Stand up for God, pastor urges Christians
Published:Wednesday | October 1, 2025 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Reverend Carlton Wilson, the pastor of the Savanna-la-Mar Circuit of Baptist Churches in Westmoreland, is urging Christians to stand up for God at a time when chaos is reigning over Jamaica and across the world as he highlighted local situations such as teenage suicides, child rapes, and discussions about decriminalising obeah.
Wilson, who delivered the sermon at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay, St James, on Sunday, during which host pastor Dr Davewin Thomas was celebrated for his 20 years of dedicated service as pastor of the Burchell Circuit of Baptist Churches in the parish, made it clear that idolatry is not the godly way.
“We are faced with a resurgence of idolatry, and we must understand that God is saying that you are being called into a new paradigm, a new reality that is going to demand new things from us in ministry. We are emptying our culture of God, but we can make this time a time when we overturn the evils of darkness and allow God to take precedence,” said Wilson, citing Isaiah 43:18-19.
“We have to understand what is happening, when a seven-year-old girl could have been drugged and raped in Jamaica. There is the whole matter of the destruction of our children, who we heard about committing suicide. We have embraced death as a people, and so God wants us to look at what is happening … the character of God is holiness, and what God demands of us now is a life of holiness,” added Wilson.
TEENAGE SUICIDE
He was speaking against the background of recent reports that a seven-year-old child was drugged and raped by a man in Treadways in Linstead, St Catherine, on September 25; and two incidents of teenage suicide in western Jamaica – 13-year-old Twain Skyers, in Lilliput, St James, on September 11, and 16-year-old Jhamar Surgeon, of Stettin, Trelawny, on September 21.
Wilson also addressed a constitutional challenge that was recently filed before the Supreme Court for the legalisation of obeah. That application argues that sections of the 19th-century Obeah Act violate several freedoms outlined under the Constitution, including freedom of religion and privacy.
“It was not surprising that there is a court case afoot to see if we can decriminalise obeah. Is this not chaotic?” asked Wilson. “We are living in a time of chaos and adversity, and God wants to provide for us a road out of this chaos. God is saying, ‘I am going to do a new thing in this country, with my people, and I am going to make a path in the wilderness of adversity and chaos’.”