A powerful church group, backed by a gallery filled with supporters, yesterday sent a strong message to the joint select committee reviewing the sexual offences legislation that it will not support changes to current buggery provisions. Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society’s (JCHS) spokeswoman Phillippa Davies urged Jamaicans to work towards the ideal, and not lower their standards because other Caribbean countries may lower theirs. The submission from the church group, which includes members of the Seventh-day and Pentecostal communities, insisted that “healthy and safe families, with marriage between a man and a woman at the centre, can singularly and significantly address the concerns about care and protection of children, the elderly and disabled, and reduce domestic, sexual, and other forms of societal violence”. However, it was Opposition member of the committee, Marisa Dalrymple- Philibert (Southern Trelawny), who stirred the Christians seated in the gallery when she maintained that “homosexuality and Christianity are irreconcilable”. She said that people, therefore, had to make their choices, but the Parliament must be on the side of the majority of the people. The approval of her statement from the gallery forced chairman of the committee, Senator Mark Golding, to warn the visitors against participating in the proceedings, after which things settled down for the remaining three hours of the sitting. Read more here . http://www.jamaicaobserver.com