By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Judy Mowatt in a jocular mood at home recently. Miss Mowatt, a former Rastafarian and member of the I-Threes, no longer wears her hair in dreadlocks. She decided to cut the locks years after she converted to Christianity. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
"MY MISSION in life is to be a minister of reconciliation using the medium of music - the gift that God has given me," says Judy Mowatt, the one time Rastafarian now gospel singer and devoted Christian.
It's been a mixed reception as a gospel artiste, she explained.
On the one hand, she is getting more work locally as a Gospel singer than she had when she was a secular artiste. But the money as a secular artiste was better. But she does not mind this too much, she says, now that her priorities have been rearranged. Gospel music for her is not just a business but a ministry. She has embraced one business philosophy of Bob Marley. She said, "Bob used to say, 'Money will come. The important thing is to get the music out to the people.'
On the other hand, the number one setback for her, like many musicians, is CD piracy. She said: "I am not making any money. For this new album that I recently released , Something Old, Something New, I borrowed so much money from the bank and other places to make this CD and to date, I am struggling to pay back this money. But others are earning from this 'burnt' CD. This is happening all over Jamaica and overseas."
FAME
Miss Mowatt achieved local and international fame both as a solo artiste and as a member of the I-Threes, the back-up singers for the late reggae icon, Bob Marley.
She converted to Christianity in the mid-1990s after 22 years of worshipping Haile Selassie I, late Emperor of Ethiopia. Though, Christian, Judy continues to sing the secular songs especially those that made her famous as a solo artiste. She has no ill-feelings about this. For, she says, "I am called to minister in a secular environment. Furthermore, I have not recorded any song that I feel ashamed of. My secular songs could be sung in church."
Judy is happy to witness in recent years, a notable increase in Jamaican secular artistes who have embraced Christianity. Yet she cautions that these singers are often very needy of proper Christian mentorship, otherwise they could return from whence they came. She cited an example of a popular Dee-Jay who she argued seemed not to have been properly cared for by his church leaders, who is not distinctly Christian today in his public performances. This Dee-Jay, she hinted was a little short of being abused by church leaders who had him here and there and everywhere preaching and testifying - when instead he should have been allowed more time to quietly learn and practise his new found faith.
DISCIPLED
She said: "If I were to live my Christian life all over again, I would have first stayed in and allowed myself to be discipled for about two years, without going anywhere to sing a note for anybody. I would know the Word of God before going out there to minister a word. You can get burnt out if nobody takes an interest in your discipling. The Disciples sat at Jesus' feet for three years before they went out to do ministry. All of us, whether we are entertainers or not, need to sit at Jesus' feet before we start ministering."
Judy received much of her discipling attending the cell (zone-care) groups of Bethune Avenue Holiness Christian Church where she became a member. She argues that the informal atmosphere of cell groups create - especially because they are convened in homes - a most potent strategy to evangelise and disciple new converts. "I became a member of a particular cell group, and it was a place I found refuge. I looked forward to going to the cell group once-weekly. My questions were treated with respect, even the dumb questions," she said.
As a secular artiste, Judy was keen on promoting Rastafari on stage as she spoke and as she sang. Her evangelistic focus has changed having embraced Jesus Christ and she is strong on the view that reggae music deserves wider embrace from churches as an evangelistic tool.
"Reggae music is our indigenous music given to us by God Almighty. He has given Trinidad calypso and soca, He has given America Rhythm and Blues. We have accepted the song Amazing Grace and other traditional types of music. We have embraced that music and even when we have got our own from God we have refrained from embracing it. I find that reggae music is what God has given to us and it is a tool that we should use to really evangelise. Christians all over the world are using reggae music. People win Grammy's performing reggae music. Reggae is the national music for many countries in the world. When I see how reggae music is being treated, it is like we are saying to God, we are not happy with what He has given to us and we prefer to take what He has given to somebody else to be our music. That is really really sad. You will never convert those youth on the street by going there and singing Rock of Ages Cleft For Me. Because they don't know it. You have to meet them with the music that they know. That is why God has raise up a Papa San and a Stitchie."
DO IT IN LOVE
Having embraced Jesus Christ, Judy is concerned that members of the Rastafarian community are reached with the Christian gospel. "I would say to the Christian community, if they are going to evangelise Rastas, do it in love. Don't pass the Rastaman on the street when you are going to church without hailing him up. Christians have a tendency in which they pass the Rastas in a way which suggests that they don't want to have anything to do with them. Go to Rastas in love. Develop an interest in the things that interest the Rastaman. For example, Rastas are people who live a healthy lifestyle. Maybe you can talk about healthy living or healthy eating. Or because they have an interest in Ethiopia and the back-to-Africa movement, you can learn about these things so you can converse. And you can develop a meaningful conversation - And become a friend instead of just wanting to preach to them. Don't go preaching to them for they are preachers too. They want to preach to you too. They feel that you need to hear what they have to say. So don't go wanting to preach."
She worships these days at the Bible Teachers International Church where she is a praise & worship leader. Prior to her conversion, she was involved in visitation to inmates of the Fort Augusta Prison, where females are incarcerated. She has visions of doing Christian ministry towards women, including those who are doing time. "Sometimes we have a tendency as women to allow our self-esteem to become very low especially because of the way we are treated sometimes by the menfolk in our lives. I have been there. I want to just let them know that what God has done for me, He will do for them."
Some of her close friends have found the Lord because of her new life. She is working on the other members of the I-Threes. The important thing, she stressed, is that they see changes and consistency in her lifestyle. The mother of five children, three boys and two girls, Judy affirms that her youngest daughter, Yeshmabeth, she said, has professed Christ as Saviour. "But for my other children I am praying. My family knows the truth. But it takes a while before they say 'yes to Christ.' It took me a while."
