Prayer now makes you ready prey?
Published:Tuesday | April 23, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Is it now the most dangerous risk to attend a place for prayer and worship? Is kneeling in earnest search of God on a pew now the swiftest route to Paradise? The massacre of the innocents in diverse places, Christchurch New Zealand, now recently Sri Lanka, have found the blood of martyrs. This is a moral blow to people of all faiths and religious pilgrimage tourism.
It took me a very long time to visit a chapel in Jamaica, which had been ravished by arsonists on several occasions. I kept looking over my shoulder thinking “things could get worse with physical or gun assault”.
It is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, but religious organisations will now have to review seriously the protocol for visitors and members, and now have cautionary protocol regarding verbal interactions with congregants and possibly the full use of security arsenal like cameras and metal detectors for vehicles and personnel entering the compound. Compensation via insurance claims for victims’ families in “worship” in these cases must also be mandatory.
The question arises that there are perhaps too easy access to these enclaves. Unfortunately, there are many congregations who go overboard in persecution others. This is evidenced by, reported and witnessed, open bullying, discrimination, elite racism, classicism, among many other intimidators, which are equally if not more terrifying than bombs or bullets.In Jamaica an easy solution has been found. We have more churches per square mile than any other country in the world, with myriad of interpretations and versions of denominations. Persons should now erect their own chapel at their family home to ensure privacy. There should be times when even prayer must be unspoken. Your very thought offered to God will be deciphered and answered by the Almighty. God can be found everywhere, thankfully.
HELEN-ANN
ELIZABETH WILKINSON