Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has told the Baptist community that the “hurdles put in front of you only served to strengthen your resolve to fight an unjust system.
Each act of violence against you, each arrest, each incarceration meant to break your spirit only fuelled your determination to have the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance repealed.
He said this in his message to the community in observance of Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day.
The PM said each year on March 30 the nation recognised and celebrates the triumph Spiritual Shouter Baptist community to openly and freely practice their religion.
He said: “We remember the oppression, struggle and humiliation of a group of people whose only ‘crime’ was a desire to praise God in their own way, as was afforded to other segments in the country.
He said today the practitioners of the religion, described as indigenous to T&T, may sing, pray, read the Bible, clap and shout without fear of punishment.
“As a Nation, we too face many hurdles. We continue to adjust to a new economic reality. As a Government we continue to do all in our power to reduce the crime and murder rate and we share your concern about the level of inhumanity which we are witnessing in our communities. At times our situation may seem reminiscent of other violent periods in our country’s history,” the PM said.
However, he said, it is at these times that “we must live by the example of the Spiritual Shouter Baptists and indeed all those who walked the path of hardship, brutality and injustice in our nation’s history.”
He added: “In their journey to freedom is the constant refrain of strength and hope…of never giving up, of never buckling under pressure because, to quote Eva in Earl Lovelace’s Wine of Astonishment, we could bear it… our shoulders could bear more weight…our flesh could hold more pain… our heart could stomach more ache, without breaking or burning or bursting.”
“Let us all mark this occasion by a commitment to remain an inclusive Nation, willing to understand and respect diversity and to treasure the freedoms we all enjoy,” he also urged.
