{"id":3303,"date":"2010-05-19T02:18:56","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T06:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2010-05-30T04:03:50","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T08:03:50","slug":"kamla-endorsed-by-two-religious-organisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=3303","title":{"rendered":"Kamla Endorsed by Religious Organisations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opposition<\/a>
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar<\/figcaption><\/figure>Blessings for Kamla<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n

By Richardson Dhalai
\nMay 19 2010 – newsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

UNITED National Congress (UNC) leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday received the endorsement of two religious organisations, the Central Ministries Fellowship and the Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago, at two separate functions.
\n
\nThe first, which was held at Kampo Restaurant in Chaguanas at 11 am, was attended by ministers from several Full Gospel Churches which included Miracle Ministries pastor, Reverand Winston Cuffie, Faith Centre pastor and founder Bishop Carlyle Chankersingh and Full Gospel Businessmen International president, Trevor Joseph. <\/p>\n

However, prior to praying for Persad-Bissessar, the evangelical organisations posed several questions to her including the party\u2019s position on six issues \u2014 abortion; gender policy relating to same sex marriages; the broadcasting policy allowing the Church freedom of expression; the continuation of religious education in schools; the Church\u2019s involvement in government social programmes and the Church\u2019s input in governmental policy and representation. Persad-Bissessar thanked the Christian groups for allowing her the opportunity to meet to clear the air on what she described were \u201clies, half-truths and innuendoes\u201d by those on the opposing side which have been calling on the UNC political leader to state her position on abortion.<\/p>\n

Persad-Bissessar said she shared the views of the Church leaders that \u201clife is sacred\u201d, saying a People\u2019s Partnership Administration did not have any intention of changing the laws of Trinidad and Tobago including that relating to marriages.<\/p>\n

She recalled that while drafting the Equal Opportunities legislation, several groups had lobbied the UNC administration to include provision for same sex marriages but this was not included in the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not include that in our equal opportunity legislation. We must be bound by the laws of Trinidad and Tobago as it stands on these issues and if it is that the law is to be changed then that is not a position of Kamla Persad-Bissessar or Jack Warner or any member of the People\u2019s Partnership, that will have to be a decision of the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Persad-bissessar also reminded the Full Gospel ministers that it was a UNC Administration which had introduced a \u201cfaith- based and values-based education\u201d into the school curriculum. \u201cWe had begun to put into place that the curriculum should be infused with values based education.<\/p>\n

Regarding the construction of a church in Guanapo, she said, \u201cI have no problem with a Church, I have no problem with assisting churches but it must be fair, it must be equitable and in everything that we do there must be transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat issue I have raised about the Guanapo building has nothing to do with religion,\u201d she asserted. \u201cA nation that lives without God, is a nation that doesn\u2019t have that faith and if its people don\u2019t have that faith, they will surely perish,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Reverend Sean Kangal, while posing his question to Persad-Bissessar pronounced that the organisation would be \u201cvoting for change,\u201d saying the Born-Again Christian population comprised between 15 to 20 percent of the national population.<\/p>\n

By 1.30 pm, Persad-Bissessar was having a media briefing with members of the Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago at UNC headquarters in Rienzi Complex, Couva. The group was led by chairman Imtiaz Mohammed, IBN founder Inshan Ishmael and Food Crop Farmers Association official Shiraz Mohammed.<\/p>\n

Mohammed, reading from a prepared text said the movement had \u201cunited together with the People\u2019s Partnership for the betterment of the people of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to change the political mind set of the electorate and by that I mean our people should not be voting on race but they must vote for a party which can deliver so their standard can rise,\u201d Mohammed said. Persad-Bissessar thanked the Muslim organisation for its support and pledged her administration would end discrimination against all religious organisations. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,121039.html<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Religious bodies endorse Kamla<\/a><\/p>\n

Kamla: T&T’s laws will guide abortion<\/a>
\nShe said her position on same-sex marriages remains the same as when the UNC passed equal opportunity legislation during its 1995 to 2001 tenure in office. Persad-Bissessar said a People’s Partnership Government would be guided by laws of T&T on the issues of abortion and capital punishment. She said if the law was to be changed concerning capital punishment and abortion it would come from a referendum of the people. “That is a democracy,” she added.<\/p>\n

UNC leader declares five days of yellow<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessings for Kamla By Richardson Dhalai May 19 2010 – newsday.co.tt UNITED National Congress (UNC) leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday received the endorsement of two religious organisations, the Central Ministries Fellowship and the Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago, at two separate functions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,310,291,1,178,296,396,7,12,142],"tags":[384,388,386,144,387,382,49,385,383],"class_list":["post-3303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cop","category-elections-general-tt","category-gender","category-general-tt","category-media","category-njac","category-peoples-partnership","category-politics","category-religion","category-unc","tag-bishop-carlyle-chankersingh","tag-faith-centre","tag-full-gospel-churches","tag-kamla-persad-bissessar","tag-miracle-ministries","tag-richardson-dhalai","tag-tt-govt","tag-trevor-joseph","tag-winston-cuffie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3543,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}