‘I am a pastor, not a politician’ - Firebrand clergyman, Bishop Rowan Edwards says he wants to remain non-partisan to fulfil his mandate
Published:Thursday | June 25, 2020 | 12:12 AMNadine Wilson-Harris/Staff Reporter
Two of Jamaica’s more prominent pastors said that while the formation of another political party is good for democracy, they have no intention of being a candidate when the newly formed Jamaica Progressive Party (JPP) contests the next general election.
About 80 per cent of the 54 candidates in the JPP are pastors, but firebrand clergyman, Bishop Rowan Edwards, has assured that his name is not among those on the list, although he was approached.
“As far as I am concerned, I am not a politician, I wasn’t called to be a politician, I was called to be a pastor and that is what I would like to be for the rest of my life,” he said.
Even so, he is not against the decision made by other pastors to serve as politicians.
“To be a part of a political party is by choice, so if pastors feel like that is what they want to do, then fine, I don’t have a problem with it. Everybody has their right to be involved in whatever they chose to be involved, so long as it is not against the law of the land,” he declared.
Edwards, who pastors the Lighthouse Assembly Church of God in Spanish Town, St Catherine, said he wants to be non-partisan so he can continue to fulfil his mandate.
“I have been sought after to become involved in politics, but I told several persons who sought after me, no. I am not going in that direction,” he said.
“I have to move through certain communities, and if I am labelled as a politician, I could have problems passing through, so I don’t go that route,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.
General secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, the Reverend Karl Johnson, doesn’t believe having another party is a bad thing for Jamaica.
“Anything that could strengthen a country’s democratic tradition would be welcomed, and if there is this sense that a third party can enrich one’s democratic traditions by offering another viable option, then in principle I have no problem with that,” he said.
The pastor has no issue with Christians getting involved in politics once convicted that this is their mandate, but he does not support theocracy.
“Each of the party, to the best of my knowledge, has committed Christians as a part of it. If a party is coming into fruition on the basis that they are now going to impose Christian convictions or beliefs on a country, then that is a different thing because I do not believe that Jamaica is a theocracy,” he asserted.
Gilbert Edwards, an apostle and a medical technologist currently living in the United States, will be the president for the party, while Pastor Robert Rainford, a former government technocrat, will be the general secretary.
“We are very serious about listening to the voice of God and what God wants for this nation, and so we are clear of the mandate that we have to move Jamaica forward, to make Jamaica the place where God would be happy with this nation,” Rainford said.