Preacher confronts Prime Minister on vax drive

Edmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter

Spinning and 'prophesying' that the Andrew Holness administration would go through “wickeder times”, Linnette Brown, a Jamaica Labour Party delegate turned preacher, today called for national repentance.

“You are going to go through wickeder times. You need to submit to God. As a leader you need to call the nation to repentance, Mr Andrew Holness,” Brown declared.

The prime minister met Brown in Grants Pen, St Andrew, where he tried to convince the born-again Christian to relinquish her anti-vaccination stance.

“I was a part of the JLP but now I am saying Jesus. Jesus is Lord,” a spirited Brown said.

Holness told Brown that he heard stories of pastors who urged their congregants not to take the COVID-19 vaccines and members of their congregation end up dying from the virus.

“My job as leader is to come off of my horse, come out of mi office and come a you gate and we talk.”

In her message to the head of government, Brown urged Holness to call the nation to fast and pray. 

“You can't fix it. You cannot manage it,” she said.

The prime minister said that he could not call everybody together at this time to have a national prayer and fasting because of the protocols in terms of gathering.

However, he said that he would bring all the church leaders together and call for Jamaicans in their homes to petition the Lord collectively.

On his vaccination drive spanning St Andrew North East and Kingston Central, Holness urged residents to come on board and get vaccinated.

He described Brown's message of prayer and fasting for the nation as a powerful one, noting that he was obliged to listen because he is “no more than a mere mortal”.

“I have never been on any pomp and pride, I have always been on my knees praying and I don't pretend to have more powers than the Lord has given.”

Waxing theological, the prime minister said that it was not the first time in biblical history that humankind has been threatened by plagues and pestilence and it would not be the last.

“In every situation where mankind has been affected God has appointed a leader and persons with greater understanding. Leaders who have been anointed with a sense of science can take the natural situation and bring it to bear.”

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