(Jamaica Observer) Bishop Herro Blair has warned that Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller’s pledge to review the buggery law if her party is elected to office on Thursday could lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriages in Jamaica.
At the same time, Blair, the political ombudsman and founder of the Deliverance Evangelistic Association Inc, advised his congregation on Sunday to get their candidates’ views on moral issues before voting in the general election.
“My concern is not with reviewing a law, my concern is that next year this time, if you as Christians don’t go out and listen to the voice of God — not Herro Blair now — to direct you, because we don’t know who is who… my concern is that next year this time, the next thing that is going to happen in this country is an approach to same-sex marriage,” Blair said during his Christmas Day message to about 2,000 members at his church on Waltham Park Road in Kingston.
“Unnu build a prison for me, because I’m not doing it,” the bishop said, echoing the sentiments of some pastors who told the Observer last week that they would never accept the lifestyle of the gay, transgendered and lesbian community.
Last Tuesday night during the national leadership debate between Simpson Miller and Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Simpson Miller said her People’s National Party (PNP), if elected to form the Government, would review the buggery law and ask for a conscience vote on the issue in Parliament.
Her pledge has reignited what has traditionally been a hot-button issue in Jamaica where homosexuality is frowned upon by the majority of the population.
For years, local and international gay lobbyists have been trying to get Jamaica to repeal the buggery law, but have so far been unsuccessful in their bid.
