There are very good reasons Jamaica has so many churches across every square mile.
The very outlay of the land tells the story of a people who had endured great tribulation and somehow came out committed to righteousness, willing to stand and fight for right causes in the name of the Sovereign Lord, for a while, at least.
The Jamaican story, up to and just after Independence, is an intriguing narrative about a people who were ripped from a populous continent, transported like herds across wide-open oceans to endure the most brutal, inhumane circumstances known to man, but survived to tell the tale, show the scars, and parade the indisputable evidence of their victory.
Many of the enslaved people were so deprived and impoverished that they looked to God alone as their source, shield, song, and salvation. Under the cruel captivity, He showered them and their offspring with immeasurable grace, mercy, and blessings through many generations.
The jury is still out as to why God judged these Africans so severely in the first place, uprooting and landing them at the mercy of the wicked enslavers. Perhaps the Israel experience in Egypt and Deuteronomy 28 could provide worthwhile points of consideration.
However, largely Roman Catholic nations that claimed to be Christians, such as Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, were among the main enslavers and colonisers under the transatlantic slave trade agreement.
These brutish states, up to the 1840s, enjoyed booming businesses from the illicit trade in human flesh, and they buttressed their operations with the Bible. With bayonets in one hand and the Bible in the other, these stern-faced foreigners championed the Scriptures as truth and wisdom, often reciting particular verses to enhance their vicious scheme. The Word of God, for them, was a crutch to justify their wickedness as they demanded the submission of the bewildered Africans.
The colonists were wedded to mammon and baptised millions of enslaved people while they amassed vast amounts of wealth on their backs, built impressive cities, and established global conglomerates with goods and monies earned in the colonies and expatriated to their homeland.
In their bloody conquests between 1510 and 1838, the colonists failed to grasp the fact that the Sovereign God was still God, even as they transacted their brutal business. Their warped minds could not grasp the truth that the Word of God remains steadfast, even when delivered through the mouths of the wicked.
Unknown to them, in the New World, God’s Word served as a catalyst for the enslaved people’s fight for freedom and provided a powerful platform on which local clergy launched their battle for the region and many other parts of the Western world.
God’s intent levelled mountains of wickedness and was the sustenance for an oppressed people. He showed Himself strong and mighty to the local churches, and the flock learnt how to recognise Him as Daniel’s God, the deliverer through the Old Testament, their comforter, defender, and waymaker through the Psalms, and their risen Lord, overcoming death, hell, and the grave from the writings of the Apostles.
The enslaved people learnt through the spoken Word that their God and not their circumstances would dictate their destiny. Enslaved people who were Christianised led the charge against the wickedness. Their fight was supported with the release of pestilence across the region, which saw the demise of many colonists. As the business arrangement faced rapid decline, the inhumane trade had to end.
The remnant people in Jamaica fought the slave masters like enraged lions, and on their knees they perfected their mission to tear down the strongholds of oppression.
The evidence of the mission lies in the aged structures we see today. These structures were raised as righteous altars in every nook and cranny of the nation. They were planted as small church halls that doubled and tripled as sanctuaries, secret meeting places, and school rooms from Monday to Thursday so that their children and grandchildren could learn reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic. Friday was kept as a workday for all members of families, including children, to help in the fields.
After emancipation, as former enslaved people and former colonists intermingled, the deep connection to the divine whittled under other worldly aspirations. You cannot embrace the ways of the wicked and do not expect their reward.
Doors were swung open to give the enemy more than a foothold into sacred spaces, and counter altars were set up in communities and homes.
Today, many of the churches have been rendered powerless because as the remnant aged, many of their descendants turned away from God and righteousness and embraced the very wicked schemes of those who enslaved their foreparents.
The church, in many instances, lost its way, power, and stature, allowing neo-colonists room to establish a political and commercial stranglehold over the people. As modern generations turn away from God, once again they face His judgement.
Portugal, Spain, Britain (before Brexit), France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, along with Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, under the formidable banner of the European Union, are once again set to reintroduce and re-enforce a new form of slavery. This time it is the entrapment of the LGBTQI agenda and the reprobate lifestyle.
While many nations under the European Union continue to live lavishly from the wealth they amassed from the transatlantic slave trade, they aggressively compelled smaller and more vulnerable states in Africa and the Caribbean to reject righteousness and Biblical teachings.
The Samoa agreement, signed by many African, Caribbean, and Pacific states, is a seminal signal of the new leg of the captivity.
The bayonets, which were used to keep the Africans in line in the first leg, have morphed into financial promises and the threat of sanctions for those who fail to comply.
With all the church buildings that remain littered across communities islandwide, today, the fragmented church in Jamaica is so weakened and divided that it has lost its fire, zeal, and hunger for righteousness. Many have caved in to the lure of mammon, and their altars are neither hot nor cold, only fit to be spat out.
In all of this, there is still a remnant who continues to be firmly committed to a righteous cause.
That cause is that Jamaica belongs to the Sovereign Lord; it is a diadem in His hand, and it is still worth fighting for. We have already won.