PRESIDENT of the 175-year-old Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) Rev Glenroy Lalor has chided the leaders of the two major political parties for “playing ketchy shubby” with crime and toying with statistics.

“The quibbling about crime and violence by the political parties is time-wasting. To say, ‘Under my watch 1,000 persons per year were murdered and under your watch [that number was] 1,500 per year,’ may be facts but is not the truth,” declared Rev Lalor.

“The fact/truth is that the level of violence in Jamaica is at an unacceptable and intolerable level. Are we really serious about tackling this monster?” Lalor asked as he delivered the keynote address at the official opening of JBU’s General Assembly recently at Boulevard Baptist Church, Washington Boulevard, in St Andrew.

In his wide-ranging address under the theme ‘Keeping Faith with the Word in an Ever-changing World: Pursuing Integrity’, the Baptist preacher cited the biblical account of the prophet Nathan’s confrontation with King David as a compelling example of the distinction between facts and truth.

“We lie in many ways: withholding the facts, exaggerating the facts, minimising the facts, or releasing the facts in increments. To reflect the nature of God by being conformed to Christ, enabled by the Spirit, is to speak the truth and live the truth — the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Lalor asserted.

The general assembly marked the 175th anniversary of the union, providing an opportunity for Baptists to recall their historic role in the fight against slavery and the push for education of the freed slaves.

JBU traces its beginning to George Liele, a “free black slave” from Atlanta Georgia who came to Jamaica in 1783 and started preaching in Kingston. His work grew and spread to other parts of the island.

The Baptist Missionary Society (UK) was invited to support the work, and in 1814 they sent the first missionary to the island. The ministry continued to grow and expand under the British.

The Baptists were very involved in the struggle for emancipation from slavery, wiht the lives of three of Jamaica’s national heroes — Sam Sharpe, George William Gordon and Deacon Paul Bogle — claimed in that process.

After Emancipation, Baptists were instrumental in establishing “free villages” for the newly emancipated people. This included buying large parcels of lands and cutting these into small holdings, which were sold to families. The villages also included a school and a Baptist church.

In 1849 some of the Baptist churches in Jamaica came together to form Jamaica Baptist Union, which declared its independence from the British-run Baptist Missionary Society seven years later.

Turning to the so-called gag clause on the Integrity Commission, Reverend Lalor urged politicians to “free up the truth”, accusing them of “hypocritical lip service”. He argued that if the Government is serious about dealing with the monster of corruption, “then it should stop deceiving itself by setting up an Integrity Commission [and] then restricting the way it can operate and then acting and speaking in ways that undermine the very commission that it has set up”.

The clergyman cautioned against self-deception, pointing to a shallow interpretation of independence and noting that the Government continues to deceive itself by dragging its feet on the issue of Jamaica embracing the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

“Allow me this personal comment: It was a painful sight for me to see images of two of our finest prosecutors operating as supporting cast to an attorney (let us just say from another nationality) appealing to a panel of judges who do not look like our judges, in a court thousands of miles away — yet we are an independent, sovereign nation for more than 60 years. Are we deceiving ourselves about our Independence?”

Lalor lashed out at the prevalence of a “post-truth culture characterised by a disregard for facts and a lack of concern for integrity”, and “the culture of entitlement within the Church and society that blinds us to the grace of God; as well as a drastically high level of hypocrisy in the world that is destroying the human family”.

“Integrity demands consistent application of values. It cannot be wrong in public and right in private. It cannot be unacceptable when it is done by me and my people and acceptable when it is done by you and your people.”

He then criticised the double standard of Israel and the hypocrisy of “enablers in the North” for turning a blind eye to the “terrorism that Israel has unleashed on Palestine”, urging the Jamaican Government to call for a ceasefire in Israel.

“As a people in pursuit of integrity we must fight for truth and consistency. It cannot be wrong for Palestinians to kill Israelis’ and then right for the Zionist Government of Israel to murder more than 29,000 Palestinians, including women, children and the elderly…

“For those who believe this is a divine right, be careful we are not proclaiming God to the world as a liar; one who makes all persons equal but some more equal than others. Be careful how we are giving God favourite children …” he continued.

According to the JBU president: “Living with integrity requires a commitment to equity; it is not about seeking advantage at the expense of another … The pursuit of integrity requires working to build and transform a community. Our mission, if it is to be true to God and the gospel, is not about balancing — it is about levelling.”

The opening service, led by its first woman General Secretary Reverend Merlyn Hyde Riley, outlined a platform for collective discernment and action for Baptists, guided by the principles of integrity and faithfulness to the Word.