LETTER: Preachers hold passengers hostage on Jamaica buses

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DEAR EDITOR,
The Lord Bishop of Jamaica in “Mutterings of an unholy preacher” in the Sunday Observer of December 2, 2012, has highlighted a destructive attitude or behaviour among religious groups “to corral an audience and then present the gospel to them”. It is such an approach that is even at the root of violent conflicts among Muslims, Christians and Hindus around the world as they compete in the name of their respective duties to convert each other.

In Jamaica, many people are easily led astray because of ignorance of who is God and what constitutes gospel. Hence, the acceptance of destructive gibberish uttered from some preachers.

If one is to use the examples of the prophets of the Old Testament or by Jesus and his disciples in the New Testament, preaching was always directed to a people who were either already members of a covenanted community or the outsiders who opted by choice to hear the words of their own free will.

Passengers on a bus are not a worshipping community, and the bus preacher is not an expression of the faith of the people in the context of a worshipping community. To preach on the JUTC buses is to hold people hostage and the proclaimer may be held in contempt as an outsider who comes without the authority or permission of the travellers. The ban on bus preachers therefore upholds the right of the people to be protected from unwanted harassment.

Dudley C McLean

Mandeville, Manchester

dcmduart@yahoo.com

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