By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE JAMAICA Baptist Union (JBU) is reiterating its tough stance against casino gambling and same-sex unions, and warning that it will be to the peril of the Church to cosy up to those activities and values which, it says, run counter to its core principles.
Speaking in the resort capital of Montego Bay yesterday, the Rev. Karl Johnson, general secretary of the JBU, urged the church to be unyielding in its counter-gambling position and anti-same sex marriages, even in the face of harsh criticisms.
Decrying the proliferation of games of chance throughout the country, the Rev. Mr. Johnson said it was a fallacy for the nation to believe it could gamble its way out of poverty.
"An increase in games of chance does not support good work ethics. It is a denial of who we are in God, in Jesus Christ," the Baptist minister cautioned, as he addressed participants at the launch of Police Courtesy Week at the Burchell Baptist Church, Montego Bay.
The Rev. Mr. Johnson, who heads the more than 40,000 members of the Jamaica Baptist Union, is urging the church to stoutly oppose any proposal that Jamaica and its citizens need gambling to better their economic prospects. "This country, this church and this preacher will at all times oppose any argument that says we need gambling to survive," he declared.
In a plea for the public and private sectors to adopt God-centred values, the Rev. Mr. Johnson said, "Our values and attitudes must permeate our policies, our economic policies, our social policies, it must infiltrate it and it must inform it."
On the issue of homosexual relationships and marriages, the minister implored the church to maintain a no-nonsense approach on the matter.
Calling on the church to reject homosexuality, whether it occurred within or outside of its ranks, the Rev. Mr. Johnson said they should shun all compromises on the teachings of God. "We reject any argument that says homosexuality is the same thing as being heterosexual. We believe that is not God's way. The position we take is grounded in our understanding of God, grounded in our understanding of human kind, for God made male and female."
He underscored the need for Christians and non-Christians to live disciplined lives, and said that such discipline should govern their sexual choices and preferences.
The clergyman stressed that Christianity was about changing the lives of those who had gone astray and redeeming them, and not about tolerating sins. "Our ministry must be to redeem and to rehabilitate... but we will not, under any circumstances, ever agree that both are the same the homosexual and the heterosexual," insisted the Rev. Mr. Johnson.
