Little men like Gino Jennings

GINO JENNINGS, the fire-and-brimstone, black American fundamentalist preacher with a seemingly faithful congregation in Jamaica, clearly has a free-speech right to characterise as whores women who wear make-up and other adornments.

And the women and men who sit in his church and not only suck up the insult, but agree with the pastor, have a right to freedom of association and to receive and exchange ideas with whomever they wish, no matter how anachronistic and backward those views may be. So, we concede to Pastor Jennings his right to his crutch. That is the nature of democracy.

It is also the nature of democracy to engage in genuine debate leading to the intellectual liberation and growth of individuals, especially in postcolonial societies where the mass of people look like most of those who attend Pastor Jennings’ church and who have been subject to systemic social and economic retardation.

But in the Lilliputs of little men with overgrown egos like Pastor Jennings, big ideas and serious thought are at a premium, which they neither promote nor engage. Feral instinct gains them ascendancy, then dominates the troop, who often surrender intelligent belief, by stealth, growls, and snarling intimidation – as was on display by Pastor Jennings in the so-called debate with the dancehall deejay Mr Vegas, over the preacher’s offensive remarks about women.

Mr Vegas may have been motivated by publicity that ended in farce. In-between, though, he did something important. He helped lay bare the insipid shallowness of people like Pastor Jennings, who swing fundamentalist scripture like a cudgel to keep thought at bay and his followers in place.

The shame of the situation is that sensible members of the evangelical movement haven’t seen it fit to call him out. So, in Jamaica, Pastor Jennings will probably not have to milk the cows, but will drink milk.