Clergy decry Montego Bay church shooting as sign of moral collapse

Two Jamaican pastors say last Wednesday's bold shooting in the yard of a Montego Bay church speaks to a deepening rot in the country's moral fabric. The killing has left 38-year-old Corra Thompson's relatives heartbroken and worshippers at the New Testament Church of God on Water Lane struggling to process the loss.

Reverend Philbert Whynn, who was leading service inside the church when the shooting unfolded, said the country has drifted far from the standards he knew as a youth. "There was a time when I was growing up and a man who was smoking saw a pastor coming and he would put it (the cigarette) out. There was a time when they wouldn't have a dance or party or some shops open on a Sunday," he said.

"[But now] anything goes on a Sunday, anything goes anywhere. When we reach the stage that somebody goes through a church gate much less on the church porch .... there is no question society is on the decline. Plus couple years ago you would never find them shooting a woman, never. But today we are hurting women, we are shooting women," Whynn added.

The pastor described the unsettling moments when the first shot rang out during prayer. "We were praying and calling on God and paused because it was a natural response. Then I kept on going because I thought it was outside on the street because there are several businesses around the area," he said.

The gravity of what was happening became impossible to ignore moments later. "When I heard the second and third one and I could see where the lady fell and they were trying to back the door because we were wondering if this guy was going to come in, and I engaged the congregation to call on Jesus. It was terrifying, real terrifying," Whynn said.

Reports indicate that a single masked attacker walked up to Thompson at the church entrance, where she had been selling books, and fired five shots at her before fleeing in a black Toyota Voxy.

Veteran preacher Reverend Dr Al Miller linked the bloodshed to a wider breakdown in respect and accountability. "When you see a church [service] can be going on and someone is murdered, it's the same issue of a deterioration of governance because there is no consequences for behaviour anymore," he said. "There are no values, no morals. So society is on the decline and it means there is poor governance as the root problem."

The attack revives memories of a 2021 case in which 51-year-old Andrea Lowe-Garwood was gunned down inside the Agape Christian Fellowship in Falmouth, Trelawny, by a man who had blended in with the congregation. Dwight Bingham, named as the shooter, was eventually handed a 45-year prison term, while getaway driver Leon Hines was sentenced to six years.

Miller argued that offences carried out on or close to church property should carry tougher punishment. "You must have consequences and serious consequences that it becomes a deterrent, but there is no deterrent, and I hear a lot of foolishness in Parliament on the argument that it is not a deterrent. Since when is it not a deterrent?" he said.

Jamaican law does not currently impose stiffer sentences based on the location of an offence. Asked whether it should, Whynn took a different view, saying: "A crime is a crime wherever it is committed and the law should carry out its course."

Still, Whynn said he is confident that those who escape earthly justice will face a higher reckoning. "But I can tell you this, as a pastor, while the law doesn't have anything to say where the crime was committed, crimes committed in church, if not the justice of the land, something else will happen. These men that do these things. if they don't repent and turn themselves in, God will deal with them," he told THE STAR. "Somewhere or the other, justice must be served, and if not through men, it will through God."