Crime, justice take focus as leaders pray

With the nation recording 1,498 murders in 2022, Bishop Christine Gooden-Benguche could not help but address the scourge of crime at the 43rd annual National Leadership Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.

While delivering the main address, Gooden-Benguche, who is the first female president of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas, Jamaica District, reiterated that in finding a fix for crime, focus needs to be placed on Jamaican homes.

“How do we restore dignity and a sense of value and self-worth to all those who are in our communities? We have to begin with the very foundation, and that is the home. That’s where we need to start. We have to lay the foundation that will help us to allow our children to value life, and not just theirs, but their neighbours’, and indeed, the life of all,” Gooden-Benguche said.

“Life is given by God. It is not for us to take life. Self-worth, value, and dignity are what we need to inculcate in our homes and in our communities that say, ‘I am a somebody because God has made me so’,” she said.

Gooden-Benguche said that Jamaica needs to have communities that collectively raise children and see each man or woman as a brother or a sister and not as enemies.

Warning that God will break down unjust systems and restore dignity to the downtrodden, she called on the Government to give attention to citizens who are most vulnerable to injustice.

“Unless these situations are resolved, we will forever be in the vicious cycle of treating symptoms instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem,” Gooden-Benguche said.

She urged the country to ensure that in fighting crime, “we do not undermine justice because this will deprive the weak and vulnerable, and so, breed more crimes”.

This year’s prayer breakfast was staged under the theme ‘Strengthening Communities Through Peace, Justice, and Forgiveness’.

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen also touched on the issue of crime during the event, which was held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

“For too long, we have struggled with turmoil and instability as a result of crime and violence. Amid the pleas for peace are also the cries for justice. Not only for the perpetrators, but also for the victims,” Allen said.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. There is so much in Jamaica which requires us to work together, to work in one accord, from the level of leadership. We, as leaders gathered here, must first demonstrate this by setting the example for the people to follow. We must always consider the impact of divisiveness when we, as leaders, make decisions. It is not only about us, [but] more so, those decisions are about the people that we lead,” he said.

Allen urged the leaders of the nation to embrace principles of peace, justice, and forgiveness, which “are very relevant in today’s world, and those principles must be evident in us to be transmitted to the people we lead”.

He noted that each of those qualities is essential for the well-being and stability of Jamaica.

The governor general said that Jamaicans can uplift the country by strengthening and optimising the justice system, encouraging reconciliation and rehabilitation outside of the official court system, embracing restorative justice, and through continuing to engage communities in sports and other healthy interactions that will promote the values of respect, discipline, and camaraderie.

His address was followed by scripture readings from Micah 6:3-8 by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and then St Luke 4:16-21, read by Opposition Leader Mark Golding.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com