REID
Adrian Frater, News Editor
Western Bureau:
Lord Bishop, the Rt. Reverend Dr. Alfred
Reid, has described
the tsunami, which recently
devastated South-East Asia, as a massive embarrassment to the whole structure of a godless
philosophy and an explosion
of the myth of humanistic omnipotence.
"It literally explodes the mythology of humanistic omni-potence and exposes the nakedness of the illusion that human beings can control, subdue and manipulate the universe through science, technology and management," Bishop Reid said, while addressing Tuesday's opening service of the 135th Annual Synod of the Diocese of Jamaica and Grand Cayman in Falmouth, Trelawny.
WHER IS GOD?
His remarks were in response to persons who have been asking "Where was God during the tsunami?" which claimed over 200,000 lives and left a trail of material destruction across Asia.
"There is a vulgar triumph-alism about secular humanism in our time," said Bishop Reid.
"Secularism minimises the supernatural and has no tolerance for the idea of God active in the affairs of the world on a day-to-day basis."
And while stating that it was natural and right to mourn those who suffered in the tsunami, Bishop Reid questioned the consistency with regard to the over 300,000 who have suffered in Darfur, the genocide in Rwanda, the millions killed by HIV/AIDS, the Palestinian
people that have been hounded out of their country into refugee camps, and the struggles of the Haitians, who are barely
surviving after 200 years of
unrelenting repression.
Lord, have mercy
"Above all, what about the 1,400 Jamaicans who were slaughtered before our very eyes in 2004 and what about the brothers and sisters of South
St. Andrew, east Kingston,
West Kingston, August Town, Norwood and Rose Heights in Montego Bay?" asked Bishop Reid. "Lord, have mercy, our beloved 'Cathedral City' of Spanish Town being butchered every day?"
Bishop Reid added, "If we had been in the habit of theologising about the unspeakable tragedies of our own history over the past 500 years, it would not have taken the catastrophe of South-East Asia to raise the question about God."
