For years and years now we have heard appeals to different groups of people to aid in the crime fighting process. Alot of these calls have gone to the government telling them to stop corruption and stop supporting criminals, some have gone to the police to stop corruption and stop supporting criminals, some have gone to communities to stop supporting criminals etc, you get the picture. However strangely enough one place that these calls have always went to and that always continues to confuse me, is the church. Ok I guess it kinda makes sense, I mean the church is the home of religion, the place where peace and brotherhood is taught and the place where we are taught that God watches all our actions and we will be punished for being bad by spending eternity in hell. So what better place to drive fear into criminals and attack their conscience so that they will put down their bad behaviour and turn their lives over to the lord, especially since there are so many churches in Jamaica that we actually set a guiness record sometime back.

I guess this makes sense, however one thing I think that everybody keeps forgetting is the fact that, crime is not the result of peoples acting against their conscience, instead crime and violence in Jamaica is largely the result of the corruption and support of criminals which has now spiraled out of control of the people who allowed it in the first place (looking at you political parties). You see the church teaches us that no matter how bad we have done, as long as we repent and truly give our lives to the lord we will be guaranteed a place in heaven, so if thats all that God needs, what is the issue with simply killing somebody, repenting and moving on in life, its a really simple cycle that has been perpetuated by the same people we want to solve the crime problem. Yes I know this is very controversial for me to say but I dont exactly stay out of controversy so you should expect this by now.

However I am an optimist so instead of bashing people for turning to the church I will instead ask the question, how exactly will the church help to fight crime? Luckily I have gotten a few answers thanks to a recent gleaner article. The first suggestion by the church is that prayer is the answer... prayer, fasting, faith, and belief. I am forced to laugh as I read this, not because I am not a religious person this is not so, instead I laugh at how utopian and silly the suggestions are. Instead of asking the church to be a little more proactive you would prefer church goers to pray to God. Now I will have to restate the often quoted saying "God helps those that help themselves" (this is not in the bible by the way), do you really and truly believe that God is going to help simply because we all got together and prayed, fasted, and had faith. God has promised us many things, that is not one of them.

Instead here is what I think are some ways that the church can help us in our fight against crime. How about asking the church to stop harbouring the criminals? Yes the church does harbour criminals, people know who the criminals are and alot of them actually do go to church on a regular basis, why not tell the chuch leaders to ask them to giveup themselves or maybe even if possible give information leading to their arrest? If needs be let the person repent while paying the price for the crime he has done. Next how about asking the church to educate the community more proactively in positive ways, the church is no longer a rolemodel in society, too many priests have been caught having sex with young women and men and doing other acts that are frowned upon by society, it is time to change this image and make the church a more positive institution again by enforcing good values and then actually trying to teach them. Further to this, teaching people right from wrong does not mean preaching the gospel on a repeated basis, the fact is most people in Jamaica know the gospel, or at least know enough to understand deeds and consequences, they dont want to hear what they already know, thats why most people dont like talking to chuch people because they always link back to the bible. Instead try to level with people, dont act high and mighty with people listen to their problems and try to apply solutions that they can understand instead of just the usual prayer fasting etc and then tell them that they can get more guidance from the church. Try to bring them into the church without making them want to leave.

Is that so hard?