PM: A JUST AND HUMANE SOCIETY FAR OFF

The struggle for the creation of a more just and humane society is far from over, Prime Minister Patrick Manning stated yesterday. In his Spiritual Baptist Liberation Shouter Day message, Manning stated that the pursuit of liberty, freedom, justice and equality involved more than a celebration. “It requires genuine embrace and acceptance of all our fellowmen and appreciation of our equality as God’s creation and before Almighty God,” he said. Manning said that such a struggle was not won until prejudices, discrimination and the mental chains that condition and drive them are dismantled, abandoned and rendered useless.

Manning noted that only three days ago the nation observed Easter Sunday and today was celebrating the repeal of the Shouters’ Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 and acknowledging their “heroic struggle in the pursuit of religious freedom, equality and human dignity.” Stating that there was a phenomenal history associated with the struggle of the Baptist community for freedom and justice, Manning said few among the “faith-based” institutions in this society could point to a longer or comparable emperience of oppression and subjugation. Citing the well-known parable that the stone the builder rejected shall become the cornerstone, Manning stated that faith in and the love of God and a feeling for the deprived and oppressed in our society, had been the basis of the rally of the members of the Baptist faith.

Contending that the Baptist community should be “empowered” to make the invaluable contribution it was capable of making to national development, the PM stated: “The Baptist community has a lot to teach our society and the wider world about faith, humility and love. We must find ways of ensuring that they are able to play a more meaningful role in a society in which they have over the years been contributing so much, albeit with very little.” The Prime Minister urged the national community, as it “celebrates the triumph of the local Baptist community over the many injustices they have endured, to learn from their years of struggle.”