Church Leaders Show They Are Scribes And Pharisees/​plus More…

Three events caught my atten­tion in the Jamaican press this week­end that I thought I would offer an opin­ion on, if I may.

FOUR MURDERED WITHIN HOURS IN WESTMORELAND

(1) The con­tin­ued gun vio­lence that claimed the lives of four (4) peo­ple in the Parish of Westmoreland alone, includ­ing the life of 47-year-old police Constable Richard Barrett. Random vio­lence can hap­pen to any­one at any time in any place.
As a for­mer offi­cer who has seen more than my share of vio­lence, I talk to my friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers about sim­ple tips to observe when in pub­lic or at home.
From time to time, we hear the com­mon phrase, ‘I nev­er thought it could hap­pen here.’ Sorry you feel that way, but crime can hap­pen anywhere.
For exam­ple, leav­ing a pock­et­book, cell­phone, or oth­er valu­ables in an auto­mo­bile is an open invi­ta­tion for thieves to break into your car. A car with exposed valu­ables will be bro­ken into every time, as opposed to one with noth­ing exposed; it is that simple.
Usually, ran­dom crim­i­nal events occur when we fail to take pre­cau­tions or observe sim­ple safe­ty measures.
We must oper­ate under the assump­tion that there are peo­ple around us who will do us harm. We should devel­op coun­ter­mea­sures on how to react if and when dan­ger strikes, like dri­ving and assum­ing that the next dri­ver will do some­thing stu­pid and prepar­ing our reac­tion ahead of time(defensive driving).
As we grieve the loss of lives, I call on our police offi­cers to do more to under­stand their sur­round­ings, be more proac­tive, adopt some­thing I did dur­ing my ser­vice, and build a wall of aura around yourselves.

CHURCH LEADERS DEMAND APOLOGY FROM POLICE

(2) Mahatma Gandhi once famous­ly said, “If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian.” Many Christians crit­i­cized Gandhi for mak­ing that state­ment, argu­ing that Gandhi turned his back on Christianity and Christ because of the actions of Christians, with­out real­iz­ing that by con­demn­ing Gandhi for his state­ment, they exem­pli­fy why he made the state­ment in the first place.
Christians are, in essence, judge­men­tal, holi­er than thou, and lofty. As a Christain myself, I am forced to self-exam­ine to see if I live the life of sim­plic­i­ty and lack of self-impor­tance Yeshua lived.
That memo seemed not to have reached some reli­gious lead­ers this Easter as they took on the role of mod­ern-day Pharisees.
Wagging their tongues about things they have no idea about as they preach pie-in-the-sky fables, ignor­ing the car­nage hap­pen­ing in their communities.
According to a local pub­li­ca­tion, Anglican priest Reverend Father Sean Major-Campbell is demand­ing an apol­o­gy from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for what he described as a “dis­grace­ful” use of the sacred crucifix.
The JCF post­ed a graph­ic on social media, which includ­ed a pic­ture of the cru­ci­fix and the words: “Happy Easter… Criminals liv­ing beside you? Call Crime Stop at 311.

Rev Dr. Alvin Bailey also blast­ed the JCF for using the cru­ci­fix in its call to turn in crim­i­nals. I am putting the faces of these char­la­tans up so that they may be seen for what they are, ‘Pharisees“.
I am appalled at the JCF’s use of the sacred cru­ci­fix to offen­sive­ly con­vey a much-need­ed reminder in the fight against crime. It is unfor­tu­nate and inap­pro­pri­ate in a coun­try where many cit­i­zens claim the sym­bol for its mes­sage of tri­umph over injus­tice and shame­ful death. The Easter mes­sage is also about an emp­ty cross.”(Sean Major-Campbell)
“It is a sign of des­per­a­tion out of their failed crime-fight­ing strate­gies and the fact that crime is out of con­trol and all their efforts so far have shown their incom­pe­tence. For me, it is appalling, it is shock­ing, it is unfor­tu­nate, and it is a des­per­ate measure.”
“This triv­i­al­izes a sacred mes­sage re Christ, who was unjust­ly exe­cut­ed. I call on the JCF to issue a pub­lic apol­o­gy and to desist from offend­ing the sacred tra­di­tions still held dear by many of our fel­low cit­i­zens.”Bailey told one publication.
The unfor­giv­able sin the police com­mit­ted was to post a graph­ic on social media as part of its east­er cam­paign, which includ­ed a pic­ture of the cru­ci­fix and the words: “Happy Easter… Criminals liv­ing beside you? Call Crime Stop at 311.”

It was the Scribes & Pharisees who cru­ci­fied Yeshua the Christ. In fact, Yeshua him­self warned his dis­ci­ples about the church lead­ers, Scribes & Pharisees who walk about the mar­ket­place in their long robes in the book of Luke, chap­ter 20, verse 46;“Beware of the teach­ers of the law they like to walk around in flow­ing robes and love to be greet­ed with respect in the mar­ket­places and have the most impor­tant seats in the syn­a­gogues and the places of hon­or at banquets.
Oh, Hallelujah!!!
The Police are out there try­ing to save lives, and here on Ressurection Sunday, we have mod­ern-day Scribes and Pharisees, using this joy­ous occa­sion to bring atten­tion to them­selves instead of to our risen Lord.
If a thing is not of God, it is of the dev­il, there is no mid­dle ground. There can be no greater use of the cross of Yeshua the Christ than to save lives and even­tu­al­ly the souls of those who have not accept­ed him.
Many Church lead­ers in Jamaica have a sor­did his­to­ry of engag­ing in shield­ing, har­bor­ing, pro­tect­ing, and even aid­ing crim­i­nals in their activ­i­ties, mak­ing them acces­sories to crime.
Should we inter­pret these mis­guid­ed and inter­pret out­bursts to mean these Scribes and Pharisees are offend­ed by the suc­cess­es of the police?
Clearly, their igno­rant out­bursts have noth­ing to do with God; Christ would not have been sup­port­ive of those who arbi­trar­i­ly take the lives of the inno­cent. Or maybe the 5^th com­mand­ment is unim­por­tant to these Pharisees?
The Church lead­ers in our coun­try are so cor­rupt­ed by pol­i­tics and the love of fame and mon­ey that no one takes them seri­ous­ly any­more; is there any won­der that intel­li­gent peo­ple are turn­ing away from the body of Christ because of char­la­tans like these?
I sug­gest these two get down on their knees and ask God for for­give­ness for bring­ing his Church into dis­re­pute; he still for­gives sin. Who should the police apol­o­gize to?
Asking to receive an apol­o­gy is by default set­ting them­selves up to receive said apol­o­gy; are they gods? Who do these Scribes and Pharisees think they are?

MAROONS FINALLY COP TO WRONGS
As a stu­dent tak­ing his­to­ry class­es decades ago, I won­dered why we were lion­iz­ing a group of run­away enslaved peo­ple who signed a treaty with the slavers to hunt down and return run­away enslaved peo­ple to them?
Like many oth­er aspects of Jamaican his­to­ry, I real­ized that a cer­tain degree of san­i­tiz­ing and white­wash­ing was done, as is the case where the vic­tor tells the story.
The death of Tacki and Paul Bogle in two sep­a­rate slave rebel­lions must be con­sid­ered against the role the Maroons played in their demise. It should also be under­stood how their help in cap­tur­ing and return­ing run­away enslaved peo­ple and to squash slave rebel­lions enabled the igno­ble prac­tice of slav­ery to con­tin­ue for longer than it should.
As a con­se­quence, I have always said that the Maroons deserve no def­er­ence or spe­cial auton­o­my in our coun­try out­side the rights and priv­i­leges of oth­er Jamaicans.
It is com­mend­able that almost three hun­dred years lat­er the Maroons through one of its lead­ers, final­ly apol­o­gized for what they did.

“We regret the hurt and suf­fer­ings caused from such actions. We take total respon­si­bil­i­ty on behalf of our ances­tors,” said para­mount chief­tai­ness and Queen of the Maroons Gaamang Gloria “Mama G” Simms, the woman now occu­py­ing the seat once held by Queen Nanny of the Maroons, the only female among the sev­en nation­al heroes.
Better late than never!!!

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, a free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.