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 … More Hard Sayings
Dispersion was the secret ingredient that led to the widespread and rapid propagation of the gospel in the beginning and the same is true today, perhaps now more than ever before. This was decidedly expressed in the recent Lausanne document on world evangelism: The State of the Great Commission, a monumental work of intellect and … More Diasporation
With all the talk about the Rules-based International Order collapsing and the anxiety over what will the emergent global body politic look like when the game reverts to Big-fish-eat-small-fish, I feel compelled to make some comments on basic ideas that no longer represent a consensus of human opinion, and why, and what to do about … More Sovereign Intelligence
I’d like to sincerely wish one and all a very merry Christmas, but how can I? I’m ending the year as I began it recognizing the utter vanity of tradition if we are not prepared to protect and preserve it. As far as Christmas is concerned, I’ve long repudiated the Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby … More Black Christmas
The news yesterday morning highlighted a fairly common scene. The PNP held a press conference speaking specifically to the emerging incidents of leptospirosis and the health threat posed to the nation in the aftermath of Melissa. At the podium was Dr Alfred Dawes, PNP spokesperson on health and in the background were party dignitaries headed … More Systems of predation / Systems of service
Neither the United States of America nor Jamaica are Christian nations. Although the religious right in both countries are known for spinning a yarn of imaginative narrative inferring the contrary, the facts are clear. The history of the Church in the Jamaican Genesis, as is the case with the entire indigenous population of the Americas, … More On Christian Nations and Unchristian Nations
The recent issue of raised ‘cane’ (the pun should become obvious in a moment, and yes c-a-n-e, no unintended misspelling) over the Daryl Vaz sprinkling rum to bless and commission new school buses (that very well may have won his government the last election so he could have set an entire thanksgiving table with lit … More Fathers of our Faith and Cultural Continuity
The idea of a Christian vote in the Jamaican context is an interesting proposition. For such a voting bloc to exist and to be of societal value requires an internal cohesion which can only be achieved through common connection to universally trusted sources of information and universally respected voices of authority. Even then, weighing in … More A church voting bloc?
I spent Marcus Garvey’s birthday visiting the Haitian refugee camp in St Mary. It is hard to determine exactly how many have arrived on the island by boat. It is almost certain that some have evaded our Coast Guards and found a way to integrate into informal settlements around the island, but the government of … More The Least of These
A fair authentication of authorship is the ability to fix one’s broken invention. This assumption probably underscores the logic behind the central tenet of Christianity’s claim that Jesus is God – his purported ability to fix the problems of humanity. It started out with simple things, like saving the life of a party when the … More The Fixer
YeKengalé 