ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — National Security Minister, Peter Bunting, has called on churches in western Jamaica to take a stand against lottery scamming.

“In western Jamaica we have one of the most corrosive of activities… and that is lottery scamming. This is not something we think the church has taken on frontally. One pastor told me recently that he preached against lottery scamming one Sunday and the following Sunday, he lost half of his congregation,” he informed.

Bunting, who was addressing the Western Jamaica Seventh-Day Adventist Leadership Conference in Mount Salem, Montego Bay, Sunday, said there seems to be unwillingness on the part of the church, to confront the scourge, which the police have blamed for most of the crimes being committed in the western end of the island.

He informed that “when we did the Ten Thousand Man March recently one of our speakers asked the crowd of about 7,000-10,000 and mostly churchgoers, to help in the fight against corrupt politicians, who give contracts to their friends and the cheers were deafening. The speaker also asked the crowd to take a stand against big men taking advantage of minors and once again the cheering was very loud. The speaker then asked for the crowd to take a stand against the scammers and all of a sudden the cheering stopped. I tell you…you could hear a pin drop. Maybe it was a result of fear but there was a clear reluctance on the part of the crowd to take a stand against the scammers.”

The minister said it is clear that the lottery scammers are wielding a lot of influence in the western region and told churchgoers that they have a responsibility to stand up and defend their communities.

“If you are for Jesus, take a stand for Jesus. We cannot be for Jesus and also for the scammers. The Bible says we cannot serve God and Mammon,” he pointed out.

The Minister welcomed the staging of the Seventh-Day Adventist Leadership Conference, which, he noted, is an indication that churches are now willing to take on a leadership role in the saving of Jamaican lives.

“I want to thank you for the courage that I am seeing here today,” the Minister said. “Your theme of ‘Building a better nation…changing lives one life at a time through quality Christian leadership’ is commendable. This is what the Unite for Change initiative is all about and everybody has to play their part in building a better Jamaica,” he said.

The Unite for Change initiative was launched on December 5, 2005 by the Ministry of National Security as a partnership among various stakeholders to tackle crime and violence in the country.