WITH lottery tickets now being sold on Sundays and reports that Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) last week gave patrons a chance to bet via simulcast at its Off-track Betting (OTB) parlours, pastor of the Webster Memorial United Church on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, Reverend Astor Carlyle has warned that the social destruction that follows gambling “cannot be fixed by the earnings from it”.
“I believe Jamaica has backslidden, gambling cannot be the way, will we serve God or mammon (materialism) … a choice will have to be made,” Rev Carlyle said yesterday in delivering the sermon during the 50th anniversary church service for the government’s public relations arm, the Jamaica Information Service.Church leaders have been chafing since February when Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips announced that effective Monday, April 1, several betting games would be available during public holidays and on Sundays. He said that the venture, which is part of the new tax measures to increase revenue earnings for the country, will see lottery companies being asked to pay more gross-profit taxes. The measure is expected to yield $1.5 billion.But yesterday Carlyle said that the Government had strayed from the moral ideals which have been the foundation of the country.“We have ceremonies and we invite pastors to pray, we have our National Anthem, a prayer ‘Eternal Father Bless our Land’ and then we pass legislation that undermine the social construct. Our anthem speaks to the fact that God is our eternal provider and yet we have become a nation of gamblers,” Carlyle charged in his sermon.“And then we would argue that ‘oh gambling allows us economic health and prosperity’, to what end?“That which ought to guide legislation, that which ought to guide our planning is the spirituality that we sing about in our National Anthem that God is the one who guides us. We need to get back to spirituality,” he said to applause from the congregation.Continuing, Rev Carlyle said that the nation is at a crucial juncture as it regards social life, economics, politics, and the environment.“It behoves each one of us to determine the kinds of inputs we make to the process of national transformation. The foundations are eroding, read the newspapers, listen to the news,” he noted, adding that “the most meaningful legacies are not necessarily those that have dollar values attached to them, but rather those intangibles that impact character and inform contribution.“Easy roads do not allow for lasting legacies, the time has come in this land when we must purpose[ly] in our hearts as a people choose the tough stony road of reconciliation and collaboration; look at the news, listen to it, look at the lines on people’s faces even as they read the headlines, there is so much tension and contention,” Rev Carlyle pointed out.“The time has come for us to avoid the roads of escapism and quick fix bandage solutions and instead walk the straight uphill path of truth and justice. Facing up to our shortcomings and stop hiding behind intellectual gymnastics for Jamaicans are not fools,” he preached.In the meantime he said that the time has come for the country to “instil in the lives of [its] children and youth, their purpose for being.”And yesterday Chief Executive Officer of the JIS Donna-Marie Rowe in her greeting said that the Organisation which has spawned many greats in the media profession, has “withstood the test of time” and is regarded among 95 per cent of Jamaicans polled, to be a credible and reliable source of information.Press Association of Jamaica President Jenni Campbell, Chairperson of the Jamaica Information Service Advisory Board Fae Ellington and Chief Executive Officer of the JIS Donna-Marie Rowe participate in the proceedings during the 50th anniversary church service for the entity at the Webster Memorial United Church on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, yesterday.Pastor of the Webster Memorial United Church Reverend Astor Carlyle delivers the sermon. (PHOTOS: BRYAN CUMMINGS)View the original article here
Pastor: Gambling will not solve Jamaica"s woes
