DO WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH THE RIOTERS & LOOTERS THAN WE'D LIKE TO ADMIT?



Source:http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com./



London still feels weird. The riots unleashed fear, dread and anxiety and the residue is still lingering in the air. A few of the stores where I live were looted and it just felt eerie to see them closed and boarded up. The media images of the utter chaos on the streets of my city seemed surreal.

I had an interesting conversation with some teenage boys who live opposite my apartment block. I’ve recently befriended them, so that they can give me quotes and insights for features or blogs, in exchange for the use of the swimming pool and Jacuzzi in my apartment complex. Yes, I have a swimming and Jacuzzi! I asked the boys if they were involved in the riots. They both shared how they were invited by their peers to join the looting but they declined. As we walked to the leisure centre I probed further with a flurry of questions: “Were you tempted to go?” “What stopped you?” and “What do you think of all that has happened?” I continued to fire questions and to my shock, I found Jesus! When all was said and done, it was the Christian values that had been instilled in them since leaving the womb 15 years ago, that prevented them from looting. It was refreshing to chat to some teenage boys, strong enough not to succumb to the heat of the peer pressure cooker .

Although there’s no healing in blame, I do agree with the Bishop of Manchester who said the “relentless erosion of Christian values” were to partly to blame for the riots.  Talking of Christian values, the sermon at church on Sunday was brilliant. The message was from the Old Testament book of Esther and we looked at what we can learn from her life about living out our faith in God, in a Godless culture. Talking about the riots, the speaker said: “The Bible doesn’t give us stories of good people and bad people but flawed, weak, morally conflicted, confused people and a good God. It’s important to remember this, especially after the events of the last week. While dividing the world into good guys and bad guys and heroes and villains works well for Hollywood blockbusters, real life just doesn’t work like that. There maybe many voices telling us the world is split into “them and us” but the Bible makes it clear that we share a common humanity. We are all made in the image of God and we all have the capacity for great good but also all us are fallible! Not just the kids on the estates, not just the rioters and looters, all of us have the capacity for wickedness. We have more in common with the young kids and adults who rioted and looted than we would like to admit. The truth is that if you and I would have been born to different parents, in a different time, into different community that could have easily been us.”

The mayhem in London last week was wrong. I can see why the public are so

outraged at all that went on, but I can not agree with people being thrown out

of their council homes and I won’t be signing the petition trying to justify it.

Britain has a justice system that deals with criminal behaviour and I don’t

understand why local councils are getting involved. Surely, that just makes the

 problem worse. It’s yet another example of the big gap between rich and

poor. Those convicted of rioting could lose their council homes but if you are

convicted and you or your parents own your home, you’re fine. That’s justice?

 The riots have definitely brought the social problems in London out from the

darkness into the light and I look forward to see what good comes as a result.

A Facebook status from a London community leader on my news feed really

inspired me: “We need to spend less time following the news, speculating on

the news, and more time following our youths and helping them to focus on

their future.”