“It Takes Cash to Care”? A Letter Writer Rebukes a Bishop Who Asked for Government Funding for the Church

• A bishop suggested on radio that government should fund the church’s work against crime
• When challenged, he said churches pay more tax than people suppose
• A letter writer called the “funding” answer disappointing and embarrassing
• He argues Jamaica waits for “a dollar sign” before doing anything

A reader has taken issue with a bishop who, asked on morning radio how the church could help reduce crime, answered by talking about money. In a letter to the Jamaica Observer, Andre O Sheppy of Norwood, St James, said the answer, which was centred on “funding”, was “most disappointing” and, for people of faith, “also embarrassing”.

Sheppy described the exchange. The radio host, himself a person of faith, had two religious leaders on his panel. When the bishop proposed that the government fund the church, the host pushed back gently, and the bishop, Sheppy writes, went on the defensive, saying the church pays more in taxes than people would expect. The host, clearly frustrated, moved on to the next panellists. The letter does not name the bishop or the programme.

Sheppy gives three reasons for Jamaica’s crime problem. The first is a habit of treating wrongdoing as “nothing”. The second is a church that has lost its moral authority: “the salt has lost its savour, with what shall it be salted?” The third is money. Those who have money, he writes, coined the phrase “It takes cash to care”, and now no one will do anything unless it earns money for somebody. People are waiting for “a sign”, he says, and too often it is a dollar sign.

He concludes that the church can still change the country’s prospects for the better, but only if it stops being “hypocritical and contrary to the truth” and leads by spiritual example rather than by asking for funds.

The bishop’s point about taxes is worth considering alongside the criticism. Jamaican churches receive relief on some property taxes, and the public debate over whether they should pay more comes up regularly. A church asking the state for money invites questions about what it owns, what it pays and how it spends. Any church that wants public money for programmes, whether to use its halls for youth work or to repair buildings used as shelters, will need to show accounts and results. Programmes with published costs and outcomes make that case far more strongly than an appeal on air.

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