I’ve recently written, first in response to the report put together by Rupert Lowe explaining why it was unhelpful and fell short of what is needed. I then wrote about the questions I believe a grooming gang inquiry needs to consider. I would like, in this third article to turn my attention to another question that comes up. One of the standard concerns raised about grooming gangs is the way in which the victims have been failed so often by those who were in a position of power to do something and didn’t and those who were in a position to say something but didn’t. The focus is usually on the police, social services, media and politicians. However, I’ve seen a number of comments to the effect that The Church and Christian, including evangelical leaders have remained silent on this.
So, should Christians be speaking up and even campaigning for justice in relation to the grooming gangs. My answer is “Yes!” However, I believe that this requires some clarification. First of all, I say “yes” in the sense that Christians can and should be speaking up on public issues, just as they should be concerned about abortion, euthanasia, the environment, human sexuality, freedom of speech, poverty etc. So, it is important to recognise that if conservative evangelical leaders seem a little bit quiet on this specific issue, that probably is less of a reflection on their views on this issue or lack of them, rather it seems more to reflect a general reluctance to engage on public and political matters.
So, this leads to a second clarification. When I say that Christians should be interested and engaged on this issue, that doesn’t mean that every Christian and every Christian leader is required to pronounce their opinion on it, still less, actively campaign on it. This is of course hard to hear when you feel passionate or are directly affected by something. Those who are passionate campaigners on abortion tend to particularly struggle with this, especially when they make not just your position but your strength of feeling on the subject a mark of orthodoxy. However, the reality is that there are a thousand outworkings of what it means to live in a fallen world and in which we can be salt and light. I’m particularly passionate about the crisis around looked after children, the need not just for foster carers and adopters but to understand why so many children end up so badly treated and neglected. That’s not just about individual sin but also about societal failure. Yet, many Christians are not particularly exercised by the issue. It’s not that they don’t care about justice and compassion, it’s not that they don’t want to see God’s light at work, it’s that there are other things that are more immediate to them.
So, when I say that Christians should be concerned, I mean that whilst not every Christian will be particularly focused on this issue, it should concern us if nobody is, if we are completely silent on the matter, especially if the church seems more vocal on other issues.
Thirdly, we want to double check what our concerns are and what our motives are. This is where I am cautious, concerned even about the way in which the issue is being flagged up. Whilst political campaigners, especially on the radical right have been quick to talk up the scale of the issue, speaking of 250,000 victims, that’s an extrapolated estimate rather than the actual data on reported crimes. There are around about 1000 cases formally being investigated. For comparison, similar types of estimate suggest that there are 900,000 adult victims of sexual violence in the UK each year with 200,000 formally recorded. Meanwhile, the NSPCC believe, based on surveys that 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused.[1]
This is important because it raises the question. Are we concerned about all of the other victims of sexual violence? Or is it primarily the ethnic and religious dimension to the grooming gang cases that draws our attention. The risk then is that the issue becomes less about justice for victims and preventing further crime but rather it becomes part of the immigration debate. Again, that’s not to say that Christians shouldn’t be interested in immigration nor that concerns about levels and impact of immigration are illegitimate. However, we need to be careful that we aren’t speaking about one thing when another agenda is at work. Similarly, I’ve been concerned at the way in which people who have had nothing to say about violent knife crime have a lot to say about the Henry Nowak case and the recent attack in Belfast.
So, yes, Christians should be concerned about justice and welfare. That means that we do have things to say on issues such as the Grooming Gangs scandal. However, there isn’t compulsion on all to have something to say. Finally, we should check our motives and watch out for other agendas when speaking up.
Faithroots 