Dear Editor,
As a past student of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and a practising Seventh-day Adventist (SDA), I am disillusioned with both organisations’ stance on comments made by one of our pastors, Dr Michael Harvey, at the People’s National Party (PNP) mass rally in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, yesterday.
I believe that the church and NCU have both overstepped their bounds since Dr Harvey was not representing either organisation when he opened the evening’s proceedings. He, like almost every Jamaican, has a right to a political voice. It is a right that, sadly, so many Jamaicans dismiss, often leaving the important political decisions that affect our country to delegates and voters who are often not as educated or experienced as Dr Harvey.
I accept that the separation of church and State is essential to some modern democracies, and I am aware that this principle of allowing the development of political thought without Christian interference is popular in some countries. However, religion plays a significant role in Jamaica’s social space, often assuming the role of the State when vulnerable families and individuals reach out to the arms of the Church for help.
This important social function should play a formal role in political decisions. In the United Kingdom, authors of Jamaica’s Constitution, they invite 26 Lord Bishops of the Church of England to sit in the UK’s Upper House of Parliament, the House of Lords, as peers with all privileges.
It was hypocritical for the NCU and the SDA church to lambast Dr Harvey for sharing his Christian principles with an audience of maybe 150,000 Jamaicans. It highlights the relevance of the Church and the relevance of God to all that we do as Jamaicans. If there was ever a time when politicians and the voters who will decide their fate needed divine intervention, it is now.
I am surprised that NCU’s management does not share my point of view. NCU’s public disapproval of Dr Harvey’s decision to accept an invitation to speak from his own heart and with an independent voice on a political platform is hypocritical. The university hosted politicians to address students. I have witnessed presentations from both Dr Christopher Tufton, while he was the minister of agriculture, and Audley Shaw, while he was finance minister.
I first learnt of the JLP’s 2011 promises of “jobs, jobs and more jobs” at the NCU, and I witnessed Shaw’s promise to turn the Jamaican economy around in 100 days at the NCU.
So how dare they? The move to censor Dr Harvey for praying on a political platform, while the University facilitates the possible political indoctrination of hundreds of students is out of place and undemocratic. The Christian voice remains relevant to the political decisions that are made, because these decisions affect the way we live.
Dr Harvey should be encouraged to lift the volume of Christian voices in our politics. Saving a convicted prostitute from being stoned under Jewish law, Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The NCU itself has blurred the lines between Church and State, it is not in a position to cast any stones.
Garth Crawford
garth_crawford@ymail.com
As a past student of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and a practising Seventh-day Adventist (SDA), I am disillusioned with both organisations’ stance on comments made by one of our pastors, Dr Michael Harvey, at the People’s National Party (PNP) mass rally in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, yesterday.
I believe that the church and NCU have both overstepped their bounds since Dr Harvey was not representing either organisation when he opened the evening’s proceedings. He, like almost every Jamaican, has a right to a political voice. It is a right that, sadly, so many Jamaicans dismiss, often leaving the important political decisions that affect our country to delegates and voters who are often not as educated or experienced as Dr Harvey.
I accept that the separation of church and State is essential to some modern democracies, and I am aware that this principle of allowing the development of political thought without Christian interference is popular in some countries. However, religion plays a significant role in Jamaica’s social space, often assuming the role of the State when vulnerable families and individuals reach out to the arms of the Church for help.
This important social function should play a formal role in political decisions. In the United Kingdom, authors of Jamaica’s Constitution, they invite 26 Lord Bishops of the Church of England to sit in the UK’s Upper House of Parliament, the House of Lords, as peers with all privileges.
It was hypocritical for the NCU and the SDA church to lambast Dr Harvey for sharing his Christian principles with an audience of maybe 150,000 Jamaicans. It highlights the relevance of the Church and the relevance of God to all that we do as Jamaicans. If there was ever a time when politicians and the voters who will decide their fate needed divine intervention, it is now.
I am surprised that NCU’s management does not share my point of view. NCU’s public disapproval of Dr Harvey’s decision to accept an invitation to speak from his own heart and with an independent voice on a political platform is hypocritical. The university hosted politicians to address students. I have witnessed presentations from both Dr Christopher Tufton, while he was the minister of agriculture, and Audley Shaw, while he was finance minister.
I first learnt of the JLP’s 2011 promises of “jobs, jobs and more jobs” at the NCU, and I witnessed Shaw’s promise to turn the Jamaican economy around in 100 days at the NCU.
So how dare they? The move to censor Dr Harvey for praying on a political platform, while the University facilitates the possible political indoctrination of hundreds of students is out of place and undemocratic. The Christian voice remains relevant to the political decisions that are made, because these decisions affect the way we live.
Dr Harvey should be encouraged to lift the volume of Christian voices in our politics. Saving a convicted prostitute from being stoned under Jewish law, Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The NCU itself has blurred the lines between Church and State, it is not in a position to cast any stones.
Garth Crawford
garth_crawford@ymail.com