MORAL DECAY IN GUYANA AND THE ROLE OF THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

Sep 27, 2009 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Sheila Holder, MP and AFC Vice-Chair

MORAL DECAY IN GUYANA
Members of the Jagdeo government have no regard for boundaries – be they of decency, the law, or that which is acceptable conduct for public officials. A recent scandal which has captivated the public gives credence to this statement.
As has come to be expected, the standard operating response for government officials caught breaching the law is to deny all in the face of convincing evidence. How our nation has arrived at this terrible stage requires an in-depth examination, but the more pertinent question for us today is: what could be done, and by whom, to halt this apparent decline into immorality that has become so evident?

THE ROLE OF THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY IN GUYANA’S MORAL DECLINE
Instinctively, and naturally, we are inclined to look to the religious community to be the rudder on morality, explained in the Webster dictionary as ‘the rightness or wrongness of an action’; but surely, the justification for doing so becomes questionable if, as a multi- religious society where people enjoy freedom of worship, we have reached such a low ebb morally.
Confirmation of this decline in morality is evident in the conduct of numerous persons across the religious, social and political spectrum whose character one would have expected to be in accord with the principles and standards of right conduct. Surely the religious community ought to begin a process of self-examination as, indeed, should civil society as well as the political players, of the role we all played – or failed to play – thus leading many in the country to throw out ethical principles and good conduct resulting in our country getting to the sorry state it is in today.

THE WAY OF MORAL DECAY
It is the elite in any country who are expected to set the example for acceptable standards of morality. However, in Guyana, as a group this class has been inclined more towards the embodiment of the negative aspects of our social norms. The ‘fear factor’, it could be assumed, is one such hindrance responsible for the silence of elite voices in the face of the manifest excesses and immoralities taking place in our country.
Indeed, the serenity prayer could be presented in their defence as we ask God to grant us serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference.
But, we are warned in Ephesians 6 V 12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” So, as believers, raising our voices against immorality, injustices and wrong-doing of all kinds isn’t a choice but an imperative, especially for the leaders in the religious community.
As the Scriptures in Matthew 7 V12 states “So in everything do unto others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law of the prophets.” In this regard, the state’s recent treatment of the Mormons should be a lesson for us all in the context of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s warning made first in Germany many years ago.
They first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up.

RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
In the Book of the Mormons, Alma 26.32 (Latter-day Saints) I submit this quotation with the intention of encouraging greater religious tolerance, “For behold, they had rather sacrifice their lives than even to take the life of their enemy; and they have buried their weapons of war deep into the earth, because of their love towards their brothers.”
To err is human. So for guidance on which path of correction we should take, we look to the irrefutable omniscience of Hindu, Moslem, Bahá’í and Christian Scriptures from which we have all strayed and must return for guidance.
From Hinduism – Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva 95: In order that, O Bharata, peace maybe established between the Kuru and the Pandavas without a slaughter of the heroes, I have come hither. Besides this, O king, I have no other beneficial words to utter…Know, O thou of Kuru’s race, that those wicked sons of thine, headed by Duryodhana, abandoning both virtue and profit, disregarding morality, and deprived of their senses by avarice, are now acting most unrighteously towards their foremost kinsmen”…. “If you become indifferent to it, it will then produce a universal slaughter.”
From the Qu’ran 89.6-14
“Have you not seen how the Lord dealt with
the people of Ad,
With the city of Iram, with lofty pillars,
The like of which were not produced in all the
Land?
And with the people of Thamud, who cut out huge rocks in the valley?
And with Pharaoh, Lord of Stakes?
All these transgressed beyond bounds in the lands
And heaped therein mischief on mischief.
Therefore did your Lord not pour them a
Scourge of diverse chastisements:
For you Lord is as a guardian on a watchtower”.
More on this theme from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh 110:
“Our hope is that the world’s religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely afflicted world the remedy it requires.”
From the Bible in Jeremiah 18 V 11 in the Old Testament:
“Thus said the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his evil ways, and make your ways and your doings good.”

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