Dear Editor,

It is said that knowledge accrued by a child in the first five years of his or her life lasts forever.

Most of the established churches today in Jamaica have stained glass windows depicting God at the apex as a white man and the devil under his feet, as a black man — just like the Order of St Michael and St George insignia worn by our governor general with Archangel Michael, a white man, subduing the devil, a black man.

As an impressionable child, seeing these imposing stained glass windows, he or she always perceives most things white as “good”, as is God; and most things black as the devil.

The late Father McPherson, a white man, gave this account: One Sunday, a parishioner was trying to locate him. Passing through the Sunday school, the parishioner asked, “Has anyone seen Father McPherson?” A little one, about five years old, retorted, “You mean the big, fat, white God?” Father McPherson was a bit on the plump side.

That impression lasts a lifetime, and all children who view stained glass windows with white “gods” and black “devils” see the world thus.

Today we hear black people saying, “Anything black not good,” or “Him pure and white as snow.” That comes from somewhere. Man made God after his own image.

The white man who originally installed the window shows a white god or a white Jesus — although Jesus was Semitic or Middle Eastern type.

Even today, many black people cannot bring themselves to believe that God could be of their own image — black.

Nothing is wrong with objecting to the insignia, yet the subliminal brainwashing of a black child goes unnoticed. In fact, many Jamaicans would object to making any adjustments to their stained glass windows.

The concept conjured up by a child regarding these stained glass windows moulds a child’s thinking, and this has affected black churchgoers for generations. That is what we should be changing.

Many Jamaicans have a thought process that, “The blacker the individual, the lower he or she is on the ladder.” One commonly hears of “the nice-looking brown man/woman”, or “she/he black like the devil”; unfortunately, most Jamaicans subconsciously practise this, and many very black individuals practise this on each other.

Man made God after his own image, except for the black man who figures God is white.

G M

Constant Spring

St Andrew