KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government member, Senator Donald Wehby, has urged the church start playing a more active role in the social problems plaguing the country.

“I believe that we need to hear from the churches in Jamaica. The leadership of the churches in Jamaica needs to be more vocal in trying to rid the country of crime monsters. I believe that the churches should be more active,” Senator Wehby told the Senate, today.

He was contributing to the marathon debate on the Government’s proposal for a three-month extension of the current seven States of Emergency (SOEs), which came into effect on November 14.

Senator Wehby also recalled that former National Security Minister Senator, Peter Bunting, had made the call  eight years ago for “divine intervention”, and he had never considered the call to be a joke.

He said that he recalled that in April 2013, several newspaper articles quoted Senator Bunting making the call, while he was national security minister, in an address to the 13

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 Annual Prayer and Thanksgiving Service of the security forces of Jamaica.

“At that time the cartoonists and editorials were having a field day, turning what Senator Bunting said into somewhat of a joke. Mr President and colleagues, I did not see it as a joke at all. I thought what Senator Bunting said was very profound,” he stated.

“I was saying that, to me we are in a deep, deep, deep crisis at that time, under his stewardship and almost saying, if I interpreted it right, that it was almost humanly impossible to solve the problem of crime in 2013, and here we are now eight years later,” he said.

“I didn’t find it as a joke, Senator Bunting. I found it as a very profound statement coming from you. And I thought about that some more and asked myself, (since) we speak about divine intervention and, by and large, Jamaica is a Christian society with very few criminal monsters, I want to make a call. I could be wrong, forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe that we need to hear from the churches in Jamaica, the leadership of the churches in Jamaica, to be more vocal and active in trying to rid the country of crime monsters,” he added.

 Balford Henry