Respect your body

With just over two weeks left until the climax of the Crop Over Festival, the local Roman Catholic Church has launched a public campaign to encourage persons while they celebrate, to do so in a respectful manner, treating their bodies as the sacred gift from God that is it.

The Campaign is dubbed “My Body, Celebration” and Coordinator of the Roman Catholic Family and Youth Commission, Father Clement Paul, says its message is “My Body, Temple of the Holy Spirit, I Celebrate!”. He spoke of this and the goals of the campaign during the official launch yesterday, which was held in the Upper Room of the St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral.

Addressing those gathered which included representatives of the Church and stakeholders in entertainment sector, he said the campaign, which is being launched with a poster that features an image originally painted in 1980 by local artist Omowale Stewart, will be comprised of different phases, including Public Service Announcements in the printed media, on the radio and television, to spread the message of celebrating with dignity and respect for themselves and others.

“We are calling on Barbadians and our guests and visitors to celebrate the body, to see the human body, to see their bodies as gifts from God, specific gifts from God that they are meant to enjoy and celebrate. Our goal is to get people to celebrate their bodies because whenever the Church refers to festivals like Crop Over and others as well, we are always worried and upset and quarrelling about the gyrations and the nakedness, and it’s almost as if we can’t appreciate the human body, we can’t celebrate the body,” he said.

Father Paul added, “So I thought this is a time for us to try and focus on the positive aspect of Crop Over and other celebrations. It is not just for Crop Over, but we think it is a good time to launch it, because that is where the focus is going to be isn’t it?”

The Catholic cleric made the point as he reflected on recent acts of violence in our society, contending that their message was an appropriate one in that respect as well. He suggested that recent murders are a clear indication of a lack of respect for the human body and life.

“The fact that within 24 hours or less you can have a woman gunned down in front of her daughter and then the next evening you can have a chef shot dead within a short space of time, you realise the body is not being appreciated properly. When you can have our people, some men raping our women, it is just the respect for the body is gone now,” he lamented.

Father Paul said they are on a mission to get each and every person, including those who use drugs, to recognise that there is something beautiful about them and others. He said if persons see the human body as the temple that it is, they feel confident we will see a turnaround in our society.

Meanwhile, Anglican cleric, Reverend Dr. Marcus Lashley, who was also present at the event, expressed his support for the campaign, as he noted that the Church has a vital role to play in national festivals like Crop Over, and to ensure at the end of the day, what comes forth is wholesome in nature.

“Both of us on occasion would talk about the lyrics of some of the calypsos and we’ve had on many occasions to pick up the phone and speak to someone who is either singing or who has written the song, and either explain the implications or the ways in which that could be interpreted and immediately they were very receptive, so I think the role of the Church is to be engaged in the festival,” he said.

Reverend Lashley added, “The festival is about identity, we are celebrating who we are. The people who are in our bands are also in our pews, they are not just people we import from somewhere and bring in. They are from within our communities, our churches and I think that we can’t say OK I’ll see you next Sunday, but on Monday, Kadooment Day you belong to someone else.”

The initiative is also getting the full support of the National Cultural Foundation, whose Chief Executive Officer, Cranston Browne said it is timely. The NCF head indicated that organisation is happy to endorse the campaign, as he expressed the need to encourage the youth to be more respectful of their bodies. (JRT)