THE EDITOR, Sir:PRIME MINISTER Simpson Miller appears to be astutely aware that there has been a sharp increase in religiosity in Jamaica.
In 1998 the national census reported that 76 per cent of Jamaicans identify with the cause of the Church. There has been an exponential increase in the number of churches in Jamaica since the 1970s.
The number of denominations registered grew from 92 in the 1970s, to 169 in the 1980s, to 286 in the 1990s. By 1999 there were 606 denominations - coming from an original ten denominations in 1865 - and the majority, if not entirely, are new evangelical churches.
But Jamaica's religious-political dynamic contains significant paradoxes. The large and growing fundamentalist evangelical Christian population holds many similar positions to their U.S. counterparts, who they are also often linked with organisationally and financially, as well as doctrinally. These churches in Jamaica, as in the U.S., are socially conservative - they are anti-homosexual, antiabortion, and pro-Israel.
RELIGIOUS ZEAL
The prospects for Prime Minister Simpson Miller's religious zeal and her domestic policies will not be that interesting. Jamaica already contains a strong de facto Christian basis to the state that is manifested in virtually every action carried out at state level. Church services are held to commemorate state agencies' anniversaries and to launch government programmes and activities. She is likely to uphold the legislative status quo of anti-homosexual, anti-gambling and antiabortion laws.
This overarching state-endorsed Christianity assists in ensuring social consensus and provides an uncontested web. There isn't that much to change beyond heightening the rhetoric, which the Prime Minister has already begun.
What this will mean for Jamaica's relations with the U.S., however, will be intriguing. While Simpson Miller will easily balance populist rhetoric and conservative values at home, she is likely to find a number of contradictions when it comes to being realistic about who Jamaica's true ideological allies are in the U.S. halls of power, and the People's National Party's long-standing political alignment with the Democratic Party.
Portia's "crusade" might find it bears more than merely rhetorical posturing with Bush and the Republican Party's own current 'crusade' at home and abroad.
I am, etc.,
DIANA R. THORBURN
