Vehemently denying allegations that he performed a same sex wedding ceremony in Grand Bahama, Bishop Reno Smith, pastor of the Mount Gilead Union Baptist Church, said Monday he is taking legal action against the pastor who made the allegation in a Grand Bahama newspaper two weeks ago.
Bishop Smith, who appeared as a guest on the Love 97 show “Issues of the Day”, said he could not fathom why a minister would “do such a thing” as he has never in his 20 plus years of conducting marriage ceremonies performed a same sex marriage.
“If I performed a ceremony not knowing if they were the same sex thatﾒs no fault of my own; that becomes an issue with the registrar generalﾒs office,” Bishop Smith said.
“In the 28 years I have been doing weddings, I have never by law been requested to check the undergarments of any couple to verify their sexuality.”
In an article that appeared in the media two weeks ago, past president of the Grand Bahama Christian Council Rev. J.C. Wallace, claimed that a same sex couple was married by a popular local bishop at a Grand Bahama resort.
Rev. Wallace told the Bahama Journal on Monday that he never called the bishopﾒs name so he does not see why “(Bishop Smith) is accusing me of accusing him.”
Rev. Wallace, who said he “absolutely” stands by what he said in the press, said he is prepared to go to court because he knows what he knows.
But according to Bishop Smith, even though Rev. Wallace never called his name publicly, he (Bishop Smith) was approached on the matter.
“Both the Attorney Generalﾒs office and the Commissioner of Police are (obviously) convinced that no such marriage took place,” Bishop Smith said.
“But if this man has some information that he has not revealed to the Attorney General of the country or the Commissioner of the Police of this country, Iﾒm going to invite him publicly now to make himself available to at least the Assistant Commissioner of Police in the Northern Bahamas and reveal such information to him.”
Bishop Smith, who along with his wife owns and operates Bahamas Weddings Paradise, a destination weddings company, said if indeed any such allegations were found to be true, he would publicly apologize and resign from all his ministerial duties, including being a Justice of the Peace, and pastor of a church.
As it stands now, he said he would continue to seek legal recourse and that he has no problem suing the pastor because he is no brother of his.
“You should not sue a brother, but he is no brother of mine,” Bishop Smith said.
“I believe that he is the son of perdition reincarnated.”
When asked by the showﾒs host, Wendell Jones, why a minister would accuse him of conducting a same sex marriage, the bishop said he could not honestly answer that “but we all know the devil finds mischief for idle hands.”
Bishop Smith said he does not know of anyone who has performed a same sex ceremony in The Bahamas, but if he did he would approach the minister personally.
“I would go to such a minister and say, ‘Brother, watch yourself and clean up your act. Not only is it against the law of the land, we serve God. We’re supposed to be representing God and God made all men in his image and in his likeness and we certainly know there are things that God does not condone, one of them being same sex marriages,'” Bishop Smith said.
Asked whether he ever approached Rev. Wallace about these allegations, Bishop Smith said he has never spoken with the man in his 19 years of living on Grand Bahama.
But he said if Rev. Wallace approaches him he would forgive him.
“We’ve advised both attorneys, the church’s attorney and my personal attorney, if he apologizes publicly I will shake his hand, I will hug him and I will tell him ‘Brother let’s go on to perfection in God’,” Bishop Smith said.
The bishop said that even though he would never perform a same sex marriage as it goes against his spiritual conviction, he welcomes all persons regardless of their sexual preferences.
“Whether people are gay or not and I want the whole Bahamas to know this, Reno Smith loves gays, but not only that, he loves heterosexuals, he loves thieves, he loves murderers. If a person is gay we need to move beyond that. Leave that judgment to God,” he said.
When asked if he would let a gay person serve at the altar, Bishop Smith said he would let the person work out his or her own salvation.
“We have gays playing our organs, we have gays directing our choirs, we have gays doing children’s ministries, in the deaconate, and most importantly we have gays preaching the word,” Bishop Smith said.
“God has called us to a message of reconciliation, not judgmental ministry, be reconciled to God, encourage people to work out their own salvation. The problem with the church is that the church is the only army that kills its wounded.”
By: Courtnee Romer, The Bahama Journal
