No! No! – Adventist Church Distances Self From PNP Pastor's Comments

By: Admin

Image caption: “It is time to rise up and be counted. Step up Jamaicans, rise up Comrades and rally to the cause. Because if it is a mountain we can climb it, if it’s a race we can win it," charged Harvey.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica has distanced itself from comments made by one its pastors, Dr Michael Harvey, at the People’s National Party (PNP) mass rally in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew yesterday.

“It is time to rise up and be counted. Step up Jamaicans, rise up Comrades and rally to the cause. Because if it is a mountain we can climb it, if it’s a race we can win it," charged Harvey, a senior pastor at the Northern Caribbean University and vice-president for spiritual affairs at the institution.

The pastor, also a National Housing Trust board member, told Comrades that the policies of the PNP are aligned with his philosophies, hence his reason for supporting the party.

However, in a statement issued to The Gleaner this afternoon, President of the Adventist Church in Jamaica, Pastor Everett Brown, said the church was distancing itself from Harvey’s comments.

“The stance taken by the pastor is a misrepresentation of our global Church policy. As a worker of the church he should not be so involved in partisan political activities to the extent that his comments may influence the actions of any of our members or give the public any impression that the Church is aligned with any of our political parties,” noted Brown.

He also sought to reiterate that the Church and its workers “including those at NCU and every Adventist-owned institution do not support any political party.”

According to pastor Brown, “the church will support the Government of the day, whichever party or combination of parties forms it.”