Baptist World Alliance (BWA) General Secretary Expresses Concerns That Jamaica Is Overwhelmed By Postmodernism & Secularism
WASHINGTON, DC – General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), Rev Dr. Neville Callam has expressed concern that Jamaica is being overwhelmed by the forces of postmodernism and secularism – forces that can bring nothing but destruction and destitution in their wake.
The Rev Callam pointed out that a cursory examination of the statistics on religious affiliation shows that Jamaica is faring among the worst when compared with our Caribbean neighbors.
He said that in 2012, the PEW Research Group in USA undertook a study to discover how people across the world characterize their religious commitment. This was an effort to see how people describe their religious identity – how people self-identify in religious terms.
According to the Pew Research, the only Caribbean country to outdo Jamaica in the rejection of a religious identity is Cuba, with 23% of the Cuban population self-identifying as non-religious.
The BWA General Secretary pointed out that in sections of the English-speaking Caribbean in 2012, the percentage of the population claiming no religious identity was as follows: St. Lucia 6%; Bahamas 3.1%; St Vincent & the Grenadines 2.5%; Guyana 2%; Barbados 1.9%; Trinidad and Tobago 1.9%; Antigua & Barbuda 1.7 and Grenada 1%.
However, in Jamaica in 2012, 17.1% of the people claim no religious identity at all. They claimed to follow no religion whatsoever. This percentage is higher than the worldwide average of 16%. Today, in 2015, indications are that the situation may have deteriorated considerably.
In delivering the sermon to mark Jamaica’s 53rd year of independence at Howard University Law School Dunbarton Chapel, on Sunday, August 2, 2015 Dr. Callam said Jamaicans need the church to demonstrate clearly and powerfully the healing, transformative and redemptive power of God in both the public and the private domains. Only this can arrest the trend of retreat from God and from religion that marks the Jamaican people.
(Photo by Derrick Scott)
He told the large congregation that in Jamaica, there is need for a spiritual reawakening that is fueled by the faith that has served us well over the years and can serve us well into the future. As a people, we need to hear anew the message that, when we engage our resources in the context of abiding faith in God, the sky is the limit. When we count not to seven, but to eight, God can work miracles that words can hardly describe.
Rev Callam encouraged the congregation to never leave God out of life’s equation regardless of whatever else occupies the meadows of the mind. “Our material resources do count for much, but they are nothing compared with the amazing power of the great God of wonders and of love”, he said.
Charge D’Affaires of the Embassy of Jamaica, Mrs. Marsha Coore-Lobban read the message from Prime Minister, the Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller.
The annual independence church service which is the centerpiece of the Embassy of Jamaica’s commemorative activities was attended by a capacity gathering made up of the Jamaican community from the Washington metropolitan area, Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia.
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