Fathers' Day 2017 reflections

Greetings to my loyal blog readers as well as to those who are stumbling across my blog or this post for the first time. Today I am particularly motivated to post because of receiving encouragement both from secular readings and a sermon to embrace who I am and to share. Today's post is a reflection that also celebrates fathers and encourages fathers to embrace and share their emotions and even the emotional challenges they face as they father in the 21st century.

Going to church on June 17, 2017 with my children was indeed an emotional experience, as I woke up with the accuser of brethren attacking me for my fertility and trying to persuade me to sterilize. My economic and career struggles were raised before me, and the only defense I had was that one day I would see the fruit of all the struggles, and if not in this life, in the life to come. The accuser of the brethren then attacked my faith by telling me that Jesus has not returned yet and that he even declared that some of his disciples would not taste death until he returned (Matthew 16:28). This, the accuser said, did not come to pass as all the known disciples of Jesus at the time have perished and the world has gone on since. In fact, the accuser then said, by the scriptures, God said we know if a prophet is true if what he foretells comes to pass (Deuteronomy 18:22). This would then make Jesus a false prophet. In silence, I endured the accuser's torment with my only defense being that I did not know what was referred to when Jesus said he would come into his kingdom in that verse.

When I arrived, after taking my four children on the bus, I thought to myself how the culture and era discouraged parents from having children and rather encouraged them to focus on their careers or vocation. Society speaks saying that  "Thou shalt have children but only if you have 2 and no more and only if you have the resources and career to support them. Anything outside of this is forbidden." Further, society invokes another law that "Thous shalt use intrusive technologies and man-made devices to curtail your fertility so that you can dive down into your career and supply your family with abundant material things and meet their economic wants".

Twenty-first century's culture encourages men and fathers to give more to their jobs than they do to their families. Especially in Jamaican culture, where even the place where I work does not have paternity leave. But as I meditate on the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, I realize that God wants me as a father to play more than just an economic role. God wants me to play a teaching and educational role, supplying my children with home education and traditions where I transmit my values, knowledge, and experiences to them. A case in point is Solomon, who I feel had a lot of his wisdom coming from what his father, David, passed on to him and not just from his answered prayer. When I read the book of Proverbs I hear Solomon telling me to pay careful attention to fatherly instruction (Proverbs 1:8). Which I somehow feel that it is David's instruction to Solomon that guided him in making early decisions (1 Kings 2) before the wise decision to ask God for wisdom later on (1 Kings 3).

As I listened to the sermon, Elder Cameron Munro, who served as God's mouthpiece, got me to reflect on instances where Jesus stated and expressed how he felt. The message to me was clear. Be real about my predicament. It is okay for me as a father and a man to state how I feel. There are times and seasons for me as a father to be emotional, cry, embrace my children and communicate my emotions to them. Jesus did this and modeled this for us. He wept and expressed his emotions. He even told people when he was thirsty and needed a drink (despite participating in the creation, according to Colossians 1:15-16, and being able to work miracles including turning water into wine). Imagine, Jesus the miracle worker, made his need for water known to human beings? 

Elder Munro stated that Jesus put on humanity so that we do not have to put on pretense. We don't always, as men or fathers, need to pretend that we are tough and that we have everything under control. But we can be honest when we are going through difficulties and share this with others around us including our children.

Decline in democratic ideals? My thoughts on the world today

So 2017 has started and I am increasingly concerned about the global milieu in which the world seem less into the fundamental democratic values that I hold dear: which is the freedom of information and expression. It seems to me an era where democracies are selectively adopting from authoritarian regimes and authoritarian regimes are adopting some of the veneers of democracy selectively. In this world, I cannot tell the difference between China and Germany, Russia and the West.

There is in the current climate and atmosphere the expressed view that ideas are not equal and that not all ideas and information should be expressed and disseminated. I am increasingly seeing the frightening notion being expressed that not all views and perspectives must be given a platform for expression.

In the past, in a neo-liberally dominated democracy, the argument was that market mechanisms should guide society in sifting out the best ideas by rewarding them financially and even politically. Today, I am concerned when I see journalistic articles in the democratic and liberal West that argue that we need educated elite gatekeepers and experts to take over from market mechanisms (including Facebook and Google algorithms) in determining access to ideas and information. For me, we need the perspectives of experts and expertise but most importantly, we also need empowered users and consumer of information to do the work of determining their access to information themselves. Educated elites and experts are not always right. And political systems run by the rule of educated elite (the Platonic Republic) has historically led to Soviet Union like Communism with an intelligentsia that repress minorities and others with dissenting or alternative perspectives and viewpoints. Such political systems give power to an educated elite to dictate and determine what people should feel, say or think.

While I personally do not find all perspectives equal and have found some types of ideas too distasteful to read or consume, I value people's freedom to create, disseminate, and access those ideas. God created a world [I know some of us disagree about this] with different types of human beings with different flavours of perspectives and experiences. All such flavours of perspectives are important. No human being should feel that the entire world does not value their uniqueness or their unique perspective, voice or story.

I personally value perspectives from both the left and right wing political spectrum. I also value the need to access both perspectives in order for balanced and good decision decision making for all human beings. Let us hear from all angles and then compromise so that together we can have a just society.

The dark back story of the Christmas nativity scene

The birth of Jesus, often celebrated by many Protestants and Christians in the West and the East, is usually regarding as a festival of joy. However, beyond the joy and fanfare of this event, is a hidden and dark back story, which I will reflect on in this blog post. (And no, this post is not about the pagan origin).

While I was brought up not to celebrate the event, I have decided not to exclude myself from events where Christians reflect on the event or story central to the faith and recorded in the Christian Scriptures. I have indeed gotten weary of the rhetoric of "othering" done by Christians to exclude other Christians, and feel that even Jesus himself would have gone to a Christmas service in his honour, regardless of the time and season, even if it was not his birthday. As Matthew 18:20 suggests, "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (NIV).

That said, I discovered the dark and hidden story behind the nativity scene when I painted a picture depicting the scene and later told the story to parents and children at church. Then I attended a carol service with my children and further reflected on the story. I discovered, that while we often see the nativity as a scene for celebration, of joy, hope and peace, we ignore the dark back story of exclusion that precipitated it.

For Mary and Joseph to have their baby in stable or barn, they were first denied access to housing. The Bible is silent about the circumstances leading to that unavailability of housing, especially for a pregnant lady due to give birth. It is often portrayed that the city was full and perhaps overcrowded at that time. Yet it seems strange that this would have been Joseph's home city or town and that he would have virtually no friends or family still living there to stay with. That he would have to go to an inn, the equivalent of our modern-day hospital, motel, or hotel, was a sign it itself of something very sad.

There seems to be a darker side under the story where Joseph had to resort to an inn to provide housing and shelter for his wife. It wasn't just that Mary and Joseph could not find a room. It was that friends and relatives of Joseph were not willing to have them stay with them. Maybe they inquired about the marital status. You know the way that your relatives and friends would ask you why they were not invited to the wedding if you showed up at their house with a pregnant lady, especially within a religious and ceremonial society. Further, the inn keepers may also have inquired about marital status and rejected room to them based on the issue on the grounds of "fornication".

This is the dark back story of religious intolerance where those who were religious felt that this couple were "sinners" to be denied access to housing suitable for humans due to the gravity of the perceived sin. Even friends and relatives were ready to dissociate themselves from their own flesh and blood so that he would need to wander the streets to find lodging among strangers. That Joseph would be forced to spend money to secure a room, in an era where home birth by midwives was more normative than it is today, for his fiancée rather than lodge for free with those whom he knew for years and with whom he grew up is indeed sad. No one wanted anything to do with him nor his pregnant fiancée at this point of need. Could it be so bad that the only room they qualified to access was a room stinking of animals and animal manure? A far from hygienic place for bloodletting and delivering a baby?

Far from being a story of joy, I feel the pain and sorrow of Joseph. No wonder God the Father and the angels decided to cheer them up by sending a welcoming party of shepherds. God had to provide some people to welcome the couple as well as to let them know how special they were to God. 

9 things I hate about the 2016 US election

Trust me when I say that I take no pleasure in blogging about this 2016 US election. If there was ever a more depressing state of election and campaign affairs, I can't recall. This fall season's election appears to me to be one in which the top candidates contending for the presidential job are characters from out of soap opera or reality TV shows with magnified character flaws and sins.

Also characteristic of this season is the fact that there is no inspiring messages from the candidates. The focus so far is on unflattering biographies and dirty laundry. There is a marked lack of focus on a positive articulation of vision for the US, making this election one of the dullest election of US history. That said, let me list, in no particular order, the top 9 things that I hate right now about the US elections.

1. That the US media is neither independent, neutral, nor objective. Instead, the media platforms across the US has presented themselves partial in this election and interested in seeing Hilary being elected and on framing and focusing on portraying Donald as negatively as possible. 
2. That the US media focuses on Donald's character flaws and prefer to cover his dirty past while overlooking Clinton's most recent flaws and scandals
3. That while the US media is aiding Hilary, we have to rely on WikiLeaks to report the corruption in Hilary's campaign
4. That WikiLeaks has posted emails showing that the media is colluding with Hilary. However, instead of denying the truth in the emails, both the media and Hilary's team are blaming Russian interference for the leaks.
5. That Trump is the Republican nominee!
6. That Trump dismissed his past comments on video as "locker room talk". Dishonorable old men, out of touch with the zeitgeist, label talk boasting about groping women without their consent as locker talk. 
7. That this election is more about who is more flawed to be President than it is about a narrative or vision for America
8. That the media portrays Trump supporters as all stupid or racist. Arrogant people call those who disagree with them stupid.
9. That WikiLeaks has pointed out that Hilary appears to be a taker of bribes and that the media by not covering this idea also appears to be in on taking bribes.

The American people have a very difficult election season this year, with horrible media coverage and a flawed menu of unsavory leadership characters. That said, I know that the American people have varied individual priorities, whether immigration policy,  religious freedom, concern about the economy, or concern about gender issues, sexism and misogyny. God bless them as they navigate this difficult election year and decide on their top decision criteria for selecting their President.

Does the New Testament do away with distinctions between clean and unclean meat?

If there is one thing that I dislike, it is the dishonest handling of the Scriptures. This is usually done when persons have a belief that they want to justify and employ finding a text in the Scriptures to support or justify their opinion with total disregard for the context surrounding the verse. Sometimes, this dishonesty happens accidentally due to persons not knowing better. But whether an honest error or deliberate intent, this is what happened last week when I attended a sermon about clean and unclean meats last Saturday (September 24, 2016).

While I admit that I am mostly vegan and have been raised to eschew shellfish and pork, I was disturbed when the preacher tried to reinterpret 1st Corinthians 10:27 in a way to support his position that the verse did not justify the position that the New Testament had done away with distinctions between clean and unclean meat. While the general principle is correct, the preacher's interpretation was not.

The verse in question reads thus:

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. (New International Version [NIV])

The preacher's interpretation was to ignore the word "unbeliever" and explain that if he went to a church brother's house and meat is served, he will eat it and not ask questions because he expects that the church brother would have served clean meat. This drove me bananas, as my mind stated "but the verse just said unbelievers".

To be fair, my preacher guy, who is otherwise a nice gentleman, was not the only one to upset me with the abuse of the Scriptures in relation to clean and unclean meats. Earlier in the month, as I attended my university's mid-week chapel service, another preacher upset my spirit using the Roman 14:3

The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. (NIV)

Likewise, this scripture was applied to present day context with various religions in which different people from different cultures eat different types of meat. Despite the preacher's intentions, I was offended that Scripture was being used to support a position taken without the proper explanation of the context of the verse. As such, both of these experiences motivated me to dig a little, of which I present my findings.

Contextualizing 1st Century Christians and their meat eating dilemma

While we are far removed the context of early Christianity, there is sufficient historical information for us to reconstruct the context surrounding first century Christians and their meat eating dilemma. We know that the early church was conceived in the era of the Roman Empire. As such, we can pretty much determine the dietary customs of the time. Any encyclopedia article on this can give you an idea of what meats were available and the choices that Christians had if they wanted to purchase meat from the butchers.


As Price puts it, while first century Christians living in Palestine would be able to access kosher meats, those outside of predominantly Jewish territory had to face the problem of purchasing meats sacrificed to idols. Pagan worshipers, after offering meat sacrifices, would burn a portion and sell the leftovers or excess meat to local meat shops (Price 270). In Corinth, in particular, Price explains that  sometimes idol temples and meat market shops were sometimes joined together to facilitate this market transfer in a more efficient manner. (Also bear in mind that these were the days without refrigerators, with implications for meat storage and preservation.)

Also bear in mind that in Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council had decreed that all Christians, including non-Jewish Christians, were to abstain from eating meat with blood in it, meat sacrificed to idols and meat where the animals were strangled (Acts 15:20). Also bear in mind that Paul reiterated this point:

19Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.…(1 Corinthians 10:19-21).

While Paul did not want his church members to eat meals in honor of pagan deities, he did permit them to eat meat sold in the market place without asking if it came from temple rituals. In 1 Corinthians 10: 25 he encourages them to "eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,"(NIV). It appears that Paul interpreted the Jerusalem Council a bit liberally and encouraged the Corinth believers to obey the decree so as to not offend others.

31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. 32Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, (1 Corinthians 10:31)

As such, from the context and Paul's instructions, it is implicit that the Corinthians would purchase meat that would not offend the Jews. In this regard, I would argue that the believers would know the meat standards of the Jews and as such would not purchase foods that knowingly violate the standards. In addition, Paul wanted the believers to also not offend the Greeks. As such, he wanted them not to ask divisive questions while purchasing their meat at the market. Crocker, in a commentary on this, states that to maintain good relations with non-Christians in the community, some members of the church might attend the banquets to socialize or as part of their work relations (137). Within this context, in a city like Corinth, the meat served at such banquets would likely come from "temple slaughter" since farms and countrysides for raising livestock would not be located within the city (Crocker 137).

Given that context, Paul declares that

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience (1 Corinthians 10:27)

As such, while Paul suggests that eating in the market place is okay, there is kind of a discouraging tone suggested by a dubious "if" for going to an unbeliever to share a meal, followed by "and you want to go". As Staton describes it, Paul was attempting to help the Corinthians solve the meat sacrificed to idols problem (186). To do so, Paul suggested purchasing meat in the market without asking if it was sacrificed to idols or demons was okay (Staton 186). However, if the believer was not in the market place environment, then the situation called for careful evaluation (Staton 186). Paul explicitly warns the believers not to eat meat at a meal that is part of a pagan worship service, where the consumption of such meat is in recognition of a pagan deity (Staton 186).

Conclusion

As we can see from the evidence presented, there is more to the context than my two preachers acknowledged. In particular, the context of Paul's writings has nothing to do with whether or not Christians are permitted to eat pork or shellfish. As such, these Scriptures do not justify any position on whether or not modern Christians should or should not eat unclean meats. Rather, the discussion is about a particular problem that is unrelated to our present day dilemma about whether or not the New Testament does away with the obligation to distinguish between clean and unclean meats. In my estimation, the New Testament does not abolish this distinction, but deals instead with another problem completely foreign to most Western Christians.


References

Crocker, Cornelia C. Reading 1 Corinthians in the Twenty-First Century. New York: T & T Clark International, 2004. Print.

Price, Brad. First Corinthians Bible Commentary.. United States: Brad Price, 2010. Print.

Staton, Knofel. First Corinthians. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2000. Print.

The great commission for education

Sabbath, May 14, 2016 - Andrews Memorial SDA Church - Morning service

I had the blessing of hearing one of my favourite Jamaican pastors, Pastor Lorenzo King, speak in a sermon entitled "Commission to reach: Commission to teach". One of the reasons why I like this pastor is that he comes with new or fresh statements or thoughts on what seems to be material that I have heard for decades. There are very little cliches in his sermons or recycled sayings. He is not just going to preach on what we already know, but he is going to challenge the canon of what we know and bring new revelations, doing something new with the Christian or Adventist Christian material or content. In this post, I wish to share bits from his sermon and the message that resonated well with me on that Sabbath.

King made a series of comments that I wrote down for meditation. Beginning with Matthew's Great Commission (the well known Matthew 28:18-20), King stated that the great gospel commission could be equated as a great commission to educate. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." is as much a commission to education as it is to preaching, King said.

He then went on to state that ignorance and belief in God are incompatible. That Christ in his commission desires us to be educated and to be educators educating others. Part of the commission, King said, is for us as believers to "go" which indicates "movement and departure from our comfort zone, both physically and non-physical".

King mentioned that as part of that movement we are not to stick to only one field of knowledge (or remain stuck in what we already know). Instead, King admonished that we must go to and fro, interacting with different bodies or fields of knowledge. In his example, King stated, "there is as much science as art in the playing of a musical instrument."

King then made the point that Jesus had a particular worldview, or vision of the world, where all the world or nations of the earth would be united around and exposed to the same teachings. "The entire world is to be held together by the same teachings, the teachings of Jesus. Wouldn't it be great if the world was united around the teachings of Jesus? "

King goes on to argue that education should not be elitist. "The knowledge of God is to be universal. The knowledge of God is for everyone (or every creature), no matter how degraded the person." As such, King concluded that education should not just be for those who can afford it, but must necessarily be universal.

"It is Jesus who first had the vision for universal education and espoused the belief that everyone can learn, and as such that everyone can be taught"

The purpose of education, according to King, is to remove the lines of demarcation among human beings, as "we are all (or should be) related to each other on the basis of our need for learning".

My somewhat Marxist Critique of the Jamaican National Family Planning Board

After going to university in my undergraduate years to find that my political science professors and lecturers were retreating from Marxist political thought, I never imagined that I would be returning to that critical orientation towards the Jamaican neoliberal status quo. But I guess this happened gradually as I studied in Canada and hung out with a faculty that is well known for a Leftist leaning. The interesting thing though, is that my recent foray into challenging the status quo has been made compatible with my spiritual beliefs. In sixth form and even my early university days, I had the challenge of reconciling my respect for Marxism with the fact that Communism stifled religious freedoms and the fact that Marx had little respect for the "opium of the people".

In this post particularly, I feel led to challenge the hegemonic narrative told about "family planning" and the official Jamaican state agency that is powered to tell this narrative and shape the Jamaican population in accepting the narrative of "family planning" or what I would rather name "family control".

As a Judeo-Christian, I respect traditional family institutions deeply. I consider myself a family man and see the family as the basic unit of society and all communities. I also welcome the idea of state institutions to support strong families while recognizing some diversity to the families that exist in contemporary society (some of which are a direct result of economic changes and how society has changed traditional arrangements to accommodate the labour force requirements of the new economy).

Recently, I watched a advertisement from the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) that got me thinking of how the "family control" narrative is serving to support the economic arrangement of neoliberal and capitalist economy. The NFPB in its advertisement, during a Jamaica Information Service broadcast, showed a cartoon of a pregnant lady surrounded by children with an audio clip about eradicating poverty by planning your family. For this, I must indicate that I am not aware of any empirical studies that suggest that the cause of poverty is directly related to the number of members in your family. In fact, a 2014 PoliticoFact check indicated that the claim that having children leads to poverty was false as there are many confounding factors.

That said, while there might be a correlation between the number of children one has and one's wealth (or poverty), there is little empirical evidence of direct causation. In addition, the very idea that one must sacrifice family size in order to acquire wealth is a hegemonic idea that supports the neoliberal economic regime and the values espoused by the capitalist class. To understand this, when we look at traditional and pre-capitalist societies and economies, the number of children one had and the size of the family were of importance to survival. When humans used to live in hunting-gathering societies or agrarian economies, the number of children and the extended family were of importance as a labour force and for community security/policing.

Today, the dominant narrative is that we must focus on individual careers and in getting the "good" life of the ownership of materials goods and the accumulation of wealth. To do this, the emphasis is on regulating the size of your family and controlling the number of offspring, so that you can have enough time to work and contribute to the accumulation of wealth and serve the need of the economic elite and ruling class.

Getting back to the NFPB, I see the institution as problematic because it primarily focuses on reproductive decisions. When I browse the website (http://jnfpb.org/) and even its ads about its services, the institution primarily focuses on the supporting reproductive decisions of Jamaicans (and in particular on contraception services). There is no focus on equipping parents with parenting skills or helping Jamaicans understand the various types of families and how to cope. I see no services that offer support in martial counselling and in making marital commitments. No services on counselling parents with marital problems or divorcees that are adjusting to conjugal dissolution. No services that offer counselling about coping as a single parent, or as a caregiver of aging parents or other problems of transitioning from a single individual into either a nuclear or extended family. The focus is only on reproductive control, despite the rhetoric in the ad about the NFPB being there to support stable Jamaican families.

So, let me now give some recommendations and not just end with critique:

• Either change the name of NFPB to reflect what it truly is (Jamaican Population Control Board) OR expand its mandate to truly support the viability and stability of the Jamaican family (or various types of families). 
• Expand the vision from just the focus on sexual reproduction. The current vision reads "All Jamaicans achieving optimal sexual health in an environment where their sexual rights are respected, protected and fulfilled." Is the vision really about stable Jamaican families OR to support Jamaicans and their sexual choices, preferences and appetites? As such, the current vision and the name of the institution are not aligned.
•  Advocate for policies and legislation that support and value Jamaicans caring for children and aged parents, as well as having healthy sex and controlling the timing of births. 

Reference:

Greenberg, J. (2014, Aug. 12). "Is having a kid a leading trigger for poverty?" PoliticoFact.com
Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/12/moms-rising/having-kid-leading-trigger-poverty/

Jamaica National Family Planning Board (2016). "Vision & Mission" Jamaica National Family Planning Board. Retrieved from
http://jnfpb.org/about-us-2/mission-vission/

Trump 2016

This week, I dreamt that Donald Trump, one of the Republican candidate for the 2016 US elections was assassinated. In the dream, I saw him fall to the ground as bullet pierced his forehead while he was on a platform in a stadium. The scene disturbed me. And my spirit was unsettled. It is this dream and the disquiet in my spirit that motivates me to blog to warn US and the world.

As a former Political Science student of democracy, I am of the view that the entire point of democracy is to settle leadership disputes peacefully and to determine the right to national leadership succession without resorting violence. I do understand that representation of Trump as performed by the mainstream and social media portrays him as a demagogue or as a fellow who blames other groups for America's problems. I am aware that this is a 20th century political rhetorical strategy and tactic that reminds persons of the same strategy as Adolf Hitler in 1930 Germany. This is in contrast to the Obama campaigns that emphasized the rhetoric that "together we can".

Nonetheless, I see that what is at stake is the democratic and due process. US has had several Presidents that were unceremoniously and unduly removed by acts of terrorism and violence (assassination to be exact). Yet, every man has the right to life which is a right that no man can justifiably take.

Another issue that I see is the unfair representation of Trump's rallies as spewing hatred towards protesters. I call it unfair representation because the logic is flawed and reflects a double standard. I recall when Westboro Baptist Church attended events to prevent like veteran funerals, they were portrayed as bigots and the villains spreading hate. Yet, I see so-called social media activists that attend Trump's rallies for the sole purpose of interrupting his speech and disrupting his supporter's right to political assembly, portraying themselves [the activists] as victims of hate and hatred.

While I do not condone any political violence, I stand as a voice of reason in the wilderness to call wrong wrong, no matter who does it and to whom it is done. Sure, Trump could deal with interruptions differently but nevertheless, it is still wrong to interrupt someone when they are speaking.

To illustrate the wrong, I want to raise three hypothetical cases:

Imagine:

• Scenario 1: A Christian going into a mosque to protest during the middle of prayers?
• Scenario 2: a Muslim going into a synagogue to protest during the service?
• Scenario 3: A Christian going to a LGBT Pride parade to protest?

If all these scenarios are wrong, what makes it right for someone who dislikes/disagrees with Trump to go to his rally or events to annoy him and his supporters by interruptions and protests? Then to paint Trump and his supporters as racists and haters for being annoyed at interruptions?

Even God, permitted his Opposition, Satan to meet Eve in the garden of Eden to share his viewpoints on God's policies. [Note, God did not interrupt Satan's conference with Eve]. It is a fundamental right that people have choices and are free to decide who's viewpoint they listen to.

Whether you hate Trump or not, I leave you with the New Testament message of Jesus that we must love our enemies. In order to love our enemies, we must resist the temptation to unfairly demonize those we disagree with or dislike. For we will all fall into the media's representation of Trump if we unfairly demonize or vilify Trump.

Peace be unto you and to the US as they attempt to make wise selections for the next President through due process.

Is the Jamaican Church ready for the Millennial generation?

Greetings to my readers, brethren, and sistren,

The following post uses a new media that I am experimenting with in conveying a message that I have been deeply thinking about for the past couple weeks since the Jamaican election.

If you are unable to view the image, click this link for the Pinterest version Or this version of the Pinterest link.

Infographic on Jamaican Millennial Church

My 5 suggestions for improving the Jamaican Political Process

Traditionally, as a Christian believer, I have been ambivalent about the role that I should play in the political and electoral process of a country. My positions on the matter have fluctuated from non-participation to participating as a worker. In addition, I have also fluctuated in beliefs as to whether or not Christians should run for political office. However, my current position (which can change due to personal experience) is that participation in the political process is currently the only way to safeguard rights and freedoms gained from centuries where Christians were once the persecuted minority. Biblical precedents for participation in public and political sphere include public presentation to authorities by the apostles of not only what they believe, but also what they have experienced and witnessed. For example, Acts 5:17-32, contains a narrative of how the apostles were instructed to publicly declare their lifestyle in the public sphere. So if not to run for office, at best, the Christian should share his or her personal experiences in the public sphere with the intent of it impacting the authorities. Given this precedent, one of the ways that Christians can make a statement is to vote and perhaps testify of why they are voting and the personal experiences that lead to their voting.

Nonetheless, for this post, I will not go that far. Rather, I will limit my statement to five things that I feel will make Jamaica's electoral process better. All of these have come out of my experience and reflections of this 2016 Jamaican electoral process:

1. Mandatory electoral debates that are put on by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica that include third party candidates. This way, no party can opt out of being asked pertinent questions by the media and population. This will give us the people the opportunity to evaluate our leaders and political candidates by their performance in responding to questions and issues.
2. Separate the Member of Parliament (MP) vote from the vote for Prime Minister (PM). One may wish to reward his or her MP with another term for the good work done or, at least, the effort while at the same time may be disapproving of the PM's performance (or vice versa). Why are we forced to have one vote for two persons to represent us? 
3. Declaration of the financial contributions to each political party helps. Especially funding by the overseas or foreign donors and monied interest. 
4. Improve the enumeration process so that it is easy, quick and more efficient. For this, I recommend setting up an appointment system where persons wishing to be enumerated call and negotiate an appointed time. This way, the person arrives promptly at the scheduled time and does not have to wait, but is dealt with within 30 minutes. Clearly, the process must respect people's time so that busy professionals will be more willing to be enumerated.
5. Perhaps a bit idealistic? Air-conditioned shuttle bus transport to and from the polling stations on the day of the election? Especially for the poorer classes that do not have the fares or personal transport to visit the polling stations. Mark you, they can walk, but considering that they may have to stand in line to exercise their franchise in the warm Jamaican sun, we could lessen the time and sun exposure involved in the voting process.

Last post for 2015

To my blog audience, I apologize for the lack of entries in 2015 and for the famine of entries that will be coming for 2016. The year 2015 has turned out to be a challenging year for me. As such, I look forward to just reflecting personally and less publicly about faith and the meaning of life in 2016. Further, considering that I now have dual identities as a student and employee, blogging becomes more challenging both in terms of time as well as in terms of institutional constraints to what I can and cannot blog about. In this time of silence, I will reflect on the way going forward in sharing and processing my spiritual thoughts, values, beliefs and faith. God bless you all and have a prosperous 2016. 

The revelation of my purpose

Let me disclose that I planned in my heart to quit blogging altogether as I feel that the world is such a place that blogging one's views is highly likely to affect one's economic survival. Yet, a prophet told me in the summer that God wants me to be courageous and I am not to be cowardly. He cited unto me the scripture from Revelation 21:7-8

7"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.8"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Since summer, I have been looking for a confirmation of that word, as I have felt that God can not violate his own legal precedent that a word is not established until confirmed by two witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15). As such, I took it not likely when the Adventist Church began studying the book of Jeremiah, the unwilling prophet. The gist of the lesson is that the people and rulers of Israel were so bent and hardened in their ways of wrongdoing that God told Jeremiah that he would harden him to deal with the people and that even though they would persecute him that God would be with him. In summary, Jeremiah 1:17-19 says:

17 “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. 18 Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 1:17-19)

Another part of the lesson that actually affected me was this text in Jeremiah 20:9:

But if I say, "I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

In the above text, even though Jeremiah felt disturbed by the reaction of the people to him and his proclamation of God's word, there were times that he could not keep silent. God's message to him was such that he felt he would burst if he contained it. In my case, this is exactly how I feel when I see injustice.

The following text in Jeremiah 1:5 has also hit me like a brick:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

The above text reminds me that all human beings, from before their birth or neonate state and even before conception, have been carefully thought out by God and given something to contribute to the nations. Before we came into being, God designed us to do something on the earth.

These scriptures are an important pretext to what I will now disclose.

Query and Response

On November 14, 2015, I reflected in my journal:

The basic question of who am I and what is my purpose returns to haunt me. What did God design e to do and be? How is he using events and experiences to shape me for such purposes or mission?

You will then appreciate my surprise when on the morning of November 16, 2015, approximately 3 AM I had this dream where I stood before a male and female gifted at reading marks on human beings to tell them what the marks foretell of their design and purpose. The persons examined a mark on my forehead and indicated that "You are designed with Moses-like qualities. You are designed to see problems and be moved to address them." The pair also indicated that I am designed to be a just ruler and better designed to rule with equity than most persons.

While I have been kind of afraid of my dream, in that I usually see people who read marks on human beings as being palm-reading sorcerers, the fact that the dream came after I wrote in my journal settles to me that the word is from the Lord. It also explains why I am always examining events, laws and actions in the world for fairness and justice.

Another confirmation as well as is the fact that it is God who gives dreams. Job 33:14-15 says:

14 For God does speak—now one way, now another—
    though no one perceives it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on people
    as they slumber in their beds,

In addition, God speaks in his word of putting marks or seals on people's foreheads (Ezekiel 9:4). Consequently, I perceive that this dream signifies something important for me to consider. While I am not in the legal field to be a judge, I do have a special role as a spokesperson to highlight problems and issues of equity, justice, and fairness. I, therefore, rest my case.

Lessons as a Returning Resident to Jamaica

I had the eye-opening experience of returning to Jamaica as a returning resident after four years as an immigrant. After studying my PhD in Canada, my family and I acquired a lot of stuff, many of which we parted with, but others we sought to take back with us.

Our return to Jamaica our homeland was greeted by a money-grabbing system. Instead of the government granting us concessions to come back and help build the country with our acquired experience and knowledge, they made it clear through their institutionalized extortion practices that they do not really want us back. We had to pay for our two Canadian born children to get the right to Jamaican citizenship. Next, we had to pay a huge amount of money to the Jamaican Government to collect our used personal items and stuff (clothing) and a few toiletries and other personal care products, books, documents and stationery that we took back with us. Not to mention the one bed we bought and the other bed that a Canadian church brother gave us a mattress for.

This experience caused my firstborn to reflect and deliver a powerful insight into the injustice of our government custom taxation system. As my wise firstborn put it, paying custom and duties on stuff you return to your own country with is like: the government taking your stuff away from you and “selling them back to you. It isn't fair."


My firstborn is right. The injustice also includes double taxation. While paying for stuff in Canada, I already paid taxes, and any further customs and duties to bring them back with me amounts to paying taxes twice for the right to own or use stuff.

Worse, the system is set up for the ignorant to err and end up paying the dues. You are blamed for not doing your research and not checking the Website. The fault is on you to educate yourself. No brochure is given to persons leaving the island through the airport. 

I am so glad that the God that I serve does not operate like that, but permits us the freedom to use the stuff he created according to our own pleasure, while making us know his standards and expectations. He also institutes a system that if we err, he can erase our errors and remove the blame from being on us for our faults and errors. With Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement nigh, through this experience, I get to recognize how better God's systems are than extortionist national governments.

Mark you, my government is not entirely to be blamed. After all, it follows the extortionist and oppressive principles of the International Monetary Finance (distortion intended) system that lends money to national governments to make them indebted while advocating neo-liberal principles that do more harm than good.

It is the oppression by unjust governance and systems that enables one to appreciate the Kingdom of God. Governments and systems that want you to err and do not care if you err, in order to exact a penalty from you. Governments and systems that want you to pay for the right to use stuff that they did not create. Government and systems that want you to pay for human rights like the rights to live in a territory or call a geographic location home. Governments and systems that rent you stuff that they do not create themselves.

My advice to any Jamaican going overseas for a period of time is to document what you are taking with you out of the island and show/declare it to Jamaican Customs at the airport before you go. Finally, my advice to you all is to realize that the economic and political systems (the kingdoms) of this world will be supplanted by the kingdom that the prophet Daniel saw in his vision. Until then, apply for your citizenship in that kingdom before God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit stop issuing visas for it.

See below some relevant questions and answers that I copied from the Jamaica Customs Website:

Why am I charged duty on used clothing which my relatives send from abroad?

A) All items of clothing are dutiable, whether they are new or used. The duty charged is calculated on the total of the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value for the items. Rating: Views: 12725 Date Added: 2009-02-12 11:20:08 Category: Duties , General

Is it customary to charge duty on my personal items e.g. cameras and cellular phones, which I take with me on my trips abroad? A) Customs can charge duty on these items if they exceed your duty free allowance, and there is no proof that these items were in your possession on your outbound journey. One way of providing this proof is by declaring these items to Customs Duty office at the airport proir to departure of your flight.

Usury economy and how capitalism has corrupted Christian churches

Here is another video post. In this one, I share from the Bible how the banking and financial industry practices a moral evil and how Christian churches participate in this morally evil economic system. See below for the scriptures that I indirectly or directly reference. A bit controversial, but I merely ask the questions. Just following in the steps of my mentor, Jesus, who asked difficult questions about the status quo.

Old Testament Scriptures against usury
 
(All references are from the New King James Bible)
25 " If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.
26 "If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
27 "For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious. (Exodus 22:25-27)
----------------
35 ' If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
36 'Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.
37 'You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. (Leviticus 25:35-37)
---------------
19 " You shall not charge interest to your brother -- interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.
20 "To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 23:19,20)
--------------
10 "I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury!
11 "Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them." (Nehemiah 5:10,11)
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He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:5)

Selected teachings of Jesus about lending and giving

New International Version
And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5: 40 -42)


If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. (Luke 6: 29 -31)

Marcus Garvey and the need for sharing good ideas without limits to race or ethnicity

In this post, I do something new. I invite the world into my basement as I share some thoughts on  Marcus Garvey and my philosophy of the need to share the ideas and inspiration with the entire human race. I share my view that God gives us ideas and inspiration to share for the benefit of the entire human race and not to be restricted to particular race or groups of people.

The dilemma of privilege, justice and equality

Step into a parallel universe, where a group that was once a minority is steadily gaining privilege and advancing in status. A group that was once formally and official persecuted by the state, thrown to lions for the blood-thirsty entertainment of mobs, ridiculed and blamed for disasters afflicting the city. This minority group, in the Roman Empire, now find their fate being turned around when an emperor and head of state puts an end to their troubles and officially endorse the minority with protected and privilege status in the empire. This emperor now provides the minority with tax exemption status, access to high-ranking political offices, ownership of tax-exempt property and training and educational programs. All of a sudden, everyone wants to be a Christian.

Over time this majority becomes an oppressive majority policing people's thought, censoring their speech and restricting their liberties. They demonize their opponents as heretics and try to make them look ignorant and irrational, and use their privileged status to impoverish others.

Step back into modern society and western civilization, and I get the gut feeling that history is on the verge of repetition. Let us hope I am wrong!

Yet today, I am observing that in an attempt to right the historical social injustices against women, sexual minorities, Blacks and Muslims, each group has been awarded privileges. For me (and I am sure that even my pessimistic forerunner,  Karl Marx would agree), I see new ruling classes emerging as winners in societal conflicts. Even if I am in one such group (disclosure: I am visibly "black"), I fear the repetition of history. My knowledge of history and even the Hebrew Scriptures reminds me that there has never been a just egalitarian society. Attempts at establishing equality in the past has inevitably excluded some and privileged others. Western civilization in particular has historically privileged groups based on race, gender, ethnicity and religion.

So my question to the West today is how are we going to prevent inequality in the allocation of resources in our attempt to recompense previous minorities for the social injustices that they have suffered at the hands of the state and society? My eyes then shift to Israel, a state that was [re]created to right the wrongs of Europe's injustices against Jews. Today, Europe and the world seem to be remorseful as they consider the viewpoints of the Palestinians. Equality and justice are tricky things to put into practice and definitely more complex than we tend to believe.

My meditation on Deuteronomy 4:10

My scripture for meditation in this post is taken from Deuteronomy 4:10:

Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children." (NIV)

Today I parse four thoughts from this verse for reflection.

1. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God - This reflects commitment and consecration. Have I stood before LORD to be committed to what he has in store for me? Have you stood before the LORD to make a commitment to what he wants to do in your life?
2. Assemble the people before me - I know in the text that God was addressing Moses. But what if God wants all of us to be a type of Moses. What if God wants us to gather other people before him? Is it not the gospel commission for us to go to others and prepare them for the Lord's second coming (Matthew 28:19-20)? Are we not compared to being labourers that go into the fields to collect God's harvest (1 Corinthians 3:9)?
3. to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land- is it not the whole duty and purpose of man to listen to God and revere him? (Cross reference with Ecclesiastes 12:13).
4. may teach...their children - God wants us to pass on what we have learned to our children. Our second duty to God is not just to gather our peers and adults to him to hear his words, but to pass on the worship and reverence for God and his words to our children. It is not just important to be a witness at work but it is also important that we must be a witness at home. It is as much our duty to spend time with our children and teach them God's words and what we learn from God as it to attend church or do the other religious deeds and charitable acts. A failure to pass on and transmit what we learn about God to our children is just as bad as failing to do other charitable deeds.

 For me, the above represent what the life of spirituality is all about: 1) making a commitment to God, 2) seeking others to also make that commitment, 3) learning from God and 4) making sure that we teach the children points 1-3 as well.

Do have a blessed day!

A prophetic dream about marijuana cultivation?

On Barack Obama's visit to Jamaica, at a youth leadership event the President of the United States was asked about US policy regarding the decriminalization and legalization of ganja ("US president fields Rasta's question", 2015). Long before this event, I had an unusual dream that I only mentioned to my spouse at the time. However, I feel the time has come to make the dream known, especially since there is zeitgeist in support of the decriminalization and legalization of ganja in Jamaica.

In my dream, I boarded a truck in downtown Kingston, headed to the hills for market provision. Soon the truck arrived in the hill country of rural Jamaica, where ganja was being cultivated alongside necessary herbs and spices needed for culinary preparations. Yet, in the dream, it came to my consciousness that more ganja was being cultivated than food items as farmers felt that it was more profitable to grow marijuana than food crops. As such, food was scarce and ganja was abundant.

Reference

"US president fields Rasta’s question on legalising marijuana" (2015, Apr. 10) Malay Mail Online retrieved from http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/us-president-fields-rastas-question-on-legalising-marijuana

My thoughts on the origin of religion

One of the greatest blessings of pursuing my Ph D. is how it has increased an understanding of my religious faith. My experience of studying folklore and narratology has significantly impacted my understanding of the Judeo-Christian faith. On this occasion, I want to blog about how my Ph D. experience has impacted on my faith and has provided me with a deeper understanding of the origin of religion.

For those who are unfamiliar with my journey, I began my studies pursuing independent readings into folklore. Later I changed direction a bit and pursued studies in narratology, storytelling, and later narrative analysis. [1] It is these related areas of knowledge that has furnished me with a deeper understanding of how religions like Judaism and Christianity originate.

According to secular theories, religion originates due to people's fear and a need for security in an insecure world (Robinson, 2014). Others talk about natural selection favouring human beings with a God gene to help to create a more social cohesive group or society (Wade, 2009). However, my studies in folklore and narratology have helped me see a new perspective (outside of faith-based theories) for how religions like Christianity and Judaism originate.

Let us begin by using the concept of a "meta-narrative" as a metaphor for religion. According to Aryes (2008), a meta-narrative is a narrative about narratives or a narrative above narratives. Narrative itself is often seen as being based on real or lived experiences. Labov (1972) defined narrative as the recapitulation of experience. Benjamin (1984), on the other hand, states that the storyteller produces stories from the raw material of experience. Religion, like narrative, is born from real characters and experiences, which are structured into a coherent telling for transmission to others. After all, religious narratives are but meta-narratives, bringing together many characters, experiences and real events, into a coherent unified structure that interprets and provides some sense-making across various fragmented (or smaller) narratives.

You find this in the Passover narrative of the birth of Jewish identity and cultural independence. It begins with characters (Pharaoh and Moses) and key events (such as how the Jews escaped Egypt and established a home in Canaan). You also find this in Christianity with the character of Jesus, who inspires a band of followers to establish a new group (and religious) identity. Religion, unlike some mythologies, are based on real geographic settings and are either based on or inspired by real characters and events. These are not fables devised by wild imaginations, but originate from real characters that have real experiences in real places and who share these experiences in the form of narratives with others.

Over time, others may add to the narrative or take away from the narrative. This is especially the situation with oral narratives. However, writing narratives cause them to become more fixed, albeit dis-placing contextual information about the narrative. With oral narratives, the storyteller can give facial expressions and other gestures to help communicate how the narrative should be understood or the intended meaning of his or her words. In addition, the storyteller's audience can ask for clarification and the storyteller can point out locations and show where the actual narrative or event unfolded (especially if the storyteller is in the geographic area of the narrative). The written narrative actually decontextualizes the narrative and removes it from a set location and a particular storyteller in order to make it more transportable over distance and time.

Hence, once we understand these ideas, we can see how religious narratives are not fictional creation or construction of imaginary characters or events. Rather, religion is more mixed-fiction (if not non-fiction), drawing on the real as well as using the imagination  and sense-making faculties to produce a coherent and unified meta-narrative to structure the experiences of several characters and events over time. Hence, understanding religion is not just about looking for a gene or examining the function of religion in societies. It is more than that. It is about understanding narrative knowledge, storytelling and narrative practices. I find that this is hard for a secular society that depends on science and logic driven by quantitative data and methods for producing knowledge, while at the same time devaluing the personal experience and narrative-based knowing.



Notes:

[1] - I see folklore studies as a broader field of study that includes the study of oral lore and narratives that are told by ordinary folk.



References:

Aryes, L. (2008). Meta-narrative. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (pp. 508–509). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. doi:10.4135/9781412963909

Benjamin, W. (1969). Illuminations, ed. and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. Trans. by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Robinson, B. A. (2014). Some theories on the origins of religion. Religious Tolerance.org: Ontario consultants on religious tolerance. Retrieved from http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_theory1.htm

Wade, N. (2009, Nov. 14). The evolution of the God gene. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/weekinreview/12wade.html?_r=0