Don’t become political enemies! CSC ‘repents’ for role in divisiveness
Controversial political commentator Pastor Claude Skelton Cline calls on the people of the territory to reject being political enemies and apologised for any role he might have played in the past in creating a culture of division.
Speaking during the last airing of his show Honestly Speaking with Claude Skelton Cline, he framed his comments around the upcoming 2023 general elections where Virgin Islanders will go to the polls to select a new government.
“I want us to make a covenant to make a commitment that we will not become political enemies of each other; that we will embrace diversity but we will reject division in any shape, form, or fashion. We as a people in this small community, we can no longer afford divisiveness, divisive spirit, [or] enemy behaviour towards each other,” Skelton Cline said.
“We are too small a community. We are too close-knit, and most people are either family, friends, or close acquaintances and in this era, in this epoch where the world is just going crazy and there are so much division and so many groups with specific identities, so many people relegate themselves to their own corner of what is familiar and what is homogeneous—people who look like them, people who talk like them,” he added.
Skelton Cline also encouraged everyone who has made the Virgin Islands their home, especially those who are deemed to belong here by birth or by tenure, to resist the temptations that might arise to become indifferent to each other because of the political season that will soon approach.
“And I offer repentance for whatever contribution or role in the past because I may have contributed to that because I’m now also talking to myself, we must resist that. As a community of people, we must embrace diversity, but we must reject division in any shape, form or fashion because we’re going to need 13 well-abled, capable women and men… — [whether] they sit in the Opposition or in government — who are going to give their very best for the betterment for the advancement for the development of this country,” he said.
“I want us to make a covenant to make a commitment that we will not become political enemies of each other; that we will embrace diversity but we will reject division in any shape, form, or fashion. We as a people in this small community, we can no longer afford divisiveness, divisive spirit, [or] enemy behaviour towards each other,” Skelton Cline said.
“We are too small a community. We are too close-knit, and most people are either family, friends, or close acquaintances and in this era, in this epoch where the world is just going crazy and there are so much division and so many groups with specific identities, so many people relegate themselves to their own corner of what is familiar and what is homogeneous—people who look like them, people who talk like them,” he added.
Skelton Cline also encouraged everyone who has made the Virgin Islands their home, especially those who are deemed to belong here by birth or by tenure, to resist the temptations that might arise to become indifferent to each other because of the political season that will soon approach.
“And I offer repentance for whatever contribution or role in the past because I may have contributed to that because I’m now also talking to myself, we must resist that. As a community of people, we must embrace diversity, but we must reject division in any shape, form or fashion because we’re going to need 13 well-abled, capable women and men… — [whether] they sit in the Opposition or in government — who are going to give their very best for the betterment for the advancement for the development of this country,” he said.
