Following threats against Barbados talk show host Marcia Weekes and her team for speaking against ungodly agendas implemented by the Mia Mottley government, Christians around the Caribbean are offering their own word of caution to those who continue to try and suppress free speech in the region.
A coalition of Caribbean Christians has joined forces to pray and monitor what is happening in the Eastern Caribbean island, where those who speak out against the LGBTQ agenda are increasingly coming under pressure to “shut up.”
“We are concerned about what is happening in Barbados, but we are not surprised because there is a tendency to suppress freedom of speech by the LGBTQ people in various ways using hate speech and so on. We are monitoring it, we continue to pray, and we will assist in any way possible,” said Dr. Wayne West, who chairs the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society and is a member of other Caribbean Christian groups.
Weekes, a Jamaican who has been living in Barbados for more than 25 years, has received threatening letters from an unknown source. Other members of her team have also received letters warning them to desist from speaking about Prime Minister Mottley. Weekes is the host of The Marcia Weekes Show, which has been educating the population about the unrighteous global agendas being foisted on the people of Barbados through the government. With not much opposition in parliament, the show has been a platform for people to speak out against oppressive laws and other social issues affecting them.
“People got very annoyed about that—people within the government and people who are supporters. It is out of that that I received a threatening letter, and the letter reminded me that I am not from here. I am Jamaican, and that if I was in Jamaica, I would be killed already. I would have received a couple shots, and they are giving me two weeks to stop my programme or else,” Weekes told Freedom Come Rain.
That letter was received in April of this year, and Weekes has received other letters since, including one two weeks ago. The Christian talk show host remains undeterred in fulfilling her “calling.” She had brought the first letter to the police when she received it, but after making contact with her twice, she has not heard anything further about the matter.
“What we are involved in is spiritual warfare, and so once we are coming up against it, we must understand that it is not people, but there is an agenda that is Satanic, and understand what that is. The agenda of Satan is to kill, steal, and destroy, and so we can’t play around with it,” she said.
The spiritual attack started for Weekes when she decided to take to the streets and protest the administering of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) mandatory pre-test on Computer Science for students in their first year of high school in Barbados in October 2022. Students were quizzed on their sexuality, gender identity, substance use, and abuse, as well as personal information about their parents. Parents learned about the intrusive questions from their traumatised children, and several of these parents threatened lawsuits.
The IDB later issued a statement expressing regret that the survey administered by the bank had offended many Barbadians. “The questions at the center of concern, to which the Ministry of Education had objected prior to the administering of the survey and which were inadvertently left in the paper, have been removed,” the development bank said at the time.
Weekes, like many, was outraged and did a one-woman protest, which was a starting point for the marches that followed later. She was eventually branded as anti-LGBTQ and intolerant. When the street marches started, communication was sent out from government officials and even a CARICOM ambassador that she was getting funding from right-wing fundamentalist militant groups in the US. Her reputation and financial support took a hit, but she persevered.
“We have to understand as we put up a fight, we are not fighting people, but these are systems, these are powers, these are principalities, [and] these are ideologies that want to come in and take over our space,” she said.
“They (LGBTQ advocates) are not seeking to co-exist; they are seeking to come and to completely remove what our social norms are that are based on the Word of God here in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is like the last bastion. When you speak to people in Europe and other parts of the world, [it is] the Caribbean and Africa they are seeking to conquer,” she explained.
With several supporters of the agenda being a part of the Barbadian government, the ideology has become intertwined with many aspects of national life. Mottley, who has led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008, is the country’s first prime minister under its republican system, which came about as a result of constitutional changes and abolished the country’s constitutional monarchy. In 2018, the Mottley-led BLP won a historic landslide victory in the May 24 general election and secured all 30 seats in the House, making them the first party to accomplish this feat.
With not much room for opposition in the parliament, Weekes and her team developed what they termed a “roadside parliament.” It provides Barbadians with an opportunity to say what is bothering them, including LGBTQ issues.
“Our buggery law was removed from the books here in Barbados, and we did not know until it was announced outside of Barbados,” Weekes said.
The social activist said the Lord had shown her prior to the administering of the IDB test that the LGBTQ ideology was a tsunami that was coming to hit the Caribbean, and He wanted her to join in pushing back against it. In 2023, a drama piece that Weekes’ Christian theatre group, Praise Academy of Dance (“Praise Academy”), entered in a national competition was disqualified. The 16-minute drama piece reinforced that girls should be girls and boys should be boys, as outlined in Genesis 1:27. However, the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) ruled that the piece identified and denounced a particular community, was not in good taste, was emotionally aggressive, was defamatory, and promoted discrimination. Mottley is the Minister of Culture. Weekes was then touted as promoting hate speech.
“Just for that, we have been blacklisted; we get no more sponsors, no more money; nobody wants to be associated with our dance school anymore, even Christian companies, and the reason they don’t want to associate is because they are afraid,” she told Freedom Come Rain.
“We live in an environment in Barbados where people are extremely afraid. They are afraid to speak. They are intimidated; they are worried that the government is going to cause them to lose their jobs, or their children might lose their jobs. They are worried that they may be victimised, which is what is happening to me,” she said.
Weekes has since sued the government for disqualifying the drama piece. Shortly after doing so, she was sent a pre-action letter from the Mottley family accusing her that something defamatory was said on her show about the prime minister. Mottley is an attorney, and so are several of her relatives.
Weekes is well aware of the push to suppress free speech in the region, not just in Barbados. This is being facilitated by draconian laws that are being developed, such as the cyber-crime bill. If somebody feels harassed or hurt by anything that is said online, whether it be true or false, the perceived offender could go to jail for seven years, or pay the Barbadian equivalent of US$35,000 if this bill is passed into law in Barbados.
Weekes also raises awareness about the implications of the Samoa Agreement, cashlessness, digital ID, and comprehensive sexuality education, which will expose children to immoral ideologies. All of these agendas, which are Satanic, are being pushed on the region by international organisations with money.
“Our concern is that we have signed ourself away to them. All of this is to get funding, and once you start to draw down these funds, there are requirements,” Weekes explained.
