In the four years of writing for Evangelicals Now, the published responses to my articles have been few and far between. The responses sent by post to me (c/o Beacon Church Camberley) have been even rarer.
A few months ago, a group of Ghanaian MPs tabled a draft bill aimed at criminalising the ‘public show of amorous relations between or among persons of the same sex’ and ‘intentional cross-dressing … with intent to engage in an act prohibited under the act.’
That country’s Anglican archbishop, Cyril Kobina Ben Smith, joined several other prominent Ghanaian Christian leaders in endorsing the bill. He wrote: ‘The church does not condemn persons of homosexual tendencies, but absolutely condemns the sinful acts and activities they perform.’
I have a great love for cities;
especially London, where
I was born and bred.
However, despite
their
attractiveness as major
centres of cultural and
intellectual activity, when
we consider the UK’s soaring
urban crime rates and the relatively higher
incidences of self-harm and suicide in our
cities,
it’s clear that something has gone
seriously wrong.
Last year, in our urban cities and towns,
there were 34.7 recorded acts of violent crime
per 1,000 population, compared to 6.8 in
rural areas. Additionally, there were more than
double the number of vehicle offences per
1,000 in predominantly urban areas, when
compared to predominantly rural areas.
While social scientists have discovered an
exponential relationship between population
density and both deprivation and the crime
rate, unravelling
the underlying causes –
and, more importantly, potential cures – has
proven far more difficult.
Frederic
Le
Play
was
a
celebrated
19th-century French
sociologist, engineer
and economist, who,
in his twenties, was
converted to Christ from atheism. He was also
the first scholar to investigate shifts in family
configurations systematically. His ability to
speak five languages and understand eight
facilitated his extensive surveys of working-class families in different European, North
American, Asian, North-African and Asian
countries.
Although a pioneering technologist, one of
the key findings from his 1855 publication
‘Les ouvriers européens’ (‘European workers’) was that, despite the benefits of
industry
and urban development, the major social
upheaval that they caused had resulted in
smaller nuclear families replacing traditional
extended
families. He also explained that
the resultant
loss of
intergenerational ties
(including moral and
religious
traditions)
had led to moral decay.
Despite this evidence, Le Play’s findings
were keenly contested by some of the 20th
century’s
leading
sociologists,
until
his
position was eventually vindicated by later
studies.
Why reputation is prioritised over protecting victims
In the four years of writing for Evangelicals Now, the published responses to my articles have been few and far between. The responses sent by post to me (c/o Beacon Church Camberley) have been even rarer.
That’s why the letter I received in response to my last article (How do Christian legal principles help us navigate scandals?) caught my attention.