I don't mean to be snide but the National Prayer Breakfast is in its 32nd year of existence, which means it began in 1980, one of the bloodiest years and a watershed year in political violence in Jamaica's 50 years of Independence.

Since that time, Jamaica has become even bloodier still. In that time, too, we have lost all our morals, Vybz Kartel is a 'demi-god', families are no longer united, our politicians have become more corrupt, our criminals more fearless, and in terms of scams - Jamaica has become the Nigeria of the Caribbean. As a people, we have stopped caring about each other.

So, here's my question. What's the point? In a land where an entertainer facing multiple murder charges is revered more than most religious leaders and is perhaps the most polarising figure, what has the past 32 years of prayer breakfasts done to transform this country's fortunes? In a way, the prayer breakfasts kind of reflect what we have become.

Every day on Facebook, I see people posting all kinds of religious verses and phrases and philosophies, yet most of the people who post them hardly lift a finger to start the process of change. I am also guilty of not doing what needs to be done, so it's not like I am casting blame, just pointing out a reality.

I figure the food at these annual lost-cause events has got to be the very best, and that the gastronomic delights give the participants renewed impetus at the start of each year to somehow try and pray criminals into submission, politicians into practising honesty and decency and Jamaicans on a whole to start being better.

It was Einstein who said that it is insanity to keep doing the same things over and over while expecting a different outcome. But according to Professor Fred Hickling, we are insane, so that we persist with this event is not surprising.

courageous strategies

The very Bible, the centrepiece of the Christian faith, says prayer without work is in vain. We are doing the praying but where is the work? Where are the sustainable and widespread social programmes that will rescue the youngsters who have no hope, where are the courageous strategies and the will to capture and incarcerate those who have gone past the point of no return.

We could curfew until the cows come home, all that does is force the criminals to move from one place to the next. Where are the incentives for corporate Jamaica to reinvest in the country to create jobs so that our college graduates can get on with their lives after three to four arduous but uplifting years of higher education?

The way I see it is that we might as well cut this prayer breakfast out and start finding more active ways of making for a better Jamaica. I see it as another way of sticking our head in the sand, as usual hiding away from reality, something that more and more Jamaicans have a hard time facing these days.

You know what, maybe we should start praying for courage. Perhaps that's something you can actually pray for without lifting a finger because we will need the courage so that as the gunman points the gun at our head and pulls the trigger, we have the courage to face the grim reality that death is imminent.

We might even find the courage to sit our children down and tell them they have no future. When they ask why, we tell them honestly that because we spent all our time praying and not enough time doing.

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