There is a great, deep silence blanketing Guyana today. I start over, for it is more accurate to say that it is a shroud of silence due to the spiritually deathlike state which has now become a blinding feature of our religious shepherds, given what is now going on in Guyana. In what and where are their hearts vested? What matters the most to them? Whose favours they seek first and then unfailingly after? What has happened to their courage, their Christian character? Though I pinpoint and highlight the Christian segment of Guyana, all others are encircled, challenged.
The World Bank reported a local poverty rate of 48%, which is among the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Another international report spoke of moderate to severe food insecurity facilitated by sharply rising prices. This means that people, members of the flock are hungry. In Houston, East Bank Demerara, a hazardous facility is an ongoing source of severe anxiety and disagreement. This indicates that some citizens are fearful of possible pollution in environment and atmosphere, and probable dangers to their quality of life, life itself. I have heard nothing from any religious leader. If anyone has seen a stirring of concern from religious leaders, inform me so I can applaud.
In Sri Lanka, one archbishop expressed public solidarity with protestors over the shortages and hardships that were tormenting and then paralyzing huge swathes of that country. In Nicaragua, four priests are jailed for speaking out, and an archbishop, Roland Alvarez is jailed for 26 years by the government. Their crimes and their draconian punishments are for differing, taking a stand, speaking out against a corrupt and callous government. Then, there is Guyana.
We must have heaven in Guyana because our churchmen, our other religious lights have dimmed to the point of unmoving darkness. It is either that, things are so universally good, or our religious leaders are unconscious (willfully blind). I think that our religious leaders took in the environment and decided that self-enrichment is the safest, sweetest, and spiritually most strengthening course. Those who have not resorted to absolute silence, have taken comfort in linking arms with wrongdoers and perpetrators of an endless string of negatives on the Guyanese people and different spots in Guyana’s environment. Like the poor. Like Houston.
I study our church leaders, and a distinctive feature emerges. Most of them conduct themselves in a manner that runs counter to the teachings and priorities of the one role model given to them. The poor are hungry and hurting in discernible numbers, which is the general national picture in a State of the handful of haves and the hosts of have nots. This would be understandable, even pardonable, in a land lacking rich natural resources. But there are few countries, on a per person basis that has the arrays and staggering bulks of natural resources as Guyana. Yet, there is the army of hungry, despairing.
The daily struggles of 2 out of 5 in the Guyanese population, or half of it, depending on which international source is considered, also ought to be the pain of our church leaders, others in non-Christian systems of worship. They should be persistent in pressing the government for relief for the poor, and the perennially poverty stricken in this lush era of oil in Guyana. If anybody has heard anyone of our Christian (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal, and others) saying something to this effect, anything that addresses the plight of the poor, then do me the great favour of sharing that development.
The man from Galilee did not hobnob in the big houses of the State with the rich and powerful people. He was tirelessly ministering to those that didn’t have. Their weakness and hopelessness he made his own. The carpenter’s son had a special place in this heart, his programme, his mission, for those afflicted by woes and wretchedness those trampled upon: he felt for them. Because he identified with them. No big job for him. No payoff for him. Strong, authentic religious leaders make that identification theirs, too. Not lining up for favors. Or not ruffling feathers, so that commercial constituencies capitalizing on the oil gravy train are not disadvantaged, distressed.
I urge my contemporaries, those who still care, are not carried away by tribal passions, to examine the other great, storied faiths followed by many millions. The invitation is for them to determine for themselves what mattered the most for the founders and trailblazers of those inspiring teachings and ways of life. It was not money. Nor was it to be recognized and patted on the head for being quiet, unseeing, friendly and supportive. Never was it about the surrender of caring for those who did not have, nor abandoning those who longed for the better that should be, but which was being withheld in cruelly cheating fashion.
Guyana must be golden for our church leaders amid the grimness of the people. Study them.
