Tony Morrison, Freelance WriterSIN AND whispers of scandals, though an inescapable part of the Christian church, is not the biggest problem faced by the institution, says Rev. Oliver Daley of the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Disunity within and between churches is the most significant problem and one which repulses outsiders, he believes.
Most people, he reckons, are smart enough to independently observe and weed out good churchgoing people from bad ones. People also forget that churchgoers are humans and less than perfect. Smart Christians don't pretend to be otherwise, he says.
One particularly distasteful part of the Christian dilemma, says Rev. Daley, is the claim of some rival churches that their denomination constitutes the only path to salvation. While it is merely human, he says that he finds these divisions in the body of Christ most painful and scandalous.
Sheikh Musa Tijani of the Islamic Council of Jamaica sees the issue in another light. He charges that the greatest problem of religious society is the hypocrisy of some of its leadership. "The failure of religious leaders to set proper personal examples and practice what they preach is what turns away most people from religion."
His parting shot strikes at the heart of Rev. Daley's argument. "The way of truth is Islam," Sheikh Tijani says.
Bishop Robert Foster of the Moravian Church sides with Rev. Daley, saying sharp and major divisions are more understandable between different religions, but such strife should not exist among those claiming to worship the same God under the banner of the same religion, no matter how broad that banner may be.
He adds that he's concerned about the competing factions within the Christian church. It's a turn-off to outsiders, he notes, "when churches act like politicians, claiming exclusive rights to redemption and publicly bad-mouthing each other in an obvious and sometimes even vulgar quest to attract membership."
Still, notes one observer, the religious community need not agonise too much over its less than unified state. Jamaica, she says, has not endured a holy war, as many religious societies have. She points to the modern reality of Jerusalem which is claimed by Jews, Christians and Muslims. "This so-called "city of peace" has never really been peaceful, and is constantly torn between opposing religious factions."
According to a 1996 issue of National Geographic, Jerusalem represents the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, where Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple, and where Muslims say the prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven.
Back home, Bishop Foster as well as former president of the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) Rev. Stanley Clarke, say the problem of disunity is diminishing as more churches concentrate less on the little details of doctrine, and more on the bigger picture of sin and salvation.
Some churches have also started working together on national and community projects, and within organisations like the 10-member JCC and the United Theological College.
There have been tentative moves, even outside the Christian spectrum, to carve a religious common ground. Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke, for example, is patron of the Inter Faith Fellowship which includes the Christian grouping of the JCC as well as Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Rastafarian representatives.
The JCC believes that with a more unified front the collective church will be in a better position to fulfil its obligations to the nation on matters such as national leadership, advocating for the powerless, and being a more effective mediator between opposing factions. Unity would also allow the church to more creatively and efficiently use its own unused and underused assets, the organisation believes.
In essence, notes Bishop Foster, religious leaders are being asked to agree to disagree on some matters of doctrine and practices, if necessary, as long as they can agree on the major principles of common beliefs, and work together to achieve common goals. He points to one of the Moravian mottoes which underscores this approach:
"In essentials unity,
In non-essentials liberty,
In all things charity."
