JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner
published: Sunday | April 16, 2006
Ian Boyne, Contributor
IT IS not only Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller who should gauge carefully the negative reactions and cautions about her promotion of Christianity. The church had better take careful notes, too.
There was a time when a Jamaican Prime Minister's announcement about putting a pastor on every state board and the invoking of the name of God would attract unanimous public applause. Not anymore. What has changed in Jamaica? First, media have had a major negative impact on the image of the church. There were always rascals, hypocrites and the corrupt in the church but they were traditionally outside the media's glare. People heard whispers, but the confirmed immorality and abuse which the media have documented was not the order of the day.
The sex scandals in the Roman Catholic and other churches, the not infrequent local headlines about sexual and other transgressions in the church and the impact of global media have significantly affected people's perceptions of the church. Innocence has been lost.