Interesting commentary about the group-think of the local citizenry.

One of the dimensions of garrison life that intrigues me is garrison spirituality. It seems many people who live in garrisons like West Kingston, and especially Tivoli Gardens, embrace a conflation of Christianity and its Christology or messiah theology and their understanding of the strongman or don who is seen as a local messiah. It is obvious that the perception held of their leader by many residents of garrisons is built on their understanding of Jesus' life and mission. They embrace Jesus' role in delivering humanity from spiritual bankruptcy, but they move beyond that to fill a perceived void in the non-spiritual world for a socio-political messiah to deliver them from socio-political bondage. What bothers me is that their messiah theology is articulated in the reverse. It is reversed garrison Christology in that rather than the garrison "messiah" dying for his people, they are willing and ready to die for him.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...omenon_7644210