A Christians around the world, inclusive of Christians in Guyana, will today be observing Good Friday. Christians on this day commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary by observing a really quiet and solemn celebration as they reflect on his suffering and death on the Cross. It is a commemoration to remind Christians that innocent Jesus suffered brutally at the hands of the worldly authorities.
In Guyana, we live in a multireligious, multi-ethnic society in which, to a great extent, we co-exist peacefully, unlike many other countries in the world with a similar culture. For many countries, the conflict over religious co-existence has been unsolved for years and has led to much violence and suffering for the peoples of those nations.
For us here in Guyana, we experienced a disturbing event a few weeks ago when a pastor from Faithful Word Baptist Church (FWBC) went into several public schools purporting to be preaching the Word of God, but rather unleashed a venomous attack on Hinduism beliefs.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center website, the FWBC, which is based in Arizona, United States, is classified as a fundamentalist group with a history of hate speech that has seen it being banned from entry in at least three different countries.
The American hate speech watchdog group has listed the church as a hate group. Having been listed as a hate group that spreads hate speech, it is disappointing that such a group made its way into our public school system – where our children in this multireligious society converge – without the knowledge of the Education Ministry and more so the Government. According to media reports, it was after a very vigilant member of society wrote a letter to the editor in the local press that this issue was brought to the fore.
The Education Ministry itself has admitted that it had no previous knowledge of the school visits by FWBC, nor did it in any way facilitate the visits. It also stated that the FWBC took advantage of a lack of familiarity with regard “to documented external visitor policy and the misplaced goodwill of administrative staff on what they believed to be an innocuous intervention, as well as a general ignorance of the church’s reputation”. To its credit, permission was granted via the individual school administrations without knowledge of the Education Ministry.
In this instance, it appears that it was a one-off event in three schools, but it was a dangerous one that is downright alarming. Religious conflict as we have witnessed in other parts of the world has brought nations to their knees.
It is a conflict that will remain as a burning issue unfortunately for many more years to come. Here in Guyana, religious leaders – whether Christian, Hindu, Muslim – teach about the enormous positive role religion has played in the lives of many. Guyanese society as a whole celebrates each other’s religious activities. This is evident at Christmas, Phagwah, Easter, Youman Nabi, Diwali and Eid.
As we observe the Easter celebrations with the Christian community, let us as a nation be ever vigilant of those who seek to destroy the fabric of our multicultural, multi-ethnic, multireligious society.
Happy Easter to all our readers!
