But no, this NY pastor has a doctorate in Divinty and is much loved and recognized for his healing ministry, and his promotion of Miracle Olive OIl soap that he claims cures even cancer and HIV/AIDS. His arrest in full view of thousands of attendees at his tent crusade in Little London Wesrmoreland, sparked the outrage of his local hosts, who were quite convinced that it was a "set up" and the pastor is 'a man of God" who has revealed by the Spirit God's will for their lives. Never mind the little ones he led astray.

Just the day before he took to the stage, the man of God invited two minors, one 14 and the other 15, to accompany him to Clarendon. Upon his return to his hotel late Saturday night, hotel staff became suspicious when the girls accompanied him to his room. Well, as was reported in the news, he twice engaged in sexual relations with the 15 year old while the younger one looked on, and ater it wa all over paid them US$55 and $35 for the pleasure.

Now if memory serves me correct, the Bible says it would be better that a millstone be cast around his neck and he be plunged into the sea, since he has offended one of these "little ones". Spoken by the same Jesus who taught "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" Do you think the good pastor believes that? I don't think so, Even for a reprobate without any degrees of divinity and ecclesiastical titles this would be an eggregious act, and we would want to see the perpetrator punished to the full extent of the law.

But many church folk seem to believe their pastors should be immune from the rule of law, so they close ranks and maintain a heavy impenetrable silence until the heat is off and the miscreant is safely absconded, dusted off and ready to indulge in his pedophile fantasies again.

By their unscrupulousness, these church officials have chased people out of the church while they continue to fatten themselves off the widows' mites and the hard-earned cash of their flock. Sometimes you feel these sheep deserve to be scammed, since it's their own greed and blind trust that encourages that kind of behaviour in their leaders. But scratch below the surface and you see so many who are searching and wanting to believe in a power greater than themselves. and if the message of hope brought by the Miracle Olive OIl and Snake Oil peddler can lift them from their private lives of despair, they will pay handsomely for the relief.

So why have most of the newspapers kept the identity of the randy reverend a secret, even though divulging it would ratchet up their sales? Because in Jamaica we tiptoe around the church. We don't want to be seen as flying in the face of the Almighty and inviting his vengeance upon ourselves. And the pastors themselves will quickly warn you "Touch not the Lord's annointed" as if their claim of annointed stature grants them immunity to rule of law and judgment by their peers and congregations.

The church community in Jamaica will remain strangely silent. They'll all pretend they haven't heard and they haven't a clue who put on a sex show with a 15 year old to an audience of one, another minor.

On Monday night TVJ let the cat out of the beg and disclosed that the mystery man involved in the caper was none other than Dr. Paul Lewis, televangelist, pastor, self-proclaimed healer and preacher who heads a fairly large congregation in Brooklyn, New York, and was flown down to Jamaica to deliver God's word at a series of tent crusade meetings. Well on Saturday night the words remained stuck in his throat when the police nabbed him just before he took to the pulpit.

Jamaicans need to come to their senses and stop supporting these charlatans. There are obvious signs that these who profess the faith are impostors, and if you want to continue giving them your money and thinking rhat they have some kind of exclusive straight line to God, go ahead. You can't say you weren't warned.

The Pastor will not of course, go to jail for the Jamaican equivalent of statutory rape. He will tiptoe back into the US and deny before God that any hanky panky took place, or he may burst into tears like Jimmy Swaggart and ask for God's mercy, with the cameras rolling and his church weeping with him..

God and the congregation will forgive him, and the DVD will be on sale for $30.

Who cares that he may have initiated two minors into a life of prostitution?