REVEREND Jonathan Hemmings, pastor of the Ocho Rios Circuit of Baptist Churches, has criticised fellow church leaders for using prayer as a scapegoat or back-up plan for their inaction.

As one of the main presenters at a symposium on Thursday which was organised by the Jamaica Council of Churches, themed ‘Pursuing Peace, Affirming Human Dignity’, Hemmings pointed out that because people refuse to address the real problems in society, the try to leave everything in God’s hands.

“We have to recognise that just praying is not going to cut it. Even the prayer that is now popular these days, where we declare and decree all sorts of things, so far have no obvious impact. Many think our situation is only getting worse.

“I am sorry to tell our political leaders that when you ask the Church to pray, you are asking for that which, of itself, will not work. It is one of the few things in relation to crime and violence on which we seem to have bipartisan political support. Political parties are asking for the Church to pray for divine intervention. A deacon made a point earlier this week that I agree with. He said that when we ask for divine intervention it is as if there is nothing we can or ought to do. We are leaving it all up to God.

“When the Church gets these requests to pray, those who make them don’t think we can do anything else — or they don’t want us to do anything else — that is why I am a bit reluctant to pray at some of these gatherings. An invitation to pray at the start of these functions is nothing more than a means to get God out of the way early so that people can get down to their serious business; the Church is hardly ever invited to be a part of these serious business,” Hemmings lamented.

He pointed out that it is suspicious how many pastors opt to pray for healing from sickness rather than becoming advocates for better health care.

“Science had developed ways of addressing sickness — and not just modern science, but science that came with us from Africa. Many people who died, died at the time they [did] not because of sickness but because of poverty.

“Prayer in itself will not help to address some of the fundamental issues at the root of our sickness as a nation. When the Church is praying they must also be advocating that poor people get better treatment in the hospitals. If poor people were getting better treatment in hospitals we wouldn’t need some of these healing church services that don’t work.

“We have a way too, when prayer doesn’t work we throw in a little fasting. I think we need, above everything else, to know the wicked ways from which they need to turn so as to experience the healing of the land. This is probably the way the Church can make its most meaningful contribution to the enterprise of peacemaking, it is to become advocates and activists for peace by speaking truth — that is where we ought to make our contribution. The Church does not have what governments and private sector have but the Church should never shut up. The Church needs to point out the evil ways because there are many ways that seem right but end up in death.”

The St Ann-based pastor also addressed what he called the problem of religious fanatics imposing their beliefs on the people, and called for religious freedom.

“No religio-cultutural tradition is completely good. The Judo-Christian tradition is implicated for some of the most egregious atrocities in history. Why is Obeah still criminalised in Jamaica? And with the insistence of certain elements of the Church?

“Should not the Church be defending the rights of everyone and to freedom of worship? Only this week I heard a bishop of the Coptic Church in Great Britain that I think the Church should keep in mind if we are to seek peace and pursue it. The bishop said God does not impose God’s self on us so we should not impose God on others. It is in our attempt to impose our God on others that religion has been responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in history. Priests and pastors should be teachers of values, not enforcers of morals and dogmas.”

Among those who listened to Hemmings’ presentation were Archbishop of Kingston Kenneth Richards; Deacon Ronald Thwaites, who is president of St Michael’s College; Justice Minister Delroy Chuck; and Opposition spokesperson on Justice and Information Senator Donna Scott-Mottley.