MANDEVILLE, Manchester – A pastor whose church was attacked by an angry mob on Easter Sunday because of the presence at a funeral service of people accused of being homosexuals says the incident points to the need for Jamaicans to be educated about the true role of the Church.

Also, it reflected the dangerously high level of intolerance in the society, said Rev Amos Campbell, pastor of the True Vine True Holiness Church located close to the Winston Jones Highway, just outside Mandeville, the Manchester capital.

According to Campbell, if the Christian Church is to serve its “rightful purpose” there needed to be a recognition that it was not “a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners”.

In orthodox Christianity, homosexual behaviour is viewed as sinful and in Jamaica homosexuality is against the law.

But in emphasising that the Church must be open to everyone, Campbell referred to the example of Jesus Christ. “Jesus says, ‘I come to call not the righteous but the sinner’ and if the homosexual is a sinner, Jesus comes to call him,” said Campbell.

“I do not ask whether people are homosexuals or murderers or anything else… we are not preaching for the dead, the dead is dead already,” said Campbell.

Further, the pastor said, Jamaicans needed to recognise that homosexuals were “human beings first” and should be treated as such.

Incensed by the dress and behaviour of some male mourners, protestors threw stones and bottles, breaking panes of glass from a window and triggering panic among mourners before police quickly restored order.

Police reported the protestors as alleging that some men were seen kissing. Offence was also taken at the sight of men wearing wigs, painted nails and earrings, police say.

The 3:00 pm funeral service was for 30 year-old businessman Kirk Wayne Lester who was found dead with multiple stab wounds at Hatfield in Manchester on March 18.

Campbell said the church service took place despite the “disturbance on the outside” and interment took place later as planned at Oak Lawn in Manchester.

Sunday’s incident came only three days after the beating of three alleged homosexuals along the popular Gloucester Avenue Hip Strip in Montego Bay, further underlining Jamaica’s reputation as being among the globe’s most homophobic societies.