Pastor Handfield: Thank God for the British Government

by Vivian Tyson -SUN Senior Editor

Reverend Bradley Handfield, Pastor for Community Worship Centre in Providenciales is not ruffled by persons labeling him as being a coconut (a term used to described someone as brown outside and white inside) or a British puppet, when he claim happiness with the British taking over temporary rule of the TCI.

Pastor Handfield was delivering the sermon on Sunday, December 6, which also marked the celebration of the new 911 system launch to be introduced early next year. The service was attended by Chief Executive for the Public Service, Mark Capes and the hierarchy of the police force, including Commissioner Edward Hall.

According to Pastor Handfield, the country was in a state of decadence and something needed to be done. “Just prior to our downfall, plans were in the making to legalize go-go clubs in the Turks and Caicos Islands. We would have go-go clubs on every corner, and the husbands would be up in there in the night time watching these women dance, while their wives at home – the devil is liar.

“That is why we thank God for the British Government. I don’t care what nobody say, they can call me a puppet, they can call me a coconut, you can call me whatever you want to call me, I say thank God for the British Government. When we are destroying ourselves, we can at least find somebody to give us some temporary relief,” Handfield said.

He noted that a number of other Caribbean Countries wish that they had a external sovereign head to stem the tide of immorality, but noted that politicians do not want it to happen. According to him, at the end of the interim rule by the British, the Turks and Caicos will be restored to its former glory.

Pastor Hanfield added that one of the reasons the United States of American is in its current predicament is because they have abandoned God, saying also that the country was founded on the principles of God. He said the Turk and Caicos, too, is allowing the devil to take precedence which is why it is currently experiencing a downfall.  

Pastor Hanfield also used the opportunity to ask Governor Wetherell though Acting Governor Capes, to repeal several laws which he deemed deeply offensive to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“We want buggery (law) to be back to where it was. If England people want that is their business, we will not tell them what to do, but change back our law to how it was. I want you to also ask the Governor to change back our law of the Liquor License Ordinance. We did not ask our government to change that law. We had that law in place because we want to give God a day in which we honour, show respect for him and reverence to him, so we closed our night clubs and bar rooms at 12 o’clock Saturday night.  

He also asked that the Lottery and Casino Bills be changed, saying that the people were beginning to be hooked on gambling. He said even though it is stipulated by law that persons had to be earning certain amount of money to be admitted in the gambling dens, there was no policing of the measure. 

“The Turks and Caicos was fine without these abominable things. The Bahamas refused to allow their people to go to the casino to gamble, because they respect the voice of the church. And we allow a Bahamian, who couldn’t get the assistance to operate in The Bahamas, to come to the Turks and Caicos Islands and open up gambling on the internet for our people. Please, send that guy back to The Bahamas with that one,” Pastor Handfield said.

According to him, most of the people that he witnessed visiting gambling dens across Providenciales were poor Haitian young men, saying that that demographic can least afford to “throw away their money.”