Dear Editor,
Seventh-day Adventist pastor Greg Baldeo is reported to have said, "any political party that needs my approval must get the approval from God..." (Daily Observer, August 5, 2013). In the same vein he postulates that the acceptability of homosexuality must first be disclosed to be right by God and not by any court of justice. History has proven the minister wrong!
History is relevant to enable us to understand current events and to prevent us from making similar errors. If God had not gone outside the Church, humanity would still have believed the earth to be flat and that it was at the centre of the universe. It is a fact that God had revealed to members of the laity, represented by Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, the "law of motions," yet it was the blindness of the clergy and its misintrepretation of the Genesis account of Creation that led to their prosecutions by the Church. Then there are those who preach about 'generational curses' based on Exodus 20: 5 (...punishing children for the iniquity of parents), while ignoring that God had abandoned such a view. It is now the reponsiblity of each individual to account for their actions (Ezekiel 33:10-20; John 9:1-12).
Many Jamaicans love to quote "an eye for an eye," while ingoring Jesus's "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also" (Matthew 5:38); and what of those who preached that God would punish Jamaica like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24), while ignoring that Jesus had initiated a new era of tolerance, preventing his disciples from commanding 'fire from heaven' on enemies ( Luke 9:51-56) and that on the day of judgment it would "be more tolerable for Sodom" (Luke 10:10-12) than for those who refuse to repent. Is the pastor expecting "God to come down from heaven" to approve our political parties while ignoring "whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment"? (Romans 12:1).
And what of the recent murder in Jamaica of a man at an altar in a church? History records the death of two archbishops who were cut down by assassins in the house of God. Thomas Becket was assasinated on 29 December 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral and on March 24, 1980 Oscar Romero of El Salvador was shot through the heart as he elevated the chalice during the Eucharist in the Cathedral. The challenge for the Church is to understand how is God acting in the midst of humanity that was created with free will, and to intrepret sacred scriptures within the context of that revelation. Just maybe God is using the courts in the 21st century to awaken a sleeping Church that has failed to listen to the risen Christ.
Dudley C McLean II
Mandeville, Manchester
dcmduart@yahoo.com
The 21st century court and the Church
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Seventh-day Adventist pastor Greg Baldeo is reported to have said, "any political party that needs my approval must get the approval from God..." (Daily Observer, August 5, 2013). In the same vein he postulates that the acceptability of homosexuality must first be disclosed to be right by God and not by any court of justice. History has proven the minister wrong!
History is relevant to enable us to understand current events and to prevent us from making similar errors. If God had not gone outside the Church, humanity would still have believed the earth to be flat and that it was at the centre of the universe. It is a fact that God had revealed to members of the laity, represented by Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, the "law of motions," yet it was the blindness of the clergy and its misintrepretation of the Genesis account of Creation that led to their prosecutions by the Church. Then there are those who preach about 'generational curses' based on Exodus 20: 5 (...punishing children for the iniquity of parents), while ignoring that God had abandoned such a view. It is now the reponsiblity of each individual to account for their actions (Ezekiel 33:10-20; John 9:1-12).
Many Jamaicans love to quote "an eye for an eye," while ingoring Jesus's "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also" (Matthew 5:38); and what of those who preached that God would punish Jamaica like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24), while ignoring that Jesus had initiated a new era of tolerance, preventing his disciples from commanding 'fire from heaven' on enemies ( Luke 9:51-56) and that on the day of judgment it would "be more tolerable for Sodom" (Luke 10:10-12) than for those who refuse to repent. Is the pastor expecting "God to come down from heaven" to approve our political parties while ignoring "whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment"? (Romans 12:1).
And what of the recent murder in Jamaica of a man at an altar in a church? History records the death of two archbishops who were cut down by assassins in the house of God. Thomas Becket was assasinated on 29 December 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral and on March 24, 1980 Oscar Romero of El Salvador was shot through the heart as he elevated the chalice during the Eucharist in the Cathedral. The challenge for the Church is to understand how is God acting in the midst of humanity that was created with free will, and to intrepret sacred scriptures within the context of that revelation. Just maybe God is using the courts in the 21st century to awaken a sleeping Church that has failed to listen to the risen Christ.
Dudley C McLean II
Mandeville, Manchester
dcmduart@yahoo.com
The 21st century court and the Church
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