupid controversy to boot.