Prince of preachers, Oliver Daley, in delivering the sermon at the funeral service of the late Rae Davis, spoke eloquently about VISION (click for article) and the blessed state of those who fulfill the injunction of Hebrews 11 to walk by faith (no one as I explain in the above highlighted piece can live creatively without it…for ‘without vision people perish’. In fact, his thoughts so echoed that blogpost (click) that I thought to republish it in Rae’s memory, but then decided rather to add this commentary.
Much of my thinking at present is focused on a closer examination of religion and how it interfaces with the political dimension; and particularly in the Jamaican context: Fundamentalist Evangelicalism / Pentecostalism. These thoughts were echoed in the proceedings at Rae’s memorial service, and indeed in most of my conversations these days. Just last week, I had a brief conversation with my good friend, Catholic theologian, Peter Espeut, whose enthusiastic endorsement of Dianne Austin-Broos’ book on Jamaican Pentecostalism, Jamaican Genesis (click) had me intrigued and thirsty to devour the book myself. (Again, he said it was ‘the most outstanding book he has read in decades’. If you know Peter’s literary appetite, you would also be intrigued.)
As with all movements and institutions in a society, creative living demands that we engage with what we find at present, and avoid the pitfall of iconoclastic criticism which often contributes nothing to reform or progress, neither deconstructs the systems we seek to repudiate, arguably the very premise of Broos’ book – how African Jamaicans creatively innovated the very religion and language used by their oppressors to subvert them to assert their own identity and strengthen their liberation struggle.
Recognizing, that almost every time I had mentioned the University of Technology in recent conversation, I did so with a derisive attitude, perhaps justifiably lamenting the dearth of innovation that seems to cover Jamaica’s institutional atmosphere like a thick dark cloud….” And to think that CAST (later UTECH) had started off at the same time as India’s first Polytechnic, with the vision for both to be the Technological centers in the emerging British Commonwealth. Yet now while almost every doctor of note and every other IT technician has an Indian accent and name, Utech’s greatest glory seems to be producing word class athletes.” (And I go on and on bellyaching about offering degrees in ‘bed-spreading and cooking’ etc.). It struck me listening to Rae’s story that I had succumbed to my own taboo of focusing on the half of the cup that is empty….measuring as ‘awful’ what is really ‘half-full’ (the Jamaican pronunciation of the former ).
Similarly, it shouldn’t take the Australian eyes of this undoubtedly remarkable sociologist in order for us to appreciate what are truly striking insights into Jamaican Pentecostalism. For all its insularity, firebrand dogmatism and quirkiness, it has also been a vehicle of upward mobility for the poor; and for all its patriarchal theological baggage, it still has managed to serve as a politically liberating force for women. Of course there are fanatical strains, particularly when subservient and beholden to North American religious fundamentalism.
But I mentioned to Peter, and also in the highlighted article, echoed by Oliver in his musings this morning, whether it be, religion or education, governance or whichever institutional systems we inherit, encounter or engage; our lives are the paintbrush we use to color the picture of our dreams and visions unto the received parchment of these institutional realities. No one paints on tabula rasa …. at best on palimpsest.
We are surrounded by a cloud of unseen witnesses – those who have gone before, but also the unborn waiting for the baton, and while criticism / critical thinking is undoubtedly necessary, creativity is a greater gift, which demands faith, vision- the acute awareness of present realities but more-so, mindfulness of future possibilities, and in the light of both, present imperatives. (Which may include compromise and accommodation as well as confrontation in order to negotiate the best outcome.)
Among Oliver’s additions to the Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame was one Bertrand Russell, (an atheist) right alongside the good company of St Augustine, Nelson Mandela and MLK Jr. A fitting exemplar, since Rae’s Christianity was about moral example, not the kind of faith one can acquire with the speaking of some magic, 3 sentence, repeat-after-me prayer, whatever the abracadabra formula, or hocus-pocus rituals religious fundamentalists recommend; but the faith Jesus spoke of as spiritual fruit – cultivated character – tried, tested, proven; not boisterous, ignorant zeal.
In light of today’s raeflections, allow me one last cynical sarcasm before I ‘pray for forgiveness’:
I can see why as Jamaicans we would gravitate to a religion where ‘mout an mout aluon siev yu’. (English Translation: Where salvation comes by what you say not what you do.)
YeKengalé 