Adventist Pastor Prays for Social Justice and Individual Morality
by AT News Team
“The nation is in serious problems as it relates to poverty and morality,” Pastor Merrick Walker of the Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Andrews, Jamaica, told The Gleaner, a leading newspaper in the Caribbean nation. “There is too much poverty, immorality and mental slavery in Jamaica. I would really like to do more for people in 2013.”
The pastor was elected president of the Ministerial Fraternity by his peers in the East Jamaica Conference. He expressed attitudes typical of Adventist clergy in the developing nations where nine out of ten of the denomination’s members live.
“I pray that God will grant our national and community leaders the will, the wisdom and the wherewithal to fix our nation,” Walker told a reporter. He described “shortfalls in … the quality of life and morality” that he observes in his country where the Adventist Church is the largest religious denomination. Radical changes are needed to bring prosperity, he said.
Walker sees a link between prayer and social action. “I believe that prayer will lead to action,” he stated, emphasizing “we must do more than pray.” Prayer “has been the architect of change throughout time,” he said, because “when the heart is open in prayer, it is more receptive for change.”
The model of ministry that Walker practices he attributes to the ministry of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18: “To heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives … to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Walker firmly believes that “it is God’s desire that people are liberated mentally, spiritually, financially and socially” and God’s people must focus on “alleviating suffering.”
“Too many people are blaming others without doing much to grow our nation,” Walker said. He would like to see “all church leaders and their organizations” get involved in nation-building. He told The Gleaner that he prays that people with diverse religious views will be more tolerant of those who hold views contrary to their own. “Each person is entitled to his or her views and must not be subjected to physical or verbal abuse” or other pressure “because of their views.”
Re nation building: I am an accomplished inventor, and my recent work is heavily weighted toward practical DC energy conversion.
I applaud the performance of the adventist church in improving the medical situation of populations served by missions. I am proud of my grandfather's role in helping to make this possible. My grandfather was Newton G Evans M.D., one of the founding doctors of the College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University.
There are two areas that I think that today's adventist missionaries should expand into, in order to improve the lot of impoverished populations. They are agriculture, and energy management. Energy management, that can be taught at high school level, is the essence of what I am trying to promilgate, through my newly formed, educational non-profit, Orbic Institute.
I would welcome discussion as to whether I could be of service in training classes of prospective missionaries.
I applaud you for your focus on teaching people ways to improve their own lives. The first result of every miracle Jesus performed was an improvement in the recipient's life, so your efforts are in the manner of Jesus.
A lesson we can take from the example of Jesus was how He met their needs first by healing their illnesses, feeding them, etc. He spent far more time doing those things than teaching. I never cease to be amazed by how God uses such simple services and acts of caring to spread His love.
US politicians,with unlimited resources, have attempted "Nation Building" in the Middle East. And it has resulted in untold misery & death for thousands. Religion must not be involved in it. It only results in persecution & tyranny. SDA, being the majority faith group in Jamaica, must continue what has brought them success in the past, in reaching lost souls. One at a time. We feel their pain. As Earth's time winds down, the heathen dance, everywhere.
Earl,
The difference is that nations "build" other nations with political objectives and motives in mind. In contrast, ast Christians we have been given the task of building individuals. Where building nations to achieve polititical purposes often results in tyranny and suffering, building individuals makes the nations better places to live.