KINGSTON, Jamaica – A member of the Jamaica Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation (Jamaica CAUSE) has denied accusations that the church only takes a stand against homosexuality and the gay agenda, ignoring other issues affecting the island.

Daniel Thomas today said that the church is not only focused on protesting against issues of sexual orientation.

“The church is active in every sector of society. Even though not every issue requires a protest, the church still has had other protests,” Thomas told OBSERVER ONLINE.

He highlighted that with the increase in child abuse cases in 2015, church groups such as the iCare Foundation headed by Bishop Everton Thomas has held several protests.

“Protests took place in two areas concurrently; Jones Town and Portmore I believe were the areas.

“The Love March Movement, which I lead, also themed our Love March 2015 ‘Young Lives Matter’ for that same reason. We had a huge focus on child abuse as well, our first point being ‘Don’t Rape our Future’ – the message put on our shirts. Both of these had hundreds of persons involved,” Thomas added.

Thomas went on to state that there were also several church-led peace marches.

“I know one was in August Town last year, just before the first Jamaica Cause rally,” he said.

Thomas reasoned that the issue of the homosexual agenda is a political agenda, and insisted that political agendas must be opposed in a political manner.

“Generally, other social situations are more appropriately addressed in other ways. For example, we care a lot about fatherlessness but it does not make sense to protest about it, because what effect will political action have on a non-political situation? Little.

“Instead we, the Love March Movement, go into churches, schools and anywhere we are invited to talk about the effects of fatherlessness, pornography and other topics related to sexual purity and the family,” he said. “Almost every church has a Family Life Ministry that focuses on building the family and addressing child abuse, parenting and several other important areas, which is at work throughout the year.”

Thomas classified the assumption that the church is only concerned about gay rights issues and the buggery law as a misunderstanding of what is going on and a bias in the media.

“The media in general loves to report on homosexuality. The media will ignore the child abuse protest, the peace protest and only report the protest against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) agenda,” Thomas insisted.

David Wright