RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER.
This elderly woman sits beside the entrance to Triumphant Open Bible Church in the violence-ravaged east Kingston area of Bryden Street on Tuesday.
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
CHURCH LEADERS made it clear on Tues-day, that despite welcoming the collaboration of church and state in the fight against crime, the government cannot ask them to make bread out of stone.
The responses come after the revelation that national security officials have been holding closed door talks with the clergy to get their support in the national fight against crime.
The ministers of religion are demanding that the government, in addition to outlining and fulfilling its mandate, should clearly define what is requisitioned of the church in this partnership.
"They shouldn't be asking the church to be informants ... that's the duty of the police to gather intelligence, not the church," said Eric Antonio, pastor of Pentecostal Miracle Deliverance Centre in Spanish Town.
Pastor Antonio told The Gleaner that the crime problem should not be taken at face value, and for the work of the church to be effective, the government must restore the breach of trust between the people and the police.
DEEP MISTRUST
"It is a deeper problem than the church just helping and encouraging people to cooperate with the police. It is for citizens to feel comfortable when they give information to the police that they will not be singled out. There is a deep mistrust between the police and some members of society," argued Pastor Antonio.
Desmond Whitely, who pastors Triumphant Open Bible on Bryden Street in East Kingston, where six persons including four females were killed last Saturday, concurs that the role of the church in fighting is limited.
"The church is doing and will continue to do a lot of work. What is needed is for the government to step up and do its part. The government cannot call upon the Church to play its
(government's) role," said the clergyman.
He suggested that social intervention is necessary, without which the crime crisis will
continue.
Reverend Orville Hibbert, who pastors Nazarene Church of Christ on March Pen Road, one of Spanish Town's most volatile pockets, said that the state procrastinated for too long to start courting the Church.
"The government is calling on the Church at a late stage. I think the government should step in and take control of what is happening. They waited until it is out of proportion," he said.
Nevertheless, Pastor Hibbert embraces the notion of the church and state collaborating to oust the crime beast and he is still believing God for the victory.
