Can the government create respect?

After spending eight years on the international stage, the Prime Minister appears only now to be attempting to put Britain’s house in order. In January, Mr. Blair unveiled his proposals for creating respect in our society.

How is this to be done? By encouraging the general public to ‘have a go’ and put pressure on the police to curb the behaviour of feral children and their parents.

But it is his own ministers, under the thrall of powerful lobby groups, who continue to give confidence and boldness for delinquents to believe that the consequences of their wicked behaviour should be paid for by their victims and the state, while, at the same time, undermining both the power and the authority of teachers and parents.

His government, after disabling parents and teachers through Re-education, Re-education and Re-education, and reducing their function to merely that of feeding, clothing and keeping children off the streets, will now lay the blame for civil disorder at their door.

Nihilistic youth

The view of many parents, teachers and the vulnerable, is that they are powerless either to affect ever new and mad legislation or do anything about a new generation of nihilistic youths, who without conscience and moral compass and nurtured by organisations in favour of sexual liberalisation, are leading our nation, step by step towards a form of pre-Christian barbarism. Already our prison population far exceeds those of other European countries — even that of Turkey.

Some years ago I went up and down my street collecting signatures on behalf of Media Watch from young parents who were deeply concerned about the influence of the media on their children. I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected nationally, but without any wish to criticise the work of Media Watch, it seems that their voices fell on deaf ears.

So what is to be done?

I am aware of many Christian organisations in this country who labour faithfully for the kingdom of God. Each has its own remit — some very wide, others more narrowly defined: Media Watch is a single-issue organisation, while others like the Evangelical Alliance have wider concerns. All seem to have their finger on the pulse, they interface with MPs and work tirelessly, amassing detailed intelligence about forthcoming legislation that could potentially destroy our society.

Christian family

In June 2005, as a member of the public, I had the privilege of being present at the House of Commons during a consultation organised by Maranatha, for the purposes of discussing the sexual health crisis in the UK. And yet, the very section of society for whom that event was most relevant — the parents — did not seem to be represented by any single body.

After listening for two hours to the most appalling statistics, I came away wondering whether parents were aware of what was going on, and, if they were, what they could do, apart from write yet more cathartic letters to their MPs. Where is the national body to which ordinary parents can turn for up-to-the-minute intelligence on a war being waged against them and which would mobilise them into making their views heard and felt? Every other group of society, even the lovers of foxes, seem to have their spokespersons, but the family appears to have none.

I believe the traditional family is probably one of the last remaining traces of the Christian faith in our society, which is why it is under such ferocious attack from an implacable and demonic enemy. Is it therefore possible that we might have something like a British Family Association that might be supported and fed by Christian campaigning, publishing, research and caring organisations, like Care, Belmont Publishing, and the Christian Institute, who, while preserving their independent spheres of activity, could support, inform and mobilise possibly hundreds of thousands of parents into one powerful voice.

Characteristics of the Judeo-Christian family, founded on biblical principles and which, within living memory, were once taken for granted by the rest of society, distinguished it from all other models. The family not only formed the building blocks of our society, but reflected God’s holiness, purity and righteousness. It was our faith that gave us our identity, and made us a peculiar and distinct nation. Just look at our flag.

We live in a society which. having turned its back on God, is disintegrating by the minute. The family, like the isolated cottage in the battle of Waterloo, is the strategic prize and target of the enemy. It is a spiritual battle, for, as Paul said, we are not contending with flesh and blood, but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Parents throughout this land have the desire to protect their children from evil; it remains only for them to be mobilised.

David Skinner,
a retired art teacher, and his wife, a retired nurse, live in Dorset and are members of Blandford Evangelical Church

Can the government create respect?

Nihilistic youth

So what is to be done?

Christian family

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