God’s judgments show a profound appropriateness (Proverbs 1.25,26, etc.). And what our society is experiencing currently appears to have a shocking fittingness about it.
For instance, the prevalence of youth violence, and particularly knife crime, on our streets has hit the headlines. The liberal press has tried to dismiss this concern merely as the product of media hype. But the fears are not ill-founded. Though figures for violent crime have fallen, it has been mainly due to a halving of domestic violence. What the broad statistics hide is an increase in ‘stranger’ violence, up 14% since 1997. In London 26 teenagers were murdered in 2007 and 16 have already been murdered this year. The mother of teenager Arsema Dawit stabbed to death in a lift in her block of flats in June said, ‘I came to this country from Eritrea to live in safety. When my daughter was threatened I went to the police seeking protection. Sadly, this did not happen’.
And yet, as we are horrified by knife crime on our streets, our TVs continue to pour out violence (the more realistic the better?) and our MPs have continued to support the tragic violence against the unborn by refusing to lower the time limit for abortions during the passage of the HFE bill in May. Is there no possible connection between these things? I wonder.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …