The Darker Side of Black - ACE274.8

FAITH Commentary says that Christianity supporting the slave trade as well as being an instrument in the struggle against slavery. Nettleford talks about the strength of Christian faith in Jamaica. Frazer says that though any Jamaican can quote the Bible and that churches are full, he’s not sure that this is a sign of religiosity. Commentary points out that churches in Jamaica are strongly against the decriminalising of homosexuality. Musicians contribute to the debate on how the Bible should be interpreted; commentary quotes Ranks as saying that "God hates homosexuals". Suggs says that the Jay Lennard Show decided against Ranks’s participation in their programme after his organisation sent a tape of homophobic remarks he’d made. Ranks says he made his statement "to please God Almighty" because he lives by the word of the Bible. Jamaica Council of Churches, Rev. Neville Callam, says that "a few passages of the Old Testament" do not represent the church’s attitude to homosexuals. Commentary quotes Leviticus xviii 22. Unity Fellowship Church, New York, Rev. Jones, points out that "to combine fabrics" as well as tattooing and eating certain foods are also forbidden by Levitical law. West suggests that using the Bible in this way is a way of reinforcing what it means to be black in the late twentieth century, imposing controls over women and homosexuals, and policing those controls. Manley believes that Jamaicans’ past history of slavery, poverty and deprivation can bring out an aggressiveness in self-identification, and "a strong attraction to… a very fundamentalist, escapist religion".