Politricks and prayer breakfarce

Orville Taylor, Contributor

I was the one child who used to peek out of one eye to make certain that my siblings didn't steal my food at mealtime or that my fellow pupils in school didn't place chewing gum on my bench. After all, my already-tattered trousers' seat would have been left on the woodwork and I would have been exposed far worse than Lloyd B. Smith in Parliament last Tuesday.

Prayer was that special time when we were most vulnerable because we were told to close our eyes, block out the world and suppress our intellect. Total submission to the will of God was the dictate of my zealot father and the Catholic priests who schooled me and the Sisters of Mercy would have 'nun' of my questioning or dissent.

Can you imagine my consternation when I, for the first time, realised that the little bells which chime strategically during Mass were rung by altar boys and not angels?

It has been a long time since my undergraduate days at the University of the West Indies, when we learned that religion was the "opium of the masses", a drug given by the ruling classes to justify their class position and mistreatment. Alternatively, it is a self-administered narcotic which is swallowed, injected or sniffed by the disempowered and poor to compensate for the lack of material comfort, thus, waiting for heaven or some remedy in the afterlife.

Gambling on an image of heaven which varies from pastor to pastor and which, if examined properly, sounds more like punishment rather than reward, church members often lull themselves into a sort of trance and habitually substitute parson for Jesus himself. It's a dangerous kind of power to give, especially since most pastors I know have never read the entire Bible and fill in the blanks with their imagination.

flawed descendants

Don't get me wrong, I love Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad, Peter and Bilal, respectively, the first rocks upon which these two great religions are built. It is their religious descendants who are more flawed and who have enough trouble dealing with issues within their respective book of rules, the Bible and Qur'an, respectively.

Therefore, when we had the umpteenth prayer breakfast last Thursday under the theme, 'Reconcile ... Rebuild ... Rejoice', I couldn't help but look at the three Rs and say, "Rrr!" First of all, the challenge the religious leaders gave to the politicians is wrong. Sorry, Reverend, the message shouldn't be "to challenge leaders to include God in their work". Rather, it should be including their work in the work of God. God always takes precedence over secular leaders, when men and women of God are speaking and working.

Ask yourself the question and answer it accordingly. Do you think that the Church in Jamaica is doing what it is supposed to do? The mandate given by Jesus, and later Peter and Paul, is pretty clear, and it is to deal with both the spiritual and physical needs of the lost, not the believers. If Parson can't tip the gender or age balance in his church, and has to use a microscope to find the three young men sitting in his congregation, how is he going to tackle the issues which belong to Mammon?

There is no denomination which can boast of having more comparable numbers of young men among their membership to the women, despite young people being the largest demographic group. More than half of Jamaica's population comprises youth below age 25, and half of those are males. Compared to the traction and mileage Paul and the other apostles got in reaching hundreds of young men, with far fewer resources, no SUV, Internet or cellphones, our religious leaders are failing miserably.

not reaching youth

What is most paradoxical is that Jamaica is reputed to have the Guinness world record for the most churches per square mile and, up to two years ago, had one of the highest homicide rates and one of the highest prevalence rates of killing of police personnel in the world.

Sorry, Rev, you are not reaching the youth, and until you come with a more coherent approach which is based on the life of Christ and his apostles, and not your business-suited, politician courting and campaign blessing, the boys are going to stay away.

My entreaty to the purveyors of religion who have esoteric prayer breakfasts must be check the Bible and see how many incidents there are of Jesus praying and preaching, compared to the number of occasions when he ministered. A mischievous social scientist could easily argue that since there is a strong correlation between church numbers and homicide, there is a causal relationship.

Then, of course, there is the issue of Church and State. So then, if the Church in Jamaica cannot do its work right and bring in the young men into the fold, how is it then qualified to administer the affairs of Caesar?

I am as unimpressed with the appointment of the Rev St John Redwood as president of the Senate as I was when the present governor general, Sir Patrick Allen, stepped down from his lofty position as head of the Seventh-day Adventists for the region and took the appointment to serve the Queen of England and the prime minister.

There is only one non-Islamic country where the mix between the religious authority and the secular powers blends seamlessly, and that is the Vatican City, or Holy See, where Pope Benedict XVI is both head of Church and State.

Indeed, the matter of separation of Church and State led to the creation of the Anglican Church in the 1530s when the sexually perverted Henry VIII wanted to have his Kate and edict. He tried to force the church to support his ditching of his wife, Catherine of Aragon (whose parents sent Columbus here) for Anne Boleyn. The refusal of the Pope to bow caused the ultimate schism.

In Christian democracies, there will always be differences between religious teachings and the positions taken by governments because their constituencies are divergent and conflicts will invariably arise. Signing legislation regarding flexitime, and doing other duties on the Sabbath, is only the tip of the iceberg. What happens when the Parliament has to vote or sign off on homosexuality? The Catholic Church, of which the Rev Deacon Ronald Thwaites is part, does not support it and is a strong opponent of the death penalty.

incompatible religious teachings

There are other religious teachings which are incompatible with the present system of government and the strong feminist currents behind Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:34 says, "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law."

The next verse, declares, "If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church."

Then 1 Timothy 2:11 dictates, "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission." And finally, 2:12 warns, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

This is the word of the Lord and not the Devil citing scripture for his own purpose.

Of course, I never wrote the Bible and have only read it completely twice, and indeed, I have issues with its interpretation, but I know my place and am often irreverent as opposed to being 'the reverend'. But bet you nobody is offering me any position on any church board simply because I am a secular man.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.