The Tribune

By Bishop Simeon Hall

THE pain of the loss of a loved one, the absence of sons, brothers, fathers and husbands and funeral costs – all these and more are the long-term results which come to parents who knowingly cloak their sons in criminal lifestyles.

No amount of money that parents enjoy from criminal activities can replace the agony that they will experience when a son is incarcerated or murdered. I appeal to parents to encourage your sons to change before death and destructions comes.

Parental advice and guidance are still vital in our efforts to reach our sons, especially those known to police, before “vigilante justice” kicks in.

Those parents who benefit from drugs, robbery and/or other illicit and criminal activities should know that such a lifestyle is usually short lived and that they will mourn.

I make an appeal to all parents, if you know your “good son” is involved in crime, I beseech you to try and try yet again to reach him before it is too late.

Indeed change and reformation is an area in which the church offers continuous assistance probably more than any other institution. Therefore, I stand with other church leaders in urging parents to seek the church’s help for their sons or daughters who engage in criminal activities before six men are required to escort them into the church.

If by chance you are not willing to seek the church’s assistance, then by all means I implore you to contact some other organisation of your choice.

Our ultimate and collective goal should be the reformation of our sons and daughters.

The pain and pathos being manifested at funerals must be transformed into preventative measures by parents, particularly those who benefit from their children’s crime.

Let us reach them before we must bury them.