Jamaica needs more, Bruce
Published:Monday | June 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
A trained psychologist and Christian leader yesterday dispatched an uncompromising message of caution to the Golding administration that hauling off young men to jail will not begin to solve the nation's crime woes.
"The Government is making a sad mistake if it thinks that it can use a state of emergency to cart off the young men," warned the Reverend Courtney Richards during a Father's Day sermon at the Portmore Gospel Assembly in St Catherine.
Since Golding declared the state of emergency on May 23 to apprehend Tivoli Gardens enforcer Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, hundreds of young men have been detained from several communities in western Kingston and southern St Andrew.
The police say many have been processed and released.
Richards, a respected tutor at the Jamaica Theological Seminary, who is about to take up missionary duties overseas, was blunt in his assessment of the roles of Church and State in turning around the lives of troubled men.
He said based on his psychology training, he could attest that a vast percentage of Jamaicans have been overwhelmed by the upheavals which were precipitated by the extradition request for Coke, as well as the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips controversy.
Richards urged Coke to allow a church leader to assist him in bringing an end to the impasse, declaring it would be safe to do so.
Great discomfort
"People are suffering from great discomfort," Richards warned.
The pastor said even he experiences some unease when Jamaican expatriates ask him about the issues.
"And it's not my fault, it's Bruce fault," he said to muted laughter.
"People are broken and we need to develop a spiritual process to rescue them," he declared. "The Church needs to be revamped in terms of its ministry."
Richard echoed the sentiments of lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Dr Herbert Gayle, that the strong social-intervention programme is necessary to break the back of the issues bedevilling troubled youths.
He suggested that a spiritual component was vital to any intervention programme introduced to rescue the vulnerable in society.
"We have to reach out to criminals," he told the congregants.
Richards said that statistics told a tragic story of the shortage of father figures because of high levels of incarceration among men globally.
"Research shows that most men in prison do not enjoy good relationships with their fathers," he said.
Richards stressed that the Church has a major role to play in the restoration of men in Jamaica.
"There is an urgent need to rescue people from psychological brokenness," said Richards.
He warned that if the Church is serious about rescuing vulnerable young men, it must accept the fact that persons suspected or convicted of crime will have to be accepted in the sanctuary.
"If we fail to reach out to our boys, could it be that we fail to embrace them in our church?" asked Richards rhetorically. "It takes a man to win a man ... . Men and boys follow other men," he asserted.
The reverend suggested that the problems was twofold, as Christians were likely to baulk at suspected criminals seated beside them in church and being able to win males between the ages of four and 14 years of age.