Pastors help lower crime with ‘Guns for Bibles’ initiative

Santo Domingo.– In an attempt to reduce the country’s crime rate evangelical churches throughout the Dominican capital partnered with local authorities recently to exchange gang members’ illegal weapons for Bibles.

Over 1,300 guns, knives and machetes were recovered during the month-long initiative that prompted church leaders to go into the city’s most corrupt and violent neighborhoods.

Braulio Porte, a pastor from the Concilio de la Cristianización Nacional, congratulated all the young people, "and everyone who turned in their weapons, that was an act of goodwill."

Esther Cristiana Estrella, from the Nueva Vida Mirador Sur, said the crime prevention plan was going to become a nationwide effort and noted that while they visited neighborhoods, many confessed they were plotting violent crimes.