By Kareem Minnis
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Following a recent spate of murders in New Providence, several pastors expressed the need for more unity and better methods used in reducing gun violence.
Bishop Hulan Hanna, of East Street Tabernacle, described the recent murders in the community of the East Street Tabernacle church as “devastating”.
Hanna said: “Like every right-thinking Bahamian I was devastated. I think what impacted me even greater is that these persons had the courage…to come back a following day and to carry out additional murders.
“Our communities have become besieged with these types of lawless behaviours. This didn’t happen overnight.”
Hanna said the common thread observed in the killings rests in young citizens not being connected to their communities and families, or excelling in school.
He said he is confident that they can “turn this around” and believes the police are equipped to do the job.
“The community is at a point of outrage…we are going to make an appreciable dent in crime by virtue of us giving information…so that they [suspects] can face their day in court and face justice.”
Hanna told Eyewitness News his church amongst other churches have done many activities such as community outreaches and programs that go unnoticed.
The bishop said despite the challenges from the pandemic the church will continue to make an impact in their respective communities.
“Over the last eight years we have a program called Street Reach…we have been taking in children from the age of 5 and we’ve been every Saturday and try to inculcate in them values,” Hanna said.
“After the session…we would bring them across to the cafeteria and give all of them a packed bag lunch and they looked forward to being a part of street reach.
“I think the churches just need to just disabuse themselves of the notion that you have to be strait-laced you have to meet them where they are.”
“Some of them are broken…some of them may not have the best role models so this is where church people can come in and make a significant contribution,” he added.
Pastor Dr. Trent Davis, of Golden Gates Ministries, said the attention of the entire country was needed to address crime ills, adding that more “true” partnerships are needed.
Davis told Eyewitness News the foundation of every community is its families, and this component needs to be strengthened through education, civic opportunities, and more importantly spiritual awareness.
“These are our children…we need to go from within and go back out and so the continued focus of our new administration is to reach out to people,” Davis said.
“They need to feel that people care about them and care about their children. The reality is there are solutions and what we fail to understand is when young people don’t have a direction to go in, they engage in violent behavior.
“We must empower our school to not only teach just the rigors of academia but bring back social and more non-academic courses where people did training in trades,” he said.
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