YeKengalé

The recent tragic killing of Cora Thompson on church grounds in Western Jamaica during a worship service has shaken many to their core. Having lived in a bubble for the past few weeks, I have just been reading the comments giving voice to the national reaction and have taken notice of the many questions the incident has evoked in the minds of church goers and non church goers alike who feel especially assaulted not by the murder per se, being a fairly common occurrence in our tragic reality, but moreso by where and when it was committed. This has significantly shaken their map of normalcy and sense of safety.

Person A: When you sit down and look at all the bad things happening it’s truly hard to believe there is a God. Innocent people die daily, and an “All knowing” and “all powerful” God just sits there and watch…

Person B: Yes. Why should we fear anything??? Why should we fear this god?

Person C: Most Asian countries dont believe in a god but (they are) much safer than jamaican and most christian countries. Make it make sense!

There are some hard sayings of Jesus we have chosen largely to filter out of our religious understanding, simply because it does not fit our current reality. This is a very common occurrence (some might assert ‘a very necessary excercise’) in religion. We filter what does not fit our reality and focus on what we find useful.

Among those hard sayings of Jesus we will find the following at the top of the list for most in the Caribbean.

Matthew 10:34-39 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Matthew 6:19-24 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And of course there are several other statements which at face value frontally assault common ideas and values around relationships, power, sex and money.

I stated in a previous blog that the Caribbean, at least for the last 80 years or so, has lived in a bubble of false security, and understandably feel a sense of gross violation, much like those perfectly traumatized worshipers in St James, when the fragile and precious bubble of their commonly expected existence is suddenly burst. But as those with deeper roots not only in reality but in faith also might already have reckoned, the world as it is, bubbles notwithstanding, is a fairly traumatic space. Whatever relatively microscopic sections of time and space have been cordoned off in bubbles, absolute mayhem exists all around us and chaos is constantly at our doorstep, however many steps away. Someone, somewhere has had to live with, and continues to suffer today, the unspeakable reality of the bloody and barefaced slaughter that took place on grounds we consider sacred in St James.

I have just had an unspeakably splendid time in conference with other precious believers in Christ at the Ibero Star Hotel in Montego Bay. The fellowship, the settings, the food, the materials, it all has been absolutely splendid. A feast worthy of princes. And I have taken it all in with tremendous gratefulness and appreciation of all the tremendous effort and sacrifice invested to realize this level of excellence. I have carried around with me however in my phone some very gruesome pictures of severed heads and roasted male genitalia, representative of the utterly barbaric reality in Haiti concurrent with our joyous festivities to keep me focused on the reason I am here in the first place, and the people whose hope for a better life may depend at least in part on the success of my focused work in this space.

In the Caribbean we have learned to take many things for granted. I find it necessary however to repeat my declaration: The Caribbean Community needs to wake up from its slumber and take a long look at Cuba, at Haiti, and the list continues though each situation will differ. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If we allow one CARICOM territory to fail, we should know that our paradise island is perhaps next on the list. I have learned that enemies can be utterly ruthless. They may have no scruples nor concerns beyond the demands of their own insatiable bellies and will try to pick us off one by one. We used to play Bull-in-the-pen as children. Well as adults, it’s not a bull in the pen trying to get out. It’s a bully outside the pen, trying to get in. What remains unchanged however is the relentless testing of chain-links.