Capleton insists that he is not encouraging anyone to light their clothes, or burn a church. Fire's all about the livity. Fire is a source of purification, Capleton says repeatedly. Water cleanse, but still the fire have to burn water to purify it. The herb is the healing of the nation but still the fire bun the herb so the herb can heal.
Fire is the main source of life universally.
Fire make everything move, and there is no life if there is no fire. Like many Rasta artists, Capleton uses the Biblical example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who in Daniel 3 walked through a fiery furnace without getting burned. In this sense, fire is a force that tests our faith, and if our faith is strong enough, then we not only survive moments of crisis, we emerge strengthened. Perhaps this would be the best way to come to terms with another troubling aspect of the Fire Burn controversy, which is the black supremacist philosophy of the Bobos, and the willingness of some artists to fire burn on white people, or Europeans, whom in some branches of Rasta, are still seen as an enemy to be expelled, along with the battyman and the Vatican. In contrast to the emphasis on unity and spiritual growth of the Twelve Tribes branch of Rasta, the Bobos advocated a philosophy of black supremacy.