CONTROVERSIAL St James pastors Jason Rose and Kevin Smith put the Church under intense scrutiny in 2021. It drove Derrick Scott to dust off False Preacher, a song he first released three years ago.

The self-produced single, boosted by a video with footage of controversial clerics, was recently re-released.

Scott told the Jamaica Observer that False Preacher is as much about true Christian soldiers as it is about those who deceive their flock.

“I want the song to reach everyone, especially those in the Christian community mainly affected by false preaching. And the preachers who are offended by these songs are the guilty ones,” he said.

False Preacher was the follow-up to Preacher Nowadays, another song Scott wrote warning of flamboyant pastors and their tainted message.

In June, Rose, pastor of New Life Apostolic Church in Montego Bay, was charged with raping a 15-year-old girl on the church compound. That case is before the court.

Four months later, two persons were killed in a sacrificial ritual at Smith’s Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries. Smith was killed two weeks later in an auto accident while being transported to Kingston by the police.

Scott, who lives in South Florida, said Smith’s shocking behaviour, “didn’t have any particular impact on me because I already knew that they have those types of people out there, and that’s why I write these songs. Kevin Smith is just another appearance – like the famous evangelist Benny Hinn vows publicly to stop asking people for money and admitting that it is wrong”.

Originally from Linstead, Scott began recording as a secular artiste in the 1980s. He became a Christian after migrating to the United States in the 1990s and has released four inspirational albums.