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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Senior Pastor, Deanza Cunningham
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NASSAU, The Bahamas – Christ Community Church Senior Pastor Deanza Cunningham challenged Bahamians to treat the country’s elderly as though they were fortunes, saying the affection and care for the old, the incurable and the helpless, are the true gold mines of a culture.
“The opposite is also true. A culture is in deep trouble when it starts talking about eliminating the old, the incurable, and the helpless,” Pastor Cunningham said. “I saw it in the treatment of my father when he had a stroke and (sought treatment). Once they realized that he was 91, concern for him diminished. I heard one of the care-givers say to the doctor: ‘Doc you wasting your time man, he 91, he done live his life.’
“We saw this unconcern for the elderly in Nazi Germany. You should know that the genocide of 6 million Jews didn’t start with gas chambers in death camps. It started with the advocacy of euthanasia for those who were deemed incurable or lacking a sufficient quality of life to continue living; the gas chambers were first built for them in the hospitals of Germany.
“Now, we see it happening in our culture with the elderly being abandoned and thrown into homes and hospices instead of being cared for by family. What does that tell you about where we are headed as a culture today?” Pastor Cunningham added.
Delivering the homily at the Church Service launching activities celebrating Older Persons Month in The Bahamas, Pastor Cunningham said there are Biblical references to treat the elderly as if they were fortunes.
“God calls us to come alongside and help the elderly, to visit them, to spend time with them, to honour them and to value them, not to eliminate them,” Pastor Cunningham said. “As one elderly lady put it: ‘Remember, old folks are worth a fortune with silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet, and gas in their stomachs.’
“The point is old people are valuable! They have value just because of who they are, and we should treat them as such. We should treat them like they’re worth a million dollars, because they are worth much more than that.” Pastor Cunningham said the best way to honour and value the elderly is to put them to work.
“Don’t put old people on the shelf; instead, enlist them for service, where they can. They have so much to offer. They have wisdom that only years of living can give! They have time that those who are still raising their families and working 50 to 60 hours per week, do not have. And they have skills that they have honed over the years.”
He said some of the most productive years of a person’s life can be their retirement years.
“Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Caleb was 85 and defeated giants. Socrates gave the world his best philosophy at age 70. Plato was only a student at 50, doing his best work after his 60th birthday. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel when he was almost 90. Webster wrote his monumental dictionary at 70. Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain at age 65 and rallied the world to victory against Hitler. God says to honor the elderly and treat them like a fortune. Value them, by enlisting them, and putting them to work,” Pastor Cunningham added.
Pastor Cunningham also challenged families to play a more integral role in the care of the elderly, saying that care for the elderly should be the responsibility of family members and not the Government of a country.
Dependency on Governments must stop, he said, because God did not create governments to take care of the needy. The role of the Government, according to Romans 13, Pastor Cunningham said, is to restrain evil through its programmes and policies.
“First Timothy 5:3-8 gives proper recognition to family involvement in the lives of the elderly for it says thus: ‘Give proper recognition to those widows, who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.
Minister of Social Services and Community Development, the Hon. Melanie S. Griffin, was among the large group of persons attending the church service celebrating the 24th Observance of the International Day of Older Persons, under the theme "Leaving No One Behind Promoting A Society For All" at Christ Community Church on Wednesday, October 1, 2014. Also pictured are Alan Strachan, Under Secretary, Ministry of Social Services and Community Development and Mavis Darling-Hill, Deputy Director, Department of Social Services, Ministry of Social Services and Community Development. (BIS Photo/Letisha Henderson)
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“There it is adult children have the responsibility to take care of their aging parents. This pleases God and it demonstrates our faith. Verse 8 says, ‘If anyone does not provide for his relatives…he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’
“If family refuses to take care of their elderly, they have denied the Christian faith, because God commands us to honor our parents. They are worse than an unbeliever, because even unbelievers, for the most part, take care of their own families.
“We must take care of our own families because it is right and pleases God. It also demonstrates our faith and frees up organizations like the church and the government to take care of those who are truly needy.”
Pastor Cunningham said part of the reason the country is experiencing some of its socio-economic challenges, is because families have gone away from taking care of their elderly and placed them in the care of the State.
“This is God’s answer to the limited funds allocated to Social Services and the cost of public health care issue in our country. Every family should be taking care of its own members, and the church and government will take care of those who don’t have families.
“This attitude that the Government is responsible for the needy was unfortunately bred with the policies of American Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s and his New Deal in the 30’s and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in the 60’s. These policies, concerned with the elimination of poverty and racial injustice, on the surface were fantastic, but they undermined what God intended, thereby resulting in both the family and the church, abdicating their responsibilities to the Government. And whenever you disobey God, you pay a price.
“Now our system is almost bankrupt with a spiraling national debt and higher and higher taxes threatening to destroy the economic viability of the entire country. We must return to what God ordained as the agencies for social services - the family and the church and we won’t need high taxes,” Pastor Cunningham added.
© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com
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