God wants you to vote for Jamaica, pastor urges
THE Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) is appealing to all registered voters to cast their ballots in today’s general election, emphasising that it is “both a godly and civic responsibility” for Jamaicans to exercise their civic responsibility.
“Vote for the political party that you are convinced is best for Jamaica at this time. Not to vote is not an option. This is what our forebearers sacrificed sweat, blood and their life for,” said JBU President Rev Michael Shim-Hue.
“Trust God and trust the electoral process. God is demanding of you to vote for Jamaica by voting on February 25,” Shim-Hue urged, as he addressed the opening of the union’s 166th General Assembly on Sunday night, at Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew .
He said voters should think wisely about which political party can better lead Jamaica and improve the lives of its constituents.
He also issued a challenge to those seeking political power, urging them to refuse to be controlled by the love of power and the arrogance of power, which are committed to “reducing others to dependency, deprivation and bondage”.
He also cautioned Christians and the wider Jamaican citizenry to stop accepting less than the best from our leaders and from each other, and lamented how Jamaicans have grown too accustomed to a “perpetual state of abnormal conditions of life.”
“That is not God’s plan for His people living in community,“ the JBU president warned, noting that Jamaicans should advocate for better.
“If Jamaica’s health system is not good enough for our politicians, it is not good enough for the rest of us who live in Jamaica. We can make it better,” he emphasised.
The JBU’s 166th General Assembly is being held under the theme ‘Being God’s People In God’s World — Living the Sacrificial Life’.
The assembly will break today and reconvenes and culminates on Sunday with two closing services at the National Arena.
The JBU comprises 336 churches, including three in Haiti, and just under 40,000 baptised members. According to the 2011 Jamaica Housing Population Census, there are approximately 140,000 people in Jamaica who worship at Baptist churches or consider themselves and their families to be Baptists.
