(Trinidad Guardian) A Presbyterian minister has described the spate of domestic violence murders in this country as a crisis more deadly than the coronavirus. Rev Daniel Teelucksingh said those murders are the result of fake love.
In his sermon yesterday at the St Charles Presbyterian Church in Chaguanas, Rev Teelucksingh said four of the more than 40 murders for the year stemmed from gender-based violence.
“We have a very serious social plague in this land which has created an emergency in Trinidad and Tobago more deadly than the coronavirus,” he told the congregation
He said while there have been a lot of discussions about the cause of these “family-based murders,” the common thread is that the couples were either once married or had love affairs. Recalling that in 2017, 43 out of the 52 women murdered were victims of domestic violence, he asked: “Why is it so fragile and unpredictable? Why where love once existed there is so much hate leading to murder?”
Rev Teelucksingh said there are certain universal elements of love, which he described as “a very beautiful virtue that doesn’t grow cold.”
“What we have and what we practice in our relationship, spouses and friends is devalued love. We are looking to love but it is fake love,” he said.
He said fake love is cheap like fake and imitation diamonds and “we have to find an answer in order to bring back spousal love in marriages, find love that is genuine, costly and priceless.”
He referred to the Biblical description of love as patient and kind, not jealous, conceited or proud, not ill-mannered or irritable, but forgiving and caring.
Relationships must be a two-way street, he advised and pointed out that the Bible states that husbands must love their wives and wives must respect their husbands.
Rev Teelucksingh, who has been a marriage counsellor for 52 years, added: “There is a new kind of morality in this country that threatens the very fabric of spousal love. That outside third party has created so much disaster in countless marriages.”
He said infidelity strives where spousal love is taken for granted and called for extensive family life training and education to be provided, not only in secondary schools but as refresher courses for adults.
Love does not change and is a gift from God, he said, and the onus is on everyone who claims to have fallen in love to be responsible, committed and to show mutual respect.
