Two local pastors are advocating an unconventional solution to Jamaica’s economic problems. To wipe out the fiscal deficit and the escalating debt, Jamaica should give at least 10 per cent of its earnings to poorer nations, says Dr Phillip Phinn, president general of the Word of Life Ministries International, and Dr Donald Stewart, head of the Covenant Community Church in Portmore, St Catherine.

Phinn argues fervently that Jamaica’s fiscal crisis can be eliminated, if the nation begins to give its way out of debt. He says the principle of giving 10 per cent of earnings, called tithing, is not new. It is already practised by hundreds of thousands of Christians locally and millions worldwide.

And money isn’t the only thing Jamaica should give, he says. “We know of nations that have been giving. Approximately 90 per cent of the world’s preachers come from the United States, and it is evident that they are one of the richest countries in the world,” Phinn remarks in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

Dr Stewart echoed Phinn’s sentiments. “The law of sowing and reaping applies right across the board. Whether it be a church, school, individual or the Government itself. As we learn to give to others around us then we will find that whether it be opportunities or services or any other (money).opportunities will be opened up to us.”

Phinn, who has authored four books, including one titled Seven Keys to Economic Empowerment, is well-known in Christian circles across the region and in parts of North America, for his frank, no-holds barred messages on the topics of faith and giving. He has served as chief representative to the United Nations for his Word of Life Ministries International and as Jamaica’s chief representative to the Bahamas-based International Third World Leaders Association.

His belief on giving was sharpened by Finance Minister Omar Davies’ March 29 tabling of a $328-billion budget in Parliament, at least 70 per cent, or $228.42 billion, of which will go towards servicing the national external and other debts. Only 30 per cent will remain for capital and recurrent expenses.

To Dr Phinn, there is something scripturally wrong with that equation. He backs up his arguments with Biblical references, one of them, Proverbs chapter 28 verse 27: “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack. But he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” He also quotes Proverbs 11:24: “There is he that scattereth, yet increaseth”; Proverbs 29:14: “The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established forever” and Luke 6:38: “Give and it shall be given unto you.”

“The scriptures are very clear,” Dr Phinn insists. “There are very few churches that don’t teach this. It is something that has to be done in faith, even giving to the poor or to the gospel has to be done in faith. God’s way is opposite to what the world thinks.

“In the realm of the natural, if you give you would get poorer, but the scriptures always said that the way to increase your wealth, the way out of debt, is to give. I don’t know how much we give. we may give in kind (but) the Government may need to find a way to give (more) to other nations that are less fortunate than us.”

As a start, he suggests sending food aid to poorer African or Caribbean nations, like Haiti.

“If we make the effort to give, I believe that God will turn the tide.”

But not all pastors share Phinn’s give-and-you-shall-receive philosophy. Rev Garnett Roper, pastor of the Portmore Missionary Church, blames Jamaica’s financial crisis partly on unfair trade dealings by developed nations.

“The problem of the .debt is, in the first instance, a product of the problem of the lack of equity internationally,” he tells the Sunday Observer. So while Government is forced to pay its debt, he says, no mention is made of the debt that is owed by some of these countries to “our forefathers in unpaid wages for their labour on the plantations which have been built in Europe and America”.

Secondly, he adds, Jamaica is one of those countries locked into a cycle of underdevelopment which has been forced to open its economy to agricultural imports and, at the same time, has received decreased prices for banana and sugar cane.

“The agricultural imports are subsidised,” says Roper. “The people who police the debt obligations have nothing to say to the Cancun summit which broke down on the issue of European and American agricultural subsidies.”

He believes the only way that the cycle of poverty will be broken in the short term is if the world becomes genuinely borderless.

“Let all the surpluses of the world benefit the entire human family. If there is a surplus of goods and services they should move freely, and if there is a surplus of labour it should move freely. Those international markets which need labour must invest in the country with surplus labour in training institutions,” he urges.

The issue is an equally vexed one for Rev Canon Ernle Gordon, rector of the St Mary’s Anglican Church, who says Jamaica’s Government, including both the People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party administrations, inherited “a deformed economy” from the British. Add to this the “slave ship mentality that things that are good only originate outside” which fuels the huge imports.

Like Roper, Gordon wants Jamaicans to develop a work ethic and not, he said, look to gambling as an answer. “We spent $17.5 billion in 2003 on gambling and we required $13.5 billion to balance the budget.”

Gordon doesn’t think Jamaica has any problems with giving. “It is not that we do not give to the poor countries,” he says. “The trade union movement, Alexander Bustamante, Marcus Garvey, Norman Manley, Michael Manley and P J Patterson came from a national movement where the poor were first-class citizens, but recently our political leaders are accused of being too preoccupied with foreign policy.

“We should have listened to the late Michael Manley who tried to tell us that we must initiate South South economic relations,” he continues.

His recommendations are to “think Caribbean, strengthen the Caribbean Single Market, revolutionise the non-aligned movement and re-connect seriously with China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and South Africa”.