Mark Wignall | Oberlin demons and mass delusions

Most Jamaicans will proudly claim their Christianity even if their real lives and actions are empty of one of the core beliefs of Christianity. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Simple but not always attainable.

I am an atheist, meaning that I am convinced that no divine and omnipotent God or gods exist, yet I try to live my life in the firm belief that when I can, I must lend a hand to help someone in need.

Whenever I am surrounded by love, I count my luck and fully embrace that outpouring. But if love bears its ephemeral face, I am still surrounded by the beauty of the skies, the sea, and a shimmering waterfall at sunrise. Nature sustains me. Which probably explains why I do not believe that there are any such things known as demons. Neither do I believe that another human being has any power to perform rites of giving me an ‘anointing.’ Utter waste of time.

The vast majority of Jamaican Christians who claim that Jesus is their all-powerful God can still, remarkably, find time to engage in the folly of demon belief. Not far behind is also their belief in the powers of obeah.

In my observation of life and people, I have found that adherence to religion psychologically sustains a lot of them and provides them with reason to tackle the problems of life on their daily trudge through the mazes and roadblocks presented by that very life.

Then there are those whose entire life is religion. For them, religion exists at the two ends, and then it fills up the middle. Those are the type of people who are most prone to having altered states of consciousness when they stand at the podium in churches or other gatherings.. Then they go off into racking their bodies, stomping their feet, speaking in tongues, and giving themselves the power to see ‘demons’ in others.

Last Wednesday, at Oberlin High School, demons and delusions were plentiful at morning devotions. A religious lady, who had psychologically prepped herself into an altered state of consciousness, began speaking in tongues and riling up young, impressionable minds fully brought up in strong Christian beliefs. That premise of their daily cultural and religious intake led to what happened next: some children speaking in tongues and growling and writhing on the ground. They were fully in the grip of a mass delusion and crowd hysteria.

Many young girls at Beatles concerts in the 1960s fainted as the pop group first entered the stage, and many others fell to the floor, tearing out their hair while in the throes of various hysterical fits as the group began to sing, “She loves you, yea yea yea.”

The saddest part of this episode is that we have some teachers in this country who are so unaware of their own religious illiteracy that they continue to give ‘anointing’ and the belief in demons the same weight as the teaching of math and physics.

My message: teachers keep your religious nonsense away from school devotions and give the students a chance to re-engage with real learning.

POSITIVE ON ECONOMY

Based on recent findings from the Jamaica Conference Board Survey of Business and Consumer Confidence, it would seem that both sectors have been able to separate their concerns about violent criminality from economic matters and are sensing good things ahead in the country.

Politically, this places the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the government it leads in a good space. The fact is, even if the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) would like to spin these findings and stir them in with nagging, persistent problems facing the JLP administration, at this time, the findings still puts the PNP in cobweb territory.

Health Minister Christopher Tufton came in for harsh criticism from the media over the matter of babies who died from bacteria picked up while they were still in the custody of the country’s main maternity hospital. With all of that, I found that Jamaicans from many sectors still had good things to say about the health minister.

The summation was captured in what one reader emailed to me. “He stood up all through the problems of COVID. He acted positively in the very troubling babies matter, but he failed to communicate. I not going to kill him for this slip up.”

I haven’t sensed that a newer, younger set of voters are lining up to replace the older voters supporting the JLP or the PNP. A savvy streetside vendor in her mid-40s told me last Thursday, “Andrew Holness and Mark Golding will never get the support of my two children. They have their lives to live, and their future doesn’t include voting for the same over and over.”

But in a straight political race with the same set of stale voters (including me) still in place, the JLP is in a better position than the PNP.

IMPRESSIVE CORPORAL ARLENE MCBEAN

General Secretary of the Police Federation Corporal Arlene McBean, in a radio programme, commented on what was perceived as the JCF seemingly accelerating its use of force policy based on the number of Police personnel shooting persons in violent interactions.

She came across with a very animated voice as she supported what she saw as the attributes of the JCF and the errors being made by human-rights NGOs. On other things, she said she gave me hope that a younger cadre of educated police personnel would provide the sort of leadership that would transform the JCF into a professional organisation.

While I did not agree with all of her points, her reasoning was sound, and my only fear was that she would soon be snatched away by a big corporate entity. Increasingly, we are hearing voices like this in the ranks of the JCF. And by the way, there has been an increase in the JCF using less of the powder-puff policy and taking a no-nonsense approach to criminals who prefer to mount a pretence of power and invincibility.

Well, that, too, has an expiration date.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.