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🎶Churches and dictators,
Politics and papers, 
Everything crumbles,
Sooner or later.
But love, I believe in love🎶

—Believe, Elton John 

Category five Hurricane Melissa unleashed its full fury on some parishes of Jamaica, leaving many communities and people bereft of essentials and having to wallow in the detritus of what once was.

It is heartbreaking to see Jamaicans suffering to this degree without a quantum of solace to alleviate the stress and strain that has befallen them.

In all this, where is the benevolence of the church? Where is its tender hand when most needed?

Going into communities in both St Elizabeth and Westmoreland and seeing firsthand the desperation of people, the church in its various denominations is nowhere to be seen.

To date, there has not been a fulsome call for the destitute and stricken to take shelter in its edifices and under its broad canopies. Why?

Turn to God, seek Jesus, look to Jehovah, it constantly tells poor, uneducated people. But when lives are shattered biblically by an act of God, churches in Jamaica go quiet.

Where is Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon?

Where is Father Richard Ho Lung?

Why are they not out there ministering to their flock?

It is times like these when the church’s presence can bring comfort and hope to people whose lives have been ravaged and who are depleted spiritually.

Churches profit immensely from tax-free concessions, huge donations and working people paying a tithe. Yes, this helps to cover the cost of their operations, but shouldn’t it also be employed to help those in need? 

It shouldn’t be all take and no give.

Let’s face it, churches in Jamaica are a business, a corporation no different from Lasco, CIBC or Seprod. But these companies provide a service which justifies their existence.

How can Jamaicans believe or place their faith in church and state when both go missing in their time of need?

Travelling last week to some of the areas that were most extensively damaged, I saw GEM workers, volunteers from Sweden, South Africa, Holland, Dominican Republic all helping, providing food and water, working,  fixing roofs. In many instances, private sector companies heeded the call and lent a helping hand.

I didn’t see the church or government workers and agencies out there putting in their best efforts to help beleaguered Jamaicans. Where is the love for your people?

Taking in this dystopian landscape,  with twisted limbs for trees, barren brown earth for verdant green, it’s hard to contemplate that God could be so destructive. Is this what ‘End of Days’ looks like? The fragility of humankind was on display, but the Church should and can play its part to foster resilience, provide encouragement, and get people believing in a brighter tomorrow.

The effort made by so many to help fellow Jamaicans is commendable. The police are telling people not to create traffic congestion and not to travel at night delivering packages, and that this hinders the recovery effort. But people with hearts, Jamaicans who are empathetic, feel compelled to do something.

Why doesn’t the church?

Here are some verses from the Bible which the Church would do very well to adhere to in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa:

In Matthew 23:35, Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.”

Leviticus 25:35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.”

Isaiah 24:4 which speaks to the devastation of Melissa. “For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against the wall.”

Proverbs 22:9 “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.”

Acts 20:35 “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than receive’.”

John 4:19 “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

And this one the church should pay particular attention to: Proverbs 3:27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”

Jamaicans are urged to attend church, lead righteous lives, read and be guided by the scriptures. But does the church lead by example? Does it do what it tells others to do?

Are the preachers beating a hasty retreat to Westmoreland, St James and St Elizabeth to roll up their sleeves and help Jamaicans suffering from a climatic event that has decimated their communities, or are they happy to stay in their pulpits and on stage putting on the same old pantomime?