THE president of the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC), Dr Howard Gregory, yesterday warned the private sector and government agencies that they helped to fund “a demonic underground” when they paid protection money or allocated funds to community enforcers to ensure that projects can be implemented.

But while he hit out at this practice, which is associated largely with Kingston’s inner-city communities, Gregory suggested that firms, particularly major ones, should take on an advocacy for the powerless and for the well-being of the community and nation.

“Advocacy on behalf of the voiceless, the powerless, those who are being left on the margin of the society is what is being brought into focus,” Gregory said in a sermon at the National Arena to mark the 80th anniversary of Grace, Kennedy and Company. “In other circles, it has been spoken of, in part, as a threat to withdraw financial support from political parties if they do not commit themselves to certain courses of action, which seem to embody social justice and societal peace.”

Gregory anchored his sermon in the injunction of the prophet Jeremiah to the exiled children of Israel to lay down their roots and to seek their welfare where they found themselves.

The central theme of his message was for Jamaicans to build and cherish their country, notwithstanding what he saw as a new global order which tended to be hostile to poor countries and the poorest segments of these countries.

In other words, he suggested, survival demands a sense of community.

It was in this context that Gregory praised Grace, Kennedy’s efforts to put its roots deep into Jamaica and to provide support to the communities in which it operated.

But he also lamented the disintegration of social life and economic activity in many parts of the country and the challenges posed for rebuilding a national spirit.

“It is an open secret that you cannot drive a nail or lay a block in downtown Kingston without permission and a budgetary provision for payment to an informal power base and system of governance,” Gregory noted. “This dynamic is receiving endorsement from government authorities and private sector institutions and individuals.”

But the parson, stressing that this was not confined to downtown but had become wide-scale, warned that the phenomenon had serious negative consequences.

“… Protection money is being demanded and is being paid by representatives of the business sector without recognising that by so doing they are providing the funding for a demonic underground system,” he said. “…I believe we have not thought through the consequences of these allowances for the society, and I believe that this is a case in which in sowing the wind we shall reap the whirlwind.”

Gregory also slapped those leaders who argue that money approved for expenditure in inner-city communities should only employ people from the specific communities.

“While I believe that this is well-intentioned, I believe that it smacks of strengthening the garrison mentality and the accusation of pork barrel politics,” he said. “It is a dangerous position to pursue to its ultimate end.”

Gregory criticised those Jamaicans who believed that they could isolate themselves from the reality of the society behind “gated communities” and by keeping their resources and dwellings abroad “so that they can run at a moment’s notice”.

“Others reflect a position of disengagement and lack of commitment to the life of the nation by the way in which they play games with the exchange rate of the dollar,” he said. “…In the final analysis, you will not enjoy the welfare you seek unless the society shares a similar fortune.”