How to fix crime and justice was on the tip of everybody’s tongue at the 43rd annual National Leadership Prayer Breakfast held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Thursday, January 19, 2023.
Bishop Christine Gooden-Benguche, the event’s main speaker, could not skate around the scourge of crime even if she wanted. She is the president of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas and the Jamaica District.
In her address, she stressed that finding a fix for crime must include focusing on Jamaican homes. She attributed the escalating crime and violence to a lack of dignity, a sense of value, and self-worth.
Gooden asked the audience:
“How do we restore dignity and a sense of value and self-worth to all those in our communities? We have to begin with the very foundation, which 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 neighbors’, and indeed, the life of all,” Gooden-Benguche said.
Bishop Christine Gooden-Benguche
“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 our communities that say, ‘I am a somebody because God has made me so,'” she said.
Gooden-Benguche said the country needs to go back to the days when communities collectively raised children and see each man or woman as a brother or a sister, not as enemies.
She warned that God would break down unjust systems and restore dignity to the oppressed. She besought the Government of Jamaica to attend to the sector of society that is most vulnerable to injustice.
Because unless these situations are resolved, we will forever be in the vicious cycle of band-aiding symptoms instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem.
She urged the leaders to put safeguards in place to ensure that we do not undermine justice because that will deprive the weak and vulnerable and breed more crimes.
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen also elaborated on the cancer of crime issue during the event.
“For too long, we have struggled with turmoil and instability due to crime and violence. Yet, amid the pleas for peace are also the cries for justice. Not only for the perpetrators but also for the victims,” Allen said.
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. There is so much in Jamaica that requires us to work together, to work in one accord, from the leadership level. We, as leaders gathered here, must first demonstrate this by setting an 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 we lead,” he said.
The GG challenged the nation’s leaders to embrace peace, justice, and forgiveness principles. Which he said are most relevant in today’s world. He reiterated that those principles must be evident in us so they can be transmitted to the people we lead.
He argued that every one of those qualities is essential for the well-being and stability of Jamaica.