A scene from the Benny Hinn crusade.
By Grace Cameron, Copy Editor
ON TUESDAY evenings between 6 o'clock and 7:00, the Pentecostal Tabernacle on Wildman Street, Central Kingston, rocks with the voices of youth heaven-bound.
In fact, most evenings, whether it's youth service on Tuesday or Wednesday night Bible studies, throngs of churchgoers flood the broad wooden doors, swarming onto the narrow street made even narrower by vehicles lined up on both sides.
In their numbers, they are a force to be reckoned with, driving even professed atheists to swear to God.
Then again, Wildman Street which runs for five blocks between North and East Queen streets, has always managed to arouse the spirits of those who come within its boundaries. In a land noted for its numerous rum bars, Wildman Street is king. At one point it registered a record high 23 bars, one of which sat across the road from the church.
"The traffic from one side to the next was heavy," remembers one observer who has a longtime familiarity with the area. "Many of those who sought refuge in the liquid spirits often detoured for some icy mints before returning to the fold of the congregation," he recalls.
The church has since negated its opposing force, buying that bar as well as several others on that stretch of Wildman Street.
Now, in this gritty part of town with crumbling buildings and barefoot children playing in the street, this assembly of between 2,500 and 3,000 has become a powerful witness the local community can't ignore. It runs a basic and a high school and has other outreach programmes such as clinics and street crusades.
The head-to-head competition for souls on Wildman Street is perhaps indicative of Jamaicans' in-grown, yet ambiguous relationship with the Church. While reputed for its numerous bars, rumour also has it that this country has more churches per square mile than anywhere else. Houses of worship cover everything from centuries-old parish churches to the bamboo-and-zinc shacks of revivalists. Religious affiliation runs the gamut from Christian denominations to Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and others.
"The largest gatherings of people for any purpose in Jamaica takes place on weekends in churches," comments the Rev. Oliver Daley of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
There was evidence of this one memorable weekend last June when between 100,000 and 200,000 miracle-seekers huddled under an unforgiving sun in National Heroes' Circle, central Kingston, for televangelist Benny Hinn's Miracle Crusade.
Yet despite prayer breakfasts, official church services, mutli-denominational "bawl-outs for unity and a growing number of tents pitched throughout the landscape in the crusade for lost souls, the society is wringing its hands over a murder rate perilously close to 1,000 annually, increased suicides, poverty, rampant indiscipline, fraud, lawlessness and other social ills.
"You know when you check it, Jamaica is involved in spiritual warfare," Tommy Cowan, entertainer and songwriter turned born-again Christian, said in a Gleaner article after the Benny Hinn crusade.
"Every time you make a forward move there is a kickback. Right after Benny Hinn, there was an upsurge in violence. You see, everytime God makes a move, the devil also makes a move," he says.
That's because going to church in Jamaica, for many people, is not really about being a Christian or being religious, says Dr. Juliet Penrod, a Seventh-Day Adventist and assistant professor at Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Mandeville, Manchester. "It's about being a good person and in Jamaica, going to church makes you a good person. If, for example, you decide not to go, there's a horrified response. It's like you're bad even if you may have gone all the other times before."
Therefore, she reckons, "it's not about lifestyle changes and following the gospel, it's more like a cultural thing."
Sheikh Musa Tijani of the Islamic Council of Jamaica comments: "The major problems of society are caused by people's refusal to accept the discipline of religious teachings."
Dr. Penrod, who grew up in England and the U.S., says that since coming back three years ago, she has been asking this question: "For a place with so many churches, how come there is so much crime and dishonesty?
"It speaks to the fact," she figures, "that we're not really Christians, we're a nation of churchgoers."
Answering her own question, she adds that "Christians don't keep malice but churchgoers might. Envy and malice, these are things you don't actively see because they are inside but they come out in the things we do. The principles of Christianity say we must put away these things and if we do we see a change in what happens in society."
Muhammed Dawes, of the Islamic Council, reckons that people turn to backbiting, crime and drugs because they cannot find what they're looking for. "They run from place to place trying different systems, but it's all under the same teaching and they're not getting (answers). The youth, for example, turn to (DJ) Capleton with the fire and wrapping of the head because we (the Islamic religion) have not offered them a choice.
"We (Muslims in Jamaica) are failing in our responsibility of going out and taking the message to people," says Mr. Dawes who started following the principles of Islam in the 1970s.
Dr. Penrod has a slightly different perspective. "'Ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the light of the world,'" she quotes from the Bible.
"As Christians we are here to effect change. We work in places too and since there are so many of us who go to church (the same gospel applies to all Christian religions) we should be able to have a positive effect on those who come into our sphere of influence. It may be as simple as a smile or a pleasant attitude."
She throws out a challenge to those who keep the faith "to live our lives in such a way that we have a positive effect on those who come into our influence".
She ends with the question: "Are we merely churchgoers or has Christianity truly impacted our lives?"
