Adrian Frater, News Editor

Pastor Dr. Richard Keane. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

A return to Christian values is being advocated by religious leaders in Montego Bay as the way to change the culture of lawlessness that has invaded the western city, leaving residents cowering in fear and police seemingly befuddled.

Speaking against the background of Monday's triple murder in Salt Spring, which has lifted St. James murder count to over 150 this year, Pastor Richard Keane of the Family Church On The Rock, said the vileness is a result of the emergence of a generation of children who do not know God and have embraced wickedness.

Rebellious children

"We now have a generation of children who do not know God," said Pastor Keane, drawing biblical comparison to the rebellious children written about in the book of Joshua. "This situation will not be retrieved until we bring God back into the equation."

In the Salt Spring triple murder, marauding gunmen slaughtered 54-year-old Victor Young, 34-year-old Hartley Campbell and 57-year-old Wesley Scott. Their brutality was magnified by the fact that a three-year-old child witnessed one of the killings and a dog, which attacked the killers, was also shot dead.

"We now have young men among us who have no fear of God and no respect for their parents," noted Pastor Keane. "They know nothing about the Ten Command-ments. If they did, instead of shooting their neighbours, they would be loving them as themselves."

While subscribing to the view that there has been a substantial breakdown of the family structure and a shift from godly principles, President of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adven-tist Churches, Pastor Glen Samuels, cited social problems such as unemployment and general hopelessness among young people as causes of the wanton criminality.

"As we seek to restore core values, the Government needs to play its part in addressing the matter of unemployment," said Pastor Samuels, who was the victim of a gunman, who confessed that he had turned to crime on account of the fact his many efforts at seeking gainful employment had failed.

"We have got to find ways to create employment for these unemployed youths lest they begin to see crime as a way out of their social and economic problems."

According to Pastor Samuels, addressing unemployment, stemming corruption and paying greater attention to social reconstruction, could be key to rescuing our children from a life of lawlessness.

Within recent years, the St. James High Command, in conjunc-tion with business interests and members of the political directorate have launched various initiatives aimed at addressing the spiralling crime, especially murders, but to no avail.

Drug trade

The emergence of criminal outfits such as the Norwood-based Stone Crusher gang, deadly scams such as the lucrative 'lottery scam', targeting American gamblers and the drug trade, have all helped to fuel discontent. This combination has sparked a level of viciousness which has led to several persons being beheaded and their corpse burnt.

"As vile as some of these fellows are, we cannot give up on them. We have to find ways to help them restore their self-worth," added Pastor Samuels, who helped the gunman who held him up to turn around his life.

"All of us, the Church, the police and even the court system, could help them to realise that they are not as worthless as they sometimes see themselves."

Pastor Keane, who sees the current criminal onslaught as a result of the breakdown in family values over the past 50 years, believes that if the right seeds are sown today in terms of restoring core values, all the viciousness should be gone within another 50 years.

"What you are seeing today did not happen overnight. It is a result of the departure from family values that our parents learnt from their parents," said Pastor Keane. "If we should bring our youths back into compliance today, we should have a much better society in the years to come."