Jamaica is reeling from moral decline –Bishop Gregory

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Right Reverend Dr Howard Gregory, Anglican Lord Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, says Jamaica has descended into a place that is reeling from moral decline, moral depravity, sexual immorality, callousness and corruption.

Gregory made his comments while delivering the charge at the opening service for the 145th annual synod of the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which recently took place at the St James Parish Church in Montego Bay, St James.

The annual church gathering was held under the theme 'Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land'.

In giving his charge, Gregory said the level of depravity was brought to the fore in vivid fashion with the retrieval of condemned meat and fish that was placed on the open market for sale to unsuspecting persons in Montego Bay and Kingston recently.

the poverty excuse

"When individuals take a decision to go to the Riverton City dump to retrieve meat that has been discarded due to spoilage, or to the Dawkins Pond in Portmore to collect fish that has been part of a fish kill, with a warning against human consumption ... and can be intentionally taken to be sold to fellow citizens, it means we are over the edge with our sense of morality," said Gregory.

He urged the nation not to be swayed by the argument that the people who committed such unlawful acts do so because they are poor.

"Let us not fall for this argument that people do this because of poverty, as if the poor in the country have no morality. Indeed, the poor, perhaps, have a better sense of morality than what is being manifested at some other levels of society," the Lord Bishop said.

The Lord Bishop also spoke against the number of child murders committed in the island since the start of the year.

signs of moral decline

"All around this nation today, there are signs not only of moral decline, but of moral depravity ... . We are just a few months into the year and already we have had 15 of our children murdered in the most vicious ways," lamented the bishop. "... and not by maniacs who have no control of their mental faculties, but adults who believe that these children are appropriate targets for their sexual advances and exploitation, and also for vengeful attacks for non-cooperation or conflicts with the victims or their families."

"Just as distressing is the number of children who have murdered other children, all within weeks of the barbaric murder of 14-year-old Kayalicia Simpson of St Thomas," Bishop Gregory added.