THE EDITOR, Sir:JAMAICA HAS more churches per square mile than any other country. That's what we've been told. And so what?!
I challenged that theory by searching for proof of the supposed Guinness world record, which included a Google search and a check at Guinness' website and found nothing. So, it's quite possible, we've been romancing an urban myth, loving up another hand-me-down fireside tale. Which would support the red earth trend of us swatting Jamaicans like flies, at an average rate of five per day. At the end of June, 658 Jamaicans were sent back into the bosom of Jesus. A nice chunk of that murder statistic, 182 poor souls, was reprisal killings.
Another thick slice of that statistic was domestic murders. And here I thought American cable with all its soap operas, romantic movies and Dr. Phil, was creating kinder, gentler households of common-law unions and church marriages. Unfortunately, it seems Jamaica is for lovers who still like to beat the hell out of each other. With 153 dead since the beginning of the year, 65 were women. Guess which team is losing?
GOD'S HOUSE
Then there was a flagrant and startling murder of an old woman while she was inside her Sunday night church service, worshipping her God, only to be shot three times by a gunman who had neither respect for the sanctity of her God's house, nor fear of the blood of her Jesus that was screamed at him. Her God was obviously not his.
We also killed 16 taxi drivers, 76 people in gang feuds and 73 others died at the hands of thieves who were quite meticulous in not leaving any witnesses behind. And, of course, there were 143 more people whose death-motive is yet to be determined and will likely remain unsolved mysteries.
So what's clear, is that we Jamaicans like variety in our murders, perhaps as we do our Devon House ice cream. And, yes, it seems we've also loudly declared our right to choose which God/god we serve Jesus, Jehovah, Mammon, Moloch, even the active evil of Satan.
But God isn't some new and foreign flavour here. Jamaica's love affair with Jesus is a phenomenon. Many Jamaicans living on the island or legally dancing at Uncle Sam's feet and around the Queen's frocktail all grew up with crucifixes hanging from rearview mirrors of cars, Sunday school, the standard picture of a white Jesus, loin-clothed and bleeding from the heart, dangling in pain and prayer from the cross which is usually hung above a table with a huge Bible, reverently perched on a weekly-starched crocheted doily.
DESENSITISED
I believe almost every Jamaican has been touched by, or at the very least, desensitised by the violence. And being one of them, I've found myself asking some questions.
If Jamaica really has more churches per square mile or per capita, however we choose to spin it, what are we doing in them and through them?
Are we too caught up in being religious, that we've forgotten to be truly Christian? Have we been too ritualistic in darkening church doors, and wiping church floors with tuck and roll celebrations while speaking in tongues? Are we really reading and understanding the Bible, or is that why we pay the preacher with our weekly offerings? Is God still relevant in the lives of contemporary Jamaicans, or have many discovered the hypocrisy and inefficiencies in their place of worship, and are now busy seeking other religions, other beliefs to satisfy their souls?
If this is no longer God's country, then whose is it?
I am, etc.,
INGRID RILEY
ingridriley@yahoo.com
Kingston
