Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Reflections on Riots

Just a few thoughts, from a Christian perspective, as I try to process what's going on.

1.  I need to beware my instinct to look for some fundamental difference between me and the people who are out on the streets.  I would love nothing more than to be able to say 'I am not like them', and of course there are significant differences - but if there are any ultimate differences they are based on Christ and not my own natural character.  Suppose the looting and rioting to be driven by the basest motives - anger, greed, envy: are those things absent from my heart?

2.  Seeing God's providential hand behind all the events, one has to ask 'what is being said to us?'  Surely a wake-up call to a society which has assumed that it is affluent and secure, and can get by well enough without God and without any value system.

3.  We must say at one and the same time 'the sin of individuals has caused this' and 'the sin of society has caused this'.  Therefore, we must insist on the one hand that individuals be punished, and that society examine itself to see what systemic failings have contributed to these actions.  Ed Miliband seems to me to have been clearest about this on the political side.

4.  We must preach gospel-with-law, not just law.  Only Jesus provides the meaningful narrative within which these people (and all people) must live their lives, and he offers transformation and a call to a better life.  This is true of everyone regardless of background - nobody's background means they don't need it, nobody's background means they're too far gone for it.

5.  Might it not be the case that creating a society with a massive sense of entitlement, and then creating a situation in which certain groups of people have very little, would inevitably lead to conflict?  We need to address not just the deprivation, but also the expectation that the world revolves around you and you have a right to do and have whatever you want.

More thought needed.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Daniel, for helping guide my thinking on this. It's a confusing time, and easy to lose sense of the ultimate perspective.

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  2. Just the same thoughts, from a non-Christian perspective, as we both try to process what's going on.

    We're not so different, you and I.

    1. I need to beware my instinct to look for some fundamental difference between me and the people who are out on the streets. I would love nothing more than to be able to say 'I am not like them', and of course there are significant differences - but if there are any ultimate differences they are based on nuture [ culture, education, circumstance, role models, experiences] and nature. But they are no so alien, and we share much that I may disapprove of. Suppose the looting and rioting to be driven by the basest motives - anger, greed, envy: are those things absent from my heart?

    2. If we seek to learn and better ourselves from all experiences, one has to ask 'What have we missed that has caused this?' Surely this is a wake-up call to a society which has assumed that it is affluent and secure, and can get by well enough without without socially and culturally embracing and effectively passing on a basic human moral/value system to the next generation.

    3. We must say at one and the same time 'the sin of individuals has caused this' and 'the sin of society has caused this'. Therefore, we must insist on the one hand that individuals be punished, and that society examine itself to see what systemic failings have contributed to these actions.

    4. We must preach moral-narrative-with-law, not just law. Meaningful narratives within which these people (and all people) must live their lives should be shared, through education, opportunity and role-models. We need real offers of transformation and a call to a better life. This is true of everyone regardless of background - nobody's background means they don't need it, nobody's background means they're too far gone for it.

    5. Might it not be the case that creating a society with a massive sense of entitlement, and then creating a situation in which certain groups of people have very little, would inevitably lead to conflict? We need to address not just the deprivation, but also the expectation that the world revolves around you and you have a right to do and have whatever you want.

    More thought needed.

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  3. Not so different in some ways, but quite different in some fairly important ways.

    In general, it is good that people with very different views of ultimate reality can come together to make common cause, and in terms of responding to these events - in our heads, and also hopefully in some small ways in practice - it's good that we could stand shoulder to shoulder.

    So this wouldn't really be the point at which I'd want to launch a huge critique of what you're saying. Perhaps I would just say that the main way in which we are not the same is that the Christian gospel is not essentially a moral narrative, but a historical account of God's intervention in the world - that means that my response will be characterised by an expectation of help from Outside, as it were. Indeed, that would be so fundamental to my response that in itself it would make our apparently similar responses actually completely different. I suppose the only other point I would make is that I'm not sure what reason there is to assume that we can build a shared value system or moral narrative - any starting point would seem to be arbitrary. Would applaud the effort, but not sure how or if it can be done.

    But on the whole, encouraging to remember that people can come from all sorts of different directions to pull together for the common good.

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  4. Helpful thoughts. You may have seen that Mike Ovey's also written a helpful reflection, here.

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