Ancestral worship is not just entertainment

After fruitless efforts to reach and have an audience with Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, our minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, I have hereby decided to publish my concern.

I strongly believe that there is cultural ignorance in Jamaica that we need to be aware of. The Bible declares that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34).

Our strong adherence, as a nation, to rituals and their display at national events and holidays, such as the Chinese display at the Independence gala; the Heroes Day commemoration with ancestral rites: Kumina, Revivalist, and Pocomanian music and dance; the bicentennial commemoration and the calling forth of the spirit of the dead at Kingston Harbor; and carnival with its lewdness, etc, are not helping us but are rituals that connect us to the astral world and open the door to the unseen forces of darkness. That is tantamount to necromancy, voodoo – worship of the dead, sorcery, witchcraft, magical arts, etc.

Other negative ritualistic practices are ‘nine-nights’, ceremonies that invoke the spirit of the dead, rum being sprinkled at the foundations of buildings, passing children over caskets, and the keeping of the ashes of the deceased. The evil effect of being present at these ceremonies/taking part cannot be underestimated.

THE DANGER IN RITUALS:

• They invoke evil spirits. Persons can be possessed or infiltrated with evil spirits knowingly or unknowingly, e.g., when people are foaming at the mouth or when they pass out, wiggle their bodies like snakes, or lie motionless. It is possession – mild or acute. Some evil spirits are passive, while some are active. I have to cast out these spirits from some persons who consult my ministry for help because of problems in their lives, and during prayer, they exhibit Pocomania/Revivalism dancing. They were bound, but Jesus set them free. Many times, these bondages are passed on to the next generations, and people suffer.

• They invoke blood-thirsty territorial spirits that springboard into blood sacrifice, accidents, human sacrifice, crime and violence, moral decadence, and poverty. The nation will be better off practising God’s righteousness because that will be able to repel evils such as coronavirus and other problems.

• They invoke the spirit of the dead that follows people home or takes over a house or community after they attended a ‘nine-night’ and causes them to have sleepless nights.

• They cause a house to be haunted.

February 22 was a Spiritual Warfare Day in which God instructed me to call everyone for prayers and send them to the gates of parishes to pull down strongholds and cleanse and cover the parishes because something was going to happen. But alas! Just a handful came out, and we did what we could in the name of the Lord. That, I believe, has blunted the impact of the coronavirus nationally. Praise God! It could have been worse if we had not prayed.