A declaration by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that Jamaica is mulling legislation to treat with “hate speech” has been met with consternation by powerful church umbrella groups here who, in warning him against going in that direction, say the proposal is payback for opposition from religious quarters against the country becoming signatory to the new African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-European Union (EU) pact — the Samoa Agreement.

Last Wednesday, Holness, who was the featured guest on the monthly discussion forum from the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, said to address the chronic levels of violence in Jamaica the country will, among other things, have to treat with the issue of “hate speech”, though it “is not a feature in the Jamaican society”.

“Many of you in the Diaspora live in societies where speech that deliberately targets violence at a group or a person is treated within law; in Jamaica there is really no such thing. We have to consider that…These are things that we are studying, but, as a democracy, they will have to go through a process of social discourse so that we can treat with it,” Holness said as he urged Jamaicans in the Diaspora to share their expertise and advice with family and friends at home on the importance of controlling violence.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on the weekend, president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance (JEA), Bishop Dr Alvin Bailey said the suggestion was highly suspect.

“His proposal is a cause for concern considering that the situation will lend us to urgently consider it, to so cause us to introduce hate speech laws… said Bailey who is also bishop of Holiness Christian Church and chairman of Jamaica CAUSE (Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation).

“We don’t have anti-Semitism, we don’t have racial discrimination, and we don’t even have overt classism present in Jamaica, or anything that would cause us concern about hate speech. The only thing on the agenda is the seeming cry of the LGBTQ community for us to give recognition to their increasing prominence and to their practices,” Bailey told the Observer.

“In many quarters they are trying to gain legal recognition for their gender specifications, and so to speak out against those things in some other countries it would constitute hate speech. With their increasing prevalence in Jamaica I am just tending to believe that this is where the Government is going — to protect the practices of the LGBT community,” Bailey said while taking pains to point out that the difficulty the Church has is with the practices of the community and not the individuals.

“I want to say ‘practices of the LGBT community’ and not persons, because presently we have had them in Jamaica for the longest while and there is no phobia that sees us bashing them, beating them, ostracising them or anything. That which the Church is very vocal about is the practice of homosexuality and all the practices distinct to the LGBT community,” the JEA head noted.

“Especially against the background of the ACP-EU agreement that we believe has elements in it that would cause us to acquiesce to their prominence in Jamaica, and their laws that they would like to pass in Jamaica, and the trends they would like to see established in Jamaica, I think this could very well be a derivative of the Church’s opposition to the ACP-EU agreement as the Church is clear that there are some aspects of it that we are not comfortable with, which is a contravention of our laws and our Christian culture,” he stated further.

According to Bailey, it is believed that the financial standing of the community might have some influence on the Government’s change of heart.

“We have gotten from reliable sources that there are elements of the political parties that are prone to accept donations from this community, and any time this becomes public we are going to speak out about it. So I have no doubt in my mind that this Government might be inclined to give consideration to the recognition of laws and statements that sympathise with the practices of the LGBTQ community. But the Church unequivocally and unconditionally will continue to speak out frankly, bluntly, in the strongest biblical language possible [and] with the quotations of verse and theology against the practice of homosexuality. Especially as we know that the savings law clause in Jamaica protects our buggery legislation, we will continue to speak out against it,” Bailey declared.

The churchman is, in the meantime, adamant that no such move will catch the church community off guard.

“There has to be dialogue. And when the dialogue comes we will participate very vociferously to ensure that nothing is done to give any level of prominence to that practice in Jamaica. The Church is against it, I am personally against it — and I speak as the bishop of the Holiness Christian Church, I speak as the president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance, I speak as the chairman of Jamaica CAUSE, and I can say on behalf of the Church widespread that the practice of homosexuality is unbiblical and so it will not get any sympathy from anyone,” he stated.

In the meantime, senior pastor of Hope Gospel Assembly and one of the country’s foremost church leaders, Reverend Dr Peter Garth told the Observer that church leaders will be calling on the prime minister to explain his statement in detail.

“We don’t believe in hate speech. There are some things that are right, and some things that are wrong, and if the Bible says some things are wrong, we will say that it is wrong. If that is regarded as hate speech then a lot of us will end up in prison,” Dr Garth told the Observer unflinchingly.

“I am not really worried at this moment, but certainly we will seek audience with the prime minister to find out what he means by what he said, because I am sure that he will not go down that road because there are those of us who will not stop preaching what the Bible says,” he said further.

“The Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches, we have a meeting today [Monday], and surely that is not on the agenda, but I certainly will raise it and I know that others will want to raise it because I have seen some comments in some WhatsApp groups — and not that persons are alarmed, but there is some amount of concern. So we will seek early audience to find out what road the prime minister is going down,” he told the Observer.

Added Dr Garth: “I think that globally when a lot of these charges come up it is basically insane, because if persons are reading from the Bible it is, I think, out of line to say you cannot read a passage if it speaks, for instance, to the homosexual practice, but generally speaking there is no hate speech as far as I know in the Church. All that the people are doing is repeating the text and repeating what the text says, and if that is regarded as hate speech [then] a whole lot of us will end up in prison. But I believe the prime minister did not specifically say that this would be the case.”