Dear Editor,

The lobby for the tolerance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders continues, and there are many of us who just cannot come to grips with why people would push so hard for persons living such lifestyles to have a comfortable place in society.

Whereas I condemn violence against homosexuals — just as I do concerning goat thieves, rapists, and other criminals — there is nothing dignified about being gay. Hence, the recommendation of J-FLAG for Parliament to invest in initiatives that promote the rights and dignity of all Jamaicans, including lesbians, gays and all-sexuals, is a farce. But there is more to this outcry.

We must recognise that tolerance for any unnatural behaviour tends to foster lenience towards all unnatural behaviours and predispositions. The moral laws of God were given as a whole, thus making every portion of the code as important to the whole as the other (James 2: 10). As such, whenever we compromise one area, we are setting the stage for relativism, where everyone feels that he/she can amend God’s moral laws to suit his/her sinful propensity.

Most Jamaicans are aware that the Bible speaks against fornication and adultery. Whereas adultery deals with matters of marital infidelity, fornication deals with all sexual immorality. It speaks against promiscuity, which is prominent amongst many of our straight Jamaicans. Moreover, it speaks against having sexual relations with someone who is not your marital spouse.

Additionally, the Bible speaks out against immoralities such as the infidelity of not taking care of one’s own family. Nonetheless, hundreds of Jamaican fathers do not support their children, and though some are taken to the courts, there is a lack of vigour on the Government’s part in ensuring that when men plant their ‘heads’ they take care of the produce.

Immorality goes beyond sexual activities and also includes murder, theft, hatred, and other practices which contravene the laws of God. When we accept homosexuality, fornication, adultery and familial infidelity we are inadvertently saying to the thief: “There is room for your unnatural tendency”; and to the murderer, “there is a place for your desire to take the life of one you do not like”; and to the hater: “we can understand if you can’t manage to live without a grudge towards your fellow men.”

It is hypocritical to focus our energies on a few aspects of immorality and overlook the others. If we are speaking morally, then we must speak it totally. There are many Jamaican men who have stated clearly their interest in watching two lesbians at play. Then these same men speak with such fumes against two men coming together. But a truly moral person will endorse neither practice. Both are an abomination to God. This is another classic example of relativism taking over our country.

If society opens its arms to the “gallis” (fornication and promiscuity), then clearly we have no regard for God’s law. If we embrace shacked-up lives or adultery then we are clearly rebelling against God’s standards of living.

When young people see such flaws in our moral aptitude, they grow up believing that they are able to tweak morality to suit their desires. It is time we deal with the whole cake of immorality and not just selected slices. The call to righteousness is a holistic one.

What results from returning to God’s full standard? The following sums it up beautifully:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Jermaine F Johnson

Minister of Religion

jermainefjohnson@gmail.com