“A Racket Practised in Plain Sight”: A Former Public Defender Wants a Freeze on New Church Incorporations

• Earl Witter, QC, argued in a column for a moratorium on incorporating new churches
• He criticised Parliament for incorporating churches by statute as non-tax-paying bodies
• He said some pastors get houses and cars from collections before members’ needs are met
• He wrote that churches now outnumber bars per square mile in many areas

Former Public Defender Earl Witter, QC, used a Jamaica Observer column to call for an immediate moratorium on the incorporation of new churches, describing much of the growth in churches as “a racket practised in plain sight”.

Witter started from a WhatsApp message quoting a statement attributed to Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame about closing religious institutions. Whether or not the quote was genuine, Witter said Jamaica needed determination rather than more protocol. He contrasted the modest religious presence of the 1970s with today’s proliferation of churches, and wrote that in many areas churches now outnumber bars per square mile.

His main target was the process. He criticised Parliament’s practice of incorporating churches by statute as non-tax-paying bodies, often through private member’s motions. Politicians, he argued, see churches as “vote-catching mechanisms”. He accused many self-styled pastors of exploiting their followers’ faith, collecting tithes and offerings and acquiring houses and vehicles for themselves before considering the needs of their congregations.

Witter said the late Dudley J Thompson, QC, had warned about the trend in the 1970s but held back for fear of political backlash. He argued that there were already enough churches to serve believers, and that the growth of the religious industry had come alongside persistent crime rather than greater love and unity. He accepted that the Charter protects people’s freedom of expression and belief.

Whatever readers make of his tone, Witter’s column raises a real property question. Incorporation by statute gives a church legal standing to hold land and buildings and, as he noted, tax-free status. Every new incorporated church is also a potential new landholder and builder. Tighter scrutiny of incorporation, as he proposes, would mean closer checks on who holds church property and for whose benefit. For congregations building from members’ offerings, the practical safeguard is the same either way: property held in the church’s name by trustees, with accounts members can see.

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