Dear Sir,

It was my privilege recently to witness a meeting of the much maligned, much derided and now — thanks to a solitary judge’s stroke of her pen — implicitly branded “hate group” known as Preserve Marriage. It was an uplifting spiritual experience to see so many caring members of the community gathered together to affirm their shared Bermuda heritage and attendant commitment to an historic Christian culture.

The meeting happened to occur on the one-year anniversary of the Orlando Massacre, when a radicalised Muslim gunman went on a murderous rampage, killing or injuring more than 100 people who were partying at a popular gay nightclub. To no one’s surprise — except those not in attendance — the meeting opened with several minutes of pastor-led prayers for the victims’ families, with loud shouts of “Amen” throughout. Hardly the voice of bigots and so-called homophobes.

After 90 minutes of legal presentation, sobering cultural commentary and words of encouragement, I came away persuaded supporters of Preserve Marriage will not succumb to any type of peer pressure. Nor will they be intimidated by lawyers intent on suing each one of them for legal costs; or by the “cry-bully” rhetoric of online activists; or by relentlessly negative local media coverage.

Equally persuasive, however, were the prayerful attendees and pastoral teaching, which focused on having compassion for one’s persecutors — and to never give way to hating, no matter how monstrously Preserve Marriage is misrepresented by those who hate them and their Lord.

IGNATIUS P. GARNET

Paget