The power of wilful ignorance must never be underestimated.
Since Tuesday morning, the airwaves and blogsphere have been wracked by tacky and downright acidic commentators decrying the harsh truths trotted out by Episcopus Bishop Barbara Burke during this year's Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations at Maloney.
Not a single of these strident voices offered even a whimper of protest a week earlier, after Archbishop Stephen Julien took the microphone in Moruga and tried to make a case that all Baptists ought to side with a certain party, politically.
The bickering discordance tempts me severely to wonder whether the authorities way back when were justified in perceiving T&T's only indigenous religion to be a ribald apparatus which must be clamped down at all costs.
What, in Heaven's name, could have driven Spiritual Baptists to the ongoing, very apparent, great divide?
Religious personalities have no right jockeying each other publicly for attention from any government administration. Seek, first, the Kingdom of Heaven! The rest will fall in line!
In its Constitution, this nation recognises the supremacy of God, yes! But it deliberately shied away from naming who that Supreme Being is. Can't our religious leaders take the hint?
Furthermore, this a secular state. Religion therefore is constitutionally required to take a back seat and not meddle unseemly in Caesar's business.
These points are not to be taken lightly, considering the diverse nature of T&T's demography.
Adopting a philosophy of live and let live is unquestionably the only pass leading to societal peace, sanity and maturity.
It'd be best all parties take a deep breath, count to ten, then exhale slowly so good sense can take root, blossom and bear fruit that don't poison, rather, uplift the national mood.
The power of wilful ignorance must never be underestimated.
The swords in Baptists' hands can only be used well after the hammer of one love beats them into ploughshares.
One love!
Richard Wm Thomas,
Five Rivers, Arouca