'Bring Jesus back for Christmas'

Church leader wants focus brought back to real meaning of the holiday

PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Council of Churches, the Reverend Karl Johnson, says the country's leaders have a responsibility to redirect the nation's attention to the birth of Jesus, the event which Christmas represents.

"When issuing Christmas messages, they should recommit and learn from the Christ child and not pay lip service but focus more on moral and ethics, as a nation cannot only be built on economics," Johnson told The Gleaner.

He said Christmas activities are erroneously being centred around commercialisation and festivity rather than the birth of Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago.

The clergyman's comments come amid research in the United States and the United Kingdom which suggest Christ is being left out of Christmas. A report published by the US-based Christian Post this week said that, in the US, content analysis of the major news networks between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2010 revealed that the words 'God', 'Jesus' and 'Christ' were mentioned less than references to retail sales in Christmas programmes, messages and commercials.

The research, undertaken by Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, found that 56 per cent of all Christmas coverage was on general Christmas references and 40 per cent of Christmas coverage ignored the Deity.

No research in Jamaica

While there is no known research on the subject in Jamaica, members of the clergy here say they believe Jamaicans have taken Christ out of Christmas and placed him on the back burner.

Like Johnson, Bishop Delford Davis, past president of the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches, has blamed the nation's leaders for allowing the country's attention on Christmas to be shifted from the birth of Jesus to merely festivity and commercial activities.

"The central message of Christmas is peace on Earth and good will towards men. If they (leaders) were to focus on that message, we would have a gentler and neighbourly society," Johnson said.

He added: "The hype and gyration ought not to find its way into the Church, and it is unfortunate that persons tend to focus more on the peripheral area of Christianity created by us."

- Dania McKenzie