YeKengalé

“Nothing else matters. All that matters is ‘The Change’. All who align with this position are automatically and irrevocably blessed.” Galatians 6:15 (my transliteration)

For a substantial portion of us in Jamaica, Christianity is more lingo than lifestyle. I know how easily those of us nurtured in the modern mainstream evangelical movement are prone to reduce the cross of Christ to a passport to some posthumous paradise for all who speak the magic words patented in the sinner’s prayer. (You know “Repeat after me, Lord Jesus, I acknowledge my sin etc etc etc. ……..”followed by the affirmative “If you just prayed that prayer and meant it we believe you just got saved etc. etc. etc”.

And I’m not knocking any doctrine or ritual in particular, from whichever group – whether Evangelical, or Catholic, SDA, JW, Mormon, CGI, New Thought etc. etc. etc. the whole lot of them ad nauseum. The truth is they all have come to mean next to nothing for me, and for quite some time now. This is far from some new path or perspective, certainly not for me who from early in my twenties had decided after in depth meditation on the books of Galatians, Ephesians (and Hebrews), which I had committed to memory and was in the practice of reciting in song or chant every morning for further rumination; that my favorite pronoun in the Bible was ‘ALL’.

The ‘I AM’ god I had developed such close affinity with in my early spiritual formation no longer inspired me. It was the Christ Paul identified with and described as the ‘All IN All’ that fascinated me, and ignited the deepest hunger to know Him in Person and Power.

It is He I recognize and revere when I see the astounding abilities whether of a VT Williams, Alph Lukau or Jerry Makananisa, whether a Gregory Ramkissoon or Matthew Barnett; when I see the cultural contributions whether of a movement like the S.D.A. church, the Methodists or the Mormons….(and I know most people will find it difficult even making connections with my examples.)

I dont even bother with the circumstantial stuff (it’s all circumcision to me….in the context of Galatians 6:15). The Sabbaths, Virgin Mary’s, Golden Tablets, baptisms, tongues, sacred sites and symbols; the Soteriology, Eschatology, and Christology, councils and creeds; (I may be more acquainted with it all than most might believe, it’s just that I now realize it to be mostly a colossal waste of time). For the myriad ologies and isms that constitute the very fabric of the Christianity as commonly defined in our cultural space, all I want to know is, has it ‘changed’ and is it ‘changing’ anyone? Is it appropriating the divine character represented by the Jesus of the Gospels? Is it redefining human identity to incorporate more of the Fullness and Fountain of all Power and Love?

That’s all I care to know. For if not, it’s quite literally…. (and here I must agree with my anti-theist friends and with Apostle Paul) its then just plain old bullshit.