BishopAccountability.org
	Churchwoman Has Hell of a Spirit By Leighton Levy The Jamaica Star July 14, 2006 http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20060714/cleisure/cleisure1.html Clearly, Church Founder Ruby Kelly must have been possessed by demons instead of the Holy Spirit on Sunday when she was blasting everything in sight in relation to the case of the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl involving members of her congregation. For those who are not familiar with the case, the girl was being given a ride home in a van driven by a deacon of the church when she was assaulted by schoolboys who were also in the vehicle. The incident was captured on videotape. Members of the church Kelly founded, the Church Dayton Diamond Ridge, apparently displeased with how the matter was being handled, leaked a copy of the tape to The Gleaner and eventually the police got involved. The deacon and two of the schoolboys have since been arrested and charged. So far, so good. Now, this is where it all starts getting crazy. This Ruby Kelly apparently has major issues with what has transpired because her sense of reasoning has clearly gone out of whack. Why? The woman has gone out and slammed the members of her congregation who leaked the tape. "Because of you, the name of 6 Dayton Avenue is all over the place," she declared on Sunday. REPUTATION Wow! This 'woman of God' is actually putting the name of her church above the welfare of a 13-year-old girl who was sexually abused. You go, girl! That's the spirit. Who gives a damn about a teenager who may well be ruined for life because she was sexually assaulted right in front of a deacon of the church? Who cares? After all, the Dayton Avenue church is clearly above the law of the land in which it exists. It clearly exists in some kind of wonderland where anything goes, once the name of Ruby Kelly's church is not brought into disrepute. And here is further evidence that Ruby Kelly and some of her church members are clearly neighbours of the famous Alice. In a time when the decent law-abiding citizens of Jamaica and the police are trying to break this ridiculous and dangerous informer stigma, Kelly stands before her congregation and chastises those members, who in the eyes of the majority, did the right thing. "You gave up your own to be tried by the unbelievers," she declared. If this woman was high on something, I doubt it was anything holy. She even goes on to liken the suspects in police custody to persecuted biblical figures. "What have they done? What wrong have they done?" she asked of her congregation. Now, I was not there so I can't answer that question for her but based on what I have read, I do know that the deacon had a copy of the tape at his home. And we all know that he witnessed the crime, which, if I am not mistaken, makes him at least an accessory to and after the fact, especially since there is no report anywhere that he reported the matter to the police. Maybe Kelly believed that the deacon was going to be absolved of his wrongdoing since retired Court of Appeal judge, Justice Martin Wright, who is also an elder in her church, also never saw it fit to report the matter, which by the way he ought to under the Child Care and Protection Act 2004. The act says in part that anybody who knows that a child is being abused or mistreated and fails to report it is guilty of a crime and liable to pay a fine of $500,000 or face six months' imprisonment or both. I hope somebody remembers that and some key figures in that church get charged. But I think I understand the nature of Kelly's protestations. The trouble is that she believes that she is God. This is what she says after blasting the media for bringing the case to the public. "I know every one of them and I will deal with them. I am a God of vengeance!" I'd laugh if this wasn't such a tragedy. Reactions, comments? Send to shearer39@gmail.com.
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