Freedom fighters do God’s work

JAMAICA

Just as God put His faith in Moses when He called him into a seemingly impossible task to liberate the people from the hands of Pharaoh, so too God put His faith in Jamaican freedom fighters because wherever the cause of freedom is required, God, the Great Liberator and Deliverer, is present.

This was the view of Archbishop Emeritus Donald Reece of Kingston in his commentary for the nation’s Emancipation Day observance, August 1.

The full text was published in the August 25 issue of Jamaica Gleaner.

In it, Archbishop Reece said that standing on the shoulders of those who have fought bravely for their emancipation— Paul Bogle, William Gordon, Nanny of the Maroons and Sam Sharpe—citizens should be better able to see the possibilities of far better days.

Critical of the “God will provide” mentality, he said: “We will be forever expecting others to do things for us….Is not this a carryover from slavery when ‘Massa’ alone had the answer for the slaves?”

Archbishop Reece affirmed that citizens fail to grasp that God has placed His faith in humans to carry on His work that includes true emancipation and independence. He called for the boldness to “bell the cat” of criminality and corruption, do away with the code of silence and become forthright in exposing and fixing the weakness of a political system that tolerates antisocial behaviour.

“We will stop mimicking others and see the beauty of our kaleidoscopic makeup: our colour (without bleaching); the texture of our respective skin and hair (without expensive weaves); and the beautiful effects of attractive intermingling of our people (without prejudice).”