Barbados losing Christian values, says reverend

BARBADOS is no longer a Christian society and as a result Barbadians are rapidly becoming like crabs in a bucket, according to Reverend Wayne Kirton.
He made those comments as he delivered the sermon during a special service attended by the members of the St James South Constituency Council at the Church of St John the Baptist on Sunday.
Kirton told members of the congregation that the church needed to urgently get back to “its mission”, and stop focusing on money-making ventures. In reference to last Friday night’s inferno that caused the death of six young women trapped in the Campus Trendz store in Tudor Street, The City, after a robbery, the reverend said it was time for “the church to declare its righteous anger against what is happening”.
“Friday night is just one little bit of the negatives in this society. If we look around carefully, there is no respect for law and order any place in this country. And, until we as Christians recognise the importance of who we are to be in this society, things will never change for the better.
“We could never hope to restore the goodness of this country if we believe that it is simply about the 30 people that sit in Parliament. It is about each and everyone of us seeking to make a positive difference to those we come into contact with,” he said.
The reverend pointed to a few examples that caused him to take the stance that the failure of the church community to uphold its responsibilities had led to all of Barbados’ values “going through the window”.
Party people
“Tell me, in which true Christian society we will find thousands of people, year after year, will fete from sunrise to sunset even into Sunday morning? Where is the Christian society when our behaviour during Crop-Over says to us that our culture has now become from waist down?” Kirton asked.
“Where is our Christian society, when parents in this day and age would seek to spend whatever they have and don’t have on the latest brand name for their child and the latest tight jeans to put their boy children in?”
He added: “They can’t buy them a pants and a shirt and a nice little dress to send them to Sunday school on [Sunday] mornings. They are too tired to get up to get the children ready to bring them to church. But if the [children] have to go down to the Wet Fete, the parents going to drop them off. This is the wonderful Christian society we fool ourselves with,” said Kirton. (AH)