Tony Morrison, Freelance Writer
THOUGH PRIME Minister P.J. Patterson's pitch for respect and a kinder, gentler society seems to have fallen on deaf ears, Rev. Oliver Daley reckons that the call for moral values and a better attitude should've come from the Church instead of politicians.
Religious leaders, says the United Church minister, need to more consistently take a public stand on national issues.
Sin, he says, can be institutional and economic as well as personal, which is why religious leaders have a duty to monitor and comment on public issues, events, trends, practices and policies.
On the national level, he points to what he sees as some of the bastions of institutional sin:
A political system that has encouraged and reinforced corruption and tribalisation.
A slow and cumbersome justice system heavily weighted against the poor.
Health facilities that, by design or incapacity, practise negligence or malpractice.
Corrupt companies that abuse, alienate and exploit workers.
Trade unions that unreasonably agitate disruption.
Members of the security forces who practise brutality and abuse human rights.
Lawyers who exploit the ignorance of their clients.
Bankers who misappropriate the money of their customers, and
An economic regime that causes widespread pain and dislocation.
Yet all of this begs the ticklish question of why, as a nation of churchgoers, is the society so plagued by rampant indiscipline and watered-down moral standards.
Some people believe it's a matter of perception aided and abetted by mainstream media, while others comment that the deviant actions of non-church members can hardly be blamed on the Church.
While it has been the proclaimed role of the Church to keep humanity on the straight and narrow, a founding principle of Christianity, they say, is that people have the freedom of choice in whether to heed the biblical warnings.
