Nile Anderson | No foundation but Christ: Restoring Jamaica’s families

“Eternal Father, bless our land,

Guard us with Thy mighty hand,

Keep us free from evil powers.”

Jamaica’s most pressing crisis is not political or economic. It is moral. We have allowed ‘evil powers’ to pervade our land by drifting from the moral foundations that should guide our families and communities.

Our anthem continues with a plea: “ Grant true wisdom from above.” The Christian faith holds that this wisdom has already been given through God’s Word. Scripture is clear about the consequences of family breakdown. In Malachi 2:16, God declares that He hates divorce and associates it with violence. Long before modern criminology, Scripture identified a pattern we now observe empirically.

A 2024 study in The British Journal of Criminology, by Dr Melissa Mendez, found that young offenders in Trinidad and Tobago expressed a strong preference for the nuclear family and a longing for fatherly presence and stability. Many of these factors are symptoms of a wider departure from biblical instruction. Abusive or neglectful homes often reflect failures by husbands and fathers to love and nurture.

Scripture speaks directly to this. Colossians 3:19 urges husbands to love their wives, while verse 21 warns fathers not to embitter their children lest they become discouraged. When these principles are ignored, the family unit weakens, and the consequences ripple outwards into the society.

Strengthening the family must therefore be a national priority. This includes encouraging stable marriages, responsible fatherhood, and institutions, particularly churches, that work to foster stable homes. Our rebuilding must begin in the home, but more fundamentally, in the human heart. The foundation Jamaica needs is not merely moral reform, but redemption. That foundation is the Rock, Jesus Christ – through whom families can be restored, souls can be saved, and our nation can truly flourish.

Nile Anderson is Jamaica’s 2024 Rhodes Scholar who is pursing further studies in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. A devout Christian, Nile is passionate about encouraging young people to live faith-based lives.