Dr. Lucien Jones, Contributor

One of my favourite authors is Frederick Forsyth, a writer, known for his classic The Day of the Jackal, which was made into a movie. Recently I picked up his most recent book, The Afghan, which in essence is a story about Bin Laden's attempt to organise another 9/11, but this time far worse.

I was intrigued by a comment made by a ' Koran Scholar' that to describe Muslim terrorists as "fundamentalists" is a misnomer, as the word means back to basics. But, he asserted, "The planters of bombs in trains, buses and malls are not going back to the basics of Islam. They are writing their own new script, then arguing retroactively, seeking to find Koranic passages that justify their war."

The issue for us here in Jamaica, and the rest of the world, is what is basic Christianity? Is it being practised? Or has the Christian religion been high-jacked, or diluted, and rendered ineffective by its 20th century adherents, who are more interested in maintaining the status quo, justifying their own actions, than seeking the truth.

It is a critical issue as Christianity is the dominant religion in the Western world, and therefore it is, to God, through the church to which the poor, the marginalised, those who seek justice, the persecuted, the sick, the dying, those whose lives have been changed instantly by natural disasters or gun-related violence, ultimately look for help, relief, succour, and return to normality. In the same way that blind Bartimaeus looked to Jesus for sight and return to wholeness.

So, can a church which is not practising basic Christianity provide the help, be the salt, the leaven, provide the Balm in Gilead that societies in deep moral, spiritual, social and even economic distress, so badly need? Or will it, and has it been a case of the blind leading the blind, both literally and metaphorically.

It is the excitement about the authority of Jesus that spread throughout Galilee that caused blind Bartimaeus to believe that Jesus was God and could heal Him.