Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

Human rights advocates are being warned to be mindful of punishing victims of crimes in lobbing for judicial changes biased towards criminals.

"Charity is not honoured by the sacrifice of justice," contends Pastor Michael H. Harvey, president of the North Jamaica Mission of Seventh-day Adventist Churches.

"Charity to criminals often means cruelty to victims. There is danger, lest we should become so mild that we should virtually punish the innocent in order to spare the guilty."

Pastor Harvey was delivering his sermon at the Mount Salem Adventist Church in Montego Bay on Saturday, where Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller worshipped.

The Prime Minister was observing her first anniversary as leader of Jamaica with her husband, Errald, several Govern-ment ministers and other members of the People's National Party.

Evil then and now

The clergyman, who based his address on Judges 19-21, said the three biblical chapters bore a striking resemblance to modern-day headlines of newspapers and magazines in Jamaica.

"In these closing pages are reports of spousal abuse, blatant homosexuality, gang rape leading to murder, injustice, brother killing brother, and even kidnapping," he said. "Without doubt, times have not changed."

The pastor also urged that the nation revisits Christian beliefs as part of the reconciliatory process to salvage the country from moral decay and lawlessness.

Mrs. Simpson Miller also used the opportunity to state her recommitment to a leadership guided by religious principles and called for a character of love.

"We need to take our motto - Out of Many, One People - seriously," she stressed. "... We need to clean up our country, spiritually, morally and politically."