JCHS recommends systems for protecting children

Jamaica Observer
January 21, 2017

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/JCHS-recommends-systems-for-protecting-children_87123

In this photograph taken from his Facebook page, Moravian pastor Rupert Clarke appears to be in high spirits.

The Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) has waded in on the controversy surrounding Moravian pastor Rupert Clarke, recommending that all institutions establish systems for protecting the children under their care and with whom they come in contact.

In a news release issued on January 11, the JCHS extended sincere sympathies to the young girl involved and to her wider family.

“The nation must mourn and be enraged about any and every instance of abuse against our children and especially where people of faith are the alleged perpetrators,” the JCHS said.

“We await the outcome of the investigations but we say emphatically that the law must be allowed to take its full course in this matter,” the organisation added.

“The JCHS firmly states that there cannot be any room within church leadership for compromise on the matter of sexual misconduct, especially sexual abuse of children.

”The JCHS strongly recommends that all institutions, including churches, be pro-active in establishing systems for protecting the children under their care and with whom they come in contact. This could include a Child Protection Policy that would bring guidance in these situations according to our child protection laws so that crucial decisions are not left to the discretion of any one leader. However, there has to be transparency, accountability and responsibility by the membership of the church itself in monitoring adherence to such policies because human leadership can fail.

“We urge all Jamaicans to consider sex sacred and special and to return it to its rightful place between only an adult male and female, in marriage.

”We call on fellow Christians who are committed to biblical sexual ethics and the truth, whether they be leadership or laity, to rededicate themselves to lives of sexual purity and to being protectors of the nation’s children.