MY FRIEND P and I are really annoyed with the church in Jamaica. In fact My Friend M said last week that he can understand quite clearly why Bob Marley would sing: 'I feel like bombing a church, now that I know that preacher is lying,'
We both felt like bombing churches after reading about their 'outrage' at the killing of a lady in the Stella Maris church. We can say, vehemently, that we were outraged at the church's outrage.
Ok, you wonder is C gone mad? Isn't she distressed about the vicious murder of a mother, a grandmother maybe, the wife, a humble God-fearing woman who meant no one any harm? Of course I am. And every day being close to the media I read of all of the crimes of violence many of which don't even make the news.
But P and I ask why is the church's outrage so selective?
I remember vividly five days before the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in 1996 a headline from THE STAR's front page screamed 'Man killed in church'. I had never heard such a story before and it certainly struck me as strange and incomprehensible that a crime like murder could take place on holy ground. (I do revere the church). Then again in Papine in 2004 a woman was stabbed in a church and in Negril in 2000 a man was stabbed in a church. Both victims died.
And just three days before the incident that sparked the church's outrage last week, on page five of THE STAR was the headline: 'Worshipper killed at church.' This event was apparently not 'Enough' to be 'Enough' to 'Outrage' the Church.
Given the Church's reaction to the two killings we are left to believe that somehow the two incidents can't compare.
Let's spot the difference in the two incidents.
One victim was female, the other male.
The woman was 62. The man was 28.
The woman was killed in the church; the man was killed on the church grounds.
The woman was robbed. The man wasn't robbed.
The woman was killed by a knifeman; the man was killed by a gunman.
The woman died in hospital from knife wounds; The man died on the spot from a bullet to the head.
The woman attended the Stella Maris Catholic church. The man attended The Full Truth Gospel Faith Ministries church.
The woman's church is in St. Andrew. The man's church is in Bog Walk, St. Catherine
The woman was the wife of a prominent lawyer. The man was somebody's child?
Hmm. Sorry but P and I are still hunting for the outrageous difference between these two equally unholy events. Maybe it is that the now outraged church, didn't, couldn't and wouldn't hear of a young man's death at a non-traditional church in rural Jamaica especially when he was merely somebody's child. And since they did not hear of the death we could not expect them to be outraged.
Those who are privileged in this country and by this blessing have the ability, authority and power to change the agenda must feel crime all the time. Fail to do so at your peril because there is no holy ground as far as the Y2K Jamaican bad man is concerned no holy ground.
Email comments to: myfriendp@hotmail.com
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