EVEN as the country gets ready to celebrate Emancipation Day next Monday, some pastors in western Jamaica are concerned that the society is still shackled by a depraved mentality that has manifested itself in skin bleaching, widespread corruption in public life and other negative phenomena.
A society is not truly emancipated if it has to resort to a State of Emergency, because with God as the Master there would be freedom from crime and violence because there would be enough fear in your heart for God, said Abu Ibrahiim of the Montego Bay Masjiid.
While the State of Emergency was probably necessary to flush out gunmen, the police abused their power and trampled on the rights of the people, he said. That is not freedom; it reminds me of the Bucky Master (slavery) days, he stressed.
Dorrett Blake, the pastor of the Sold Out Ministries, also based in Montego Bay, believes that many in the society are enslaved mentally. Many of us are enslaved to "Me. We focus on ourselves and pay little or no attention to the poor and the oppressed. We have become oblivious to the injustice around us and have become slaves to our own desires and comfort, she stressed.
I CONCUR...EMANCIPATION IS FREEDOM. JAMAICA IS NOT FREE WE R ENSLAVED BY THE GOVT. WRONG DESIRES, COVETOUSNESS N GREED.
