An Anglican cleric has called on Barbadians to look beyond labels and stereotypes and confront the realities facing young men, warning that those trapped in cycles of unemployment, despair and violence should not be written off.

Delivering the sermon on the Second Sunday after Pentecost at St Michael’s Cathedral in Bridgetown, the Reverend Canon Stephen Fields said many of the challenges dominating the national conversation require deeper understanding rather than quick judgment.

“Our young men, full of promise, yet caught in cycles of unemployment, despair, and death. And it is easy to label, dismiss, or to say they have lost their way. But the gospel invites us to look again and look more deeply,” he told the congregation.