The Reverend Dr. Alston Henry (right), chairman of the National Leadership Prayer Breakfast (NLPB) Committee, in prayer with Noel Hann (left), senior vice-president and chief financial officer at Victoria Mutual Building Society, and Reverend Peter Garth, vice-chairman of the NLPB Committee, during the NLPB press briefing at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston in January. A critic charges that the Church condemns only sins that are unpopular in the Jamaican culture, while turning a blind eye to popular sins. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

The Editor, Sir:

I found the article 'Funeral rites and popular culture', which appeared in The Sunday Gleaner of April 29, rather amusing and much in line with the gospel of hypocrisy that is preached in Jamaica.

God would be better served if the churches in Jamaica and the Public Theology Forum spent more time teaching/preaching the basics and less time on rituals and obscure passages of the Bible. I strongly disagree that our funeral rites reflect a wide variety of cross-cultural diversity.

Jamaicans are very close to being 100 per cent of African descent. And, quite contrary to what the forum may think, Jamaica is a homogeneous country in terms of race and culture. We of African descent do not have to be mixed with others to get a sense of value. Our funeral rituals may simply be African with other minor influences.

What part of African don't you like? Why do we have to give homage to other cultures for the minor part that these cultures may play in our funeral rituals? As if being African is not good enough. It is simply disingenuous to harp on the cross-cultural diversity of Jamaica.

Furthermore, it is not popular culture that challenges the Church.

It is the Church's search for popularity that is its challenge. The Church has significantly moved away from its spiritual calling and focus on the basics. The basics are the moral/ethical code of most Judea-Christian societies, which correlates very closely to the Ten Commandments.

I like to refer to these as the 'Top Ten'. Christ expanded on the 'Top Ten' to include the command for us to love each other, to be forgiving, not to judge, etc. By the way, Christ did not delegate the right to judge sin to any human being.

Abandoned the basics

Today, the Church has abandoned the basics. Instead, the Church preaches against those sins that are unpopular in our culture, while looking the other way at sins that are popular. In essence, the Church through its silence has normalised adultery, lying, stealing, coveting, blasphemy, etc. It is a lack of these basics, our value system, that is the cause of the decay in our society.

Now that the Church has become part of the popular culture, it finds it necessary to tweak this just a bit so as to camouflage the fact that it is all about the popularity. The nonsensical article by the forum is a good example of tweaking popular culture.

I would suggest that the forum spend its time on subjects that can help us gain salvation and resurrection and not on rituals that may have no connection to religion. Besides, it is too late to be worried about the salvation and resurrection of the dead at the funeral. Let people celebrate the way they want to.

Christ never expected nor demanded that we stick with rituals that are thousands of years old. God gave us the basics plus free will so that we could continue to evolve and develop as human beings and that we would use his love for us to guide us through the challenges that evolution will bring (the concept of creation and evolution do not have to be divergent). Your time would be better spent on the basics.

I am, etc.,

RICHARD NEWMAN

newman-r@sbcglobal.net

Houston, TX

Via Go-Jamaica