Dear Editor,
Sunday, May 11 was Mother's Day - a holiday celebrated throughout the country.
Many mothers in The Bahamas were deserving of all the honors which were heaped upon them. I believe, however, that there are also many others who do not deserve any honor or praise.
This is because they have been grossly negligent in the parental duties and responsibilities entrusted to them by God.
Many mothers have failed The Bahamas as evidenced by the sheer number of young men who are incarcerated at Her Majesty's Prisons, the skyrocketing murder rate involving young men, the inordinate gang violence among young men, the resurgent illicit drug trade, juvenile delinquency and other antisocial activities which are chipping away at the fabric of The Bahamas.
Many will conclude that I'm being unfair towards women. Why I am not taking the men to task? I am not exonerating the men who are deadbeat fathers. It cannot be denied, however, that the overwhelming majority of homes are run by single mothers.
National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage told the press on May 6 that 80 percent of residents in over-the-hill areas live with single mothers with no male presence. Is it a coincidence that that area is perhaps the most violent and criminally-infested in The Bahamas?
More and more Bahamian women are simply opting to have children out of wedlock. The nuclear family structure is dying in this country, as evidenced by what is currently trending in the over-the-hill areas. On Mother's Day I asked a congregation if they had ever heard the name Susanna Wesley. To most, if not all in the congregation, the name didn't ring a bell. I then told them that she was the mother of John and Charles Wesley. She had 17 other children besides the two. John was the founder of Methodism and Charles wrote over 6,000 hymns.
The Wesley brothers made outstanding contributions to Christianity. Church historians credit Susanna Wesley for playing an important role in the founding of Methodism, due to the godly upbringing of her children.
On the day before Mother's Day, Cable Bahamas aired a movie which was produced in New Providence. The movie gave an accurate depiction of the gratuitous violence engulfing Nassau. One of the actors in the film is Carlos Reid, a youth activist and pastor. Based on his moving testimony, Reid himself was a gang banger before his conversion to Christianity.
His testimony reminds me of the story of Nicki Cruz, a Christian evangelist who was the leader of the violent New York gang in the 1950s, the Mau Maus. According to Cruz's autobiography "Run Baby Run", he was raised in Puerto Rico by his parents, who were heavily involved in spiritism and witchcraft.
It was in his teenage years that he was sent to New York to live with a family. He then ran away and joined the Mau Mau street gang. The gang terrorized New York and was greatly feared by the police.
Cruz experienced a dramatic and shocking conversion to Christianity under the ministry of the late David Wilkerson, the founder of Teen Challenge and Times Square Church in New York. Wilkerson chronicled Cruz's dramatic testimony and conversion in his book "The Cross and Switchblade". The book was made into a movie in 1970 by the same title starring Erik Estrada of television series "CHiPs" fame who played Cruz, and Pat Boone who played Wilkerson.
Over a decade ago I worked with a young man who loved bragging to me about his big brother - a violent gangster who terrorized Nassau in the 1990s. He was a legend in the underground world and was held in awe by other gangsters and drug traffickers. On a particular day, the young man and I were on a job in a ghetto community in Freeport, where we met a group of riff-raffs who were loafing around an apartment complex.
One of the riff-raffs cursed at me after I politely asked for the keys for the building. On our way back to the office, the young man proudly told me that had I been his big brother, the riff-raff would have never dared to curse at me. He also told me that the riff-raff didn't swear at him because they knew who he was related to.
I responded by telling him that I chose to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who didn't retaliate when he was mistreated by the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate. Moreover, there were about eight of them and only two of us. No doubt the group was armed and would have thought nothing of stabbing or shooting us.
In the course of time, the young man went to Nassau, where he stayed for about three years. When he returned to Grand Bahama, he had dramatically changed. He looked like a zombie and had a disheveled appearance. He didn't even seem to remember who I was, even though we had worked together for nearly a year. I then learned that he had witnessed one or more hitmen shooting his big brother to death. Apparently, his brother had raised the ire of a notorious and ruthless narcotics dealer and a bounty was put on his head.
And now because of his brother's bent towards violence, he lies in an early grave. He chose the switchblade philosophy, like hundreds of other young men in Nassau. I chose the cross of Christ, a philosophy my friend saw as unattractive before the violent demise of his brother. I think he understands and appreciates my position.
- Kevin Evans

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