Letter of the Day | No to Christian political party
Published:Wednesday | June 24, 2020 | 12:18 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The news report in The Gleaner of June 23, 2020 – that a group of pastors has established a political party, the Jamaica Progressive Party (JPP), which they are planning to use to try and win the next general election – is yet another potent reminder that the Christian Church has truly lost its way.
Is it beyond the capacity of these pastors to know that the antithesis established between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of men is such that any attempt to bring them together constitutes a rebellion against God? Further, what do these pastors understand from God’s continuous admonition to Israel before they came into Jordan that they should never choose a king, as they saw the nations around them did?
According to the report, Mr Rainford, the group’s spokesman, says that the president of the party, one ‘Apostle’ Gilbert Edwards was “called by God to make this move”. I wish with all my heart that persons in the church would by now be able to differentiate between the voice of God and their imagination. God has never, and will never, call anyone to form a political party. Stop telling lies on God!
GOD’S KINGDOM
How can you claim to follow Christ who, over and over, states: “My kingdom is not of this world”, yet turn around and want to build up the kingdoms of this world?
With so much evangelizing left for the Church to do in this country, how could men who call themselves servants of Christ find it so easy to divert their attention from this urgent mission so that they may sit in the king’s court? As it not dawned on these pastors that evangelising the world is almost the only mission that the Church of Christ has been given? Consequently, what state is their conscience in knowing that they are diverting resources from this, their primary calling, into political hustling? Empirical evidence abound that many of these pastors who are vying for a seat in Gordon House have failed to evangelise the very community in which their church is situated. So if they failed in the simple task of evangelising a community, who told them they could be an effective parliamentarian?
We beg to be forgiven for believing that the real motive of these church leaders is their insatiable hunger for power, wealth and honour that they have gotten accustomed to, having forcefully extracted them from their members, but now feel the urge to take it to a higher level.
CASHLEY BROWN