Today Newspaper St. Maarten

Opinion: Driftwood Tabernacle Church about Emancipation

Good morning dear believers, your pastor embraces you.

Today we will meditate about emancipation and slavery. Two weeks ago I read an article by my colleague pastor Sharon van Arneman. She writes every week on page two of The Herald’s Weekender on Saturday. Above her article is my weekly cartoon. So, you can safely say that Sharon and I are very close friends: every week I am “on top” of her!
The main idea of her article: Emancipation Day is a nice idea, but St. Maarteners are not really emancipated, because many are still the slaves of sin! She hit the nail on the head. It is a pity that she did not prove what she wrote, but because I agree with her I will do that.
You can be a slave of fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, sex and money. Now what do we see in St. Maarten? In every part of St Maarten we see fast food restaurants, alcohol is ridiculously cheap and cigarettes are four times cheaper than in Holland. We have on a population of 50, 000 people, 15 casinos and 15 brothels for people who are a slave of sex and/or money.
With the above information in mind, I listen to the speeches of Eugene Holiday, Rhoda Arrindell and Theo Heyliger on Emancipation Day! I laughed till my belly burst. While speaking about emancipation, as politicians they are promoting slavery! I am not going to say that Eugene, Rhoda and Theo are hypocrites, I call them stand up comedians. Is the reader also laughing?

Pastor Bijnsdorp of the Driftwood Tabernacle Church