Pastor beaten and family terrorised

Pastor Rex Major speaking to journalists yesterday after armed robbers attacked his home. Photo: Rashad Rolle/Tribune Staff

As of Friday, January 15, 2016

UPDATE: Police have arrested one man and are searching for four others in connection with this incident. Full story HERE.

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Satff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

PROMINENT Pastor Rex Major was gun butted and robbed in his home early Thursday morning by armed intruders who also attempted to sexually assault his daughter.

In an interview with The Tribune hours after he was released from the hospital, Pastor Major, 80, and his family recalled the alarming events that occurred after armed men smashed the glass of their French doors and ransacked their home before fleeing the area in a waiting vehicle.

Pastor Major, of Grace Community Church, was at home with his wife and daughter at the time. He said he fought off the armed men during the terrifying ordeal because he “would rather die than live with his wife or daughter being raped or hurt” by anyone.

The break-in took place at the Majors’ Twynam Heights home around 3.30am Thursday.

His wife, 81-year-old Doreen Major, told how she fought off one attacker who she feared was about to assault her adult daughter, Jewel. She said she felt at peace during the incident because she knew the Lord was with her.

“Between 3.30am and 4am I heard my daughter call out for her daddy, she said ‘Someone is in the house’. Well immediately he got up but by that time he met four persons coming into the house with guns,” Mrs Major said.

“One man stayed outside to look out. The three men

proceeded into our bedroom – my daughter was in there she went to get the telephone to call the police.

“They snatched the phone out of her hand and threw it on the bed and it looked like they were going to rape her, so I pounded on one guy and said ‘No, don’t do that’ and I shielded my daughter and she started praying out loud and calling on the Lord. So they left her alone.

“They went in the drawers searching and they were screaming, ‘Where is the money?’ My husband said ‘I am a pastor, we don’t have any money’ and they continued to search the house and my husband followed them asking them what they wanted and they gun butted him in the head.

“He fell on the bed and he got up again and the man pointed the gun at him and my daughter shouted ‘Daddy leave them alone.’ They snatched the television off the wall, they took the iPads, wallets, all the cell phones and a portable DVD (player). All the electronics they took. We all sat on the bed while they searched the house and after about 15 minutes they left.”

Pastor Major said he does not believe he was personally targeted but thinks that he was robbed because “persons assume pastors have money.” Despite having to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance after being gun butted, Pastor Rex said he “would never surrender to anyone” inside his home.

“I have a principle, you will not tell me what do in my house. This is my house. This is my position, you are not going to touch Jewel or Doreen unless the bullet comes through me first, no way my friend,” he said.

“You are going to have to kill me. You will have a murder on your hands before a rape. I cannot sit there and know I protected my life and my wife and daughter are not protected. If you threaten me and my family, you will have to fight me, I will not obey your rules.”

This is the second time the Majors have been robbed in two months. Late last year, Pastor Major said thieves stole CD players and batteries out of their vehicles. Early last year his sister-in-law, who lives next door, had the glass doors at her home smashed and was robbed by armed men, one of whom held a knife to her throat during the home invasion.

The well-known pastor said he believes the crime problem is “out of the control” because “society keeps making excuses for criminals.”

He said: “The police can’t be everywhere, there are limitations. To me there are a combination of factors feeding what we are now experiencing. We don’t believe people are evil anymore, we make excuses for people doing wrong. We say they are from the ghetto or they don’t have a ‘pa’ and so we excuse them and we forget that this is a choice.

“They have a choice whether to be good or evil. For many years crime has been beyond what should be tolerated and our response to it has not been good.”

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

TruePeople 8 years, 10 months ago

das why you gotta keep your own guns in ya house close by....

Honestman 8 years, 10 months ago

Pastor Major said he believes the crime problem is “out of control because “society keeps making excuses for criminals.”

This is part of it but I believe looking at the bigger picture, crime is out of control because Bahamian society has a completely compromised value system brought about by years of corruption at the highest levels of government. Criminality, corruption and vice are now endemic throughout the Bahamas. They have spread like a stage four cancer.

Best wishes to Pastor Major and his family and let's hope they can put this horrible incident behind them and be left to live the rest of their lives in peace. Surely, it's not too much to ask for?

Godson 8 years, 10 months ago

My sympathy to Pastor Rex Major and his family. Through this ordeal, Sir, You have exemplified THE HIGHEST ORDER OF A HUSBAND AND FATHER. I continue to stand with you praying for your continued healing.

This ordeal impacts the common man and his families... note... we ALL are in this together. It is evident that, not only the common people are made to bear the heavy burden of crime, but this scourge has crept into the circles of the affluent; howbeit, in this case, a honorable man and his family.

I do concur with comments Pastor Rex Major made in the aftermath of this assault. He said, in essence, it is an outcome of our society's promoting and uplifting criminals and their deeds. He is right.

As the case is, to be a Vatican Saint, one has to undergo strenuous examination which can extend over hundreds of years. In The Bahamas, Mr. Craig Flowers went from an UN-REPENTING, UN-REMORSEFUL 'CRIMINAL CAUGHT RED HANDED' to a 'SAINT' in record time... he became a saint overnight. He owes his 'sainthood' to the sitting Justices of Appeal who saw this as just while others are made to linger in prison for their indiscretions.

We are witnessing attitude that hardened persons hold towards true honorable person like Pastor Major; who, in fact, might one day be qualified for Sainthood. But no... we rather idealize and lift up scoundrel of organized crime and make them 'saints' overnight... and when it comes to the young man on the street, we want to stand on his neck. But the LORD looks out for the poor and broken of society.

Had we lifted up people like Pastor Major, Mr. Norman Solomon, Mrs Cleopatra Christie for the life and stance they took against ungodliness and organized crime, there might have been more regard to turn away from people such as Pastor Major and his family when contemplating this atrocity.

The Chairperson, and pivotal decision maker on the Appeal Panel, went on to be recommended for Queen's honor as a 'Dame'. True to words: "EVERYONE IS A WINNER"... I recalled a movie back in the mid-seventies starring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and I think, Richard Pryor, 'LET'S DO IT AGAIN'.

Oh LORD, Our God... if this action by Mr. Craig Flowers and the subsequent decision of the Court of Appeal came before you as a sweet smelling fragrance, then, I ask you to receive it and bless them in such further deeds in life. But, if it is not, LORD, continue to SHOW THE BAHAMAS YOUR DISAPPROVAL... and just as well, show us the standard of righteousness and justice by which you want your People in The Bahamas to live by.

Otherwise LORD, the Common People are confused and are more apt to view those committing such atrocities, as was committed on Pastor Major and his Family, as justified in what they have done... because, LORD, it seems that there is one set of laws laid out for them, the affluent, and another set of laws set out for us, the common people. Amen???

Godson 'Nicodemus' Johnson.

Emac 8 years, 10 months ago

Let's hope that these despicable human dogs do not go back to the pastor's home to show him up just because he shamed them publicly. It's not far fetch, since we are dealing with sub humans who don't give a dam about the outcome of their criminal pursuits.

TalRussell 8 years, 10 months ago

Comrades one of the things I observed with high profile crimes that draws the politicians into the story’s headlines, is that the politicians interests and promises to bring about changes will as quickly fade from their memories just as the serious life-threatening attack on the Major family surely will.
Mention the attack against the Major family mere weeks from today and these same politicians of all stripes will respond with; what really happened there – did “someone” get killed or raped?
A NEW BahamaLAND under a new National Flag:
My Dear Comrades, before a new BahamaLAND is to emerge, the old way conducting party driven politics and its accompanying rhetoric must be put to its final resting place. No one is saying it will be easy.
A new BahamaLAND, where no elected representative of the people will never again be allowed to become the puppets to their deal making money and influence peddling masters.
An organized party's politician is an artificial representative and in this sense can only have artificial responsibilities toward the very constituents electing them to the Honourabe House of Assembly.
Social responsibility can never be left be conducted by politicians in accordance with the desires of the people.
The People must hold the mandate to govern - not politicians who may be still holding out hope to one day be made a Knight or Dame by some far away English Queen.
Under a new BahamaLAND where the people will elect their representatives, not elect politicians to become the elected hacks to their money and special interests masters.
A new BahamaLAND where social responsibility can no longer be rented out party politics.
An Attorney General answerable people, not their appointed political party’s cabinet colleagues.
Warn all politicians and government officials, if found doing past, present or future crookedness – you will be persecuted.
A new BahamaLAND society where no handful of punk criminals will cause law-abiding people to have their own freedoms restricted because of the actions of a few.
Move to permanently erase the word “Politician” from BahamaLAND's vocabulary.
Erase any signs today's adversarial political system from BahamaLAND's map.
A new BahamaLAND where the people will no longer be taken for a ride by their elected politicians.

themessenger 8 years, 10 months ago

Best wishes to Pastor Major and his family and wishing you and them a speedy recovery from your ordeal. On another note it was quite comical watching Bernard Nottage and the police hierarchy falling all over themselves in a pathetic attempt at damage control for the benefit of the press. Collectively they have the country floating downstream on a sewer in a sieve.

MonkeeDoo 8 years, 10 months ago

The Bahamian criminal culture has its roots in the nineteen eighties, when Carlos Lehder ran the PLP ( then under Pindling control ), when money flowed like honey from a beehive. Thousands of Bahamians learned to live life, large and in charge. Thirty years later the PLP has new owners in the Web shops but the game is the same. Keep the money flowing and the people will dance and shout AND VOTE for you. In the eightees, and as it is today, those Bahamians who are not on the gravy train, but want some gravy too, have realized that with a gun it can be theirs as well and we have what we have today. No different than what we had then. This is not a new human phenomenon of course. Thousands and thousands or years ago it was written: You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor
Then we have Lead us not into temptation ! But we cannot resist.

birdiestrachan 8 years, 10 months ago

I am very sorry to hear what happened to Pastor Major. I agree with him that society makes to many excuses for criminals. It is the Police, the Government, the church fault. No it is not. Persons choose to do evil. I know one thing for sure the good lord says vengeance is mine and I will repay you. They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. I hope they are arrested very soon.

MonkeeDoo 8 years, 10 months ago

CROCKODILE TEARS BIRDIE - If you were truly sorry you would be dismantling YOUR PLP now because it has had an ungodly affect on the people of the Bahamas. AMEN !

asiseeit 8 years, 10 months ago

Welcome to Perry Christie's version of The Bahamas where there is no such thing as the RULE OF LAW!

TalRussell 8 years, 10 months ago

Comrade Jesus Did Take Care Of Pastor Rex, his Wife & Daughter In Wee Hours Morning - even if their Twynam Heights neighbours weren't aware - Constable Jeuus was on guard patrolling their neighbourhood. How else would it have been possible explain this, if it were NOT for divine intervention?

........////https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpaCMQmM7c

birdiestrachan 8 years, 10 months ago

If one did not know any better, persons on this site would have one believe that there was no crime under the FNM and the Bahamas was heaven on earth. It was not and the FNM can and will not make it so. Stop dreaming. The problems of crime are deeper than any political party. You know Devils food cake is the dark but better tasting cake, and the angle food cake is the white cake that does not taste all that good. So in you all minds the angles and saints are all FNM's perfect with all the answers and the PLP:s are all bad with no answers. As bad as you all may think the PLP is they are 100% better than the FNM. The FNM"s have no vision they have never had any. Oh yes they opened the air ways. trying taking that to the bank

birdiestrachan 8 years, 10 months ago

Idiot NO. Truthful Yes indeed. Traitors? No. We love the Bahamas and the Bahamian people. and this includes you. my friend.

themessenger 8 years, 10 months ago

Birdie, you are now and have always been a stranger to the truth when it comes to your despicable party, and your sorry analogies regarding ANGEL food cake is another pathetic attempt to depict the FNM as a White supremacist party and your disgusting PLP's as the champions of the downtrodden blacks when the reality is that both parties have most miserably failed the Bahamian people of every color. One of these days, hopefully sooner than later, the wolf will be at your door and we will see what tune you sing then, you might even be blessed with a visit from the omnipotent Bernard Nottage to sooth your wounds after.

Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 10 months ago

Just another incidence of violence you can lay at the feet of none other than Perry G Christie aka Vomit! Any one of us hardworking honest Bahamians will be the next victim of crime caused by the failed social and economic policies of the corrupt Christie-led PLP government. Sadly though, we cannot look to Minnis for any hope of better times......things would only be much worse (by a factor of 10) under a corrupt Minnis-led FNM government!!

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