Rockets fuelled by hatred for God’s people and his ways

Life on the front line of a changing society.

Editorial introduction: With the new Government pledging a huge recruitment drive for the police, it is timely to ask what life is like for officers (especially Christians) policing in 21^st Century Britain. Interviewing a Christian police chaplain, Paul Luckraft finds out what it’s like to work on the front line of a changing society.

With many changes happening in Britain, and not always for the better, it is natural to assume that those working in front-line services are subject to new pressures and increasing burdens. Those who have been in such jobs for a considerable period may now find things are very different from when they started. How do they cope? And will their situation become more difficult as society continues to decline, morally and spiritually?

One vital sector of our public services is the police force (or, more properly nowadays, police ‘service’), with their dual function of care and control, of serving the public and their needs while maintaining the law of the land.

What is it like to be a Christian in modern policing? What problems do officers and their support teams face in this era of political correctness, diversity and cultural Marxism?

To find answers I talked to a chaplain in the Metropolitan Police Service, to whom I will refer as ‘J’. The picture I gained wasn’t as depressing as I had feared - nevertheless, the policeman’s lot can hardly be described as a totally happy one.

Growing Discontent

According to J, one significant area of discontent among officers, especially senior ones, is the lessening sense of professional ‘family’ within particular stations and boroughs. Cost-cutting has meant facilities such as canteens have been reduced and opportunities to share together are more limited. Officers no longer feel cared for, or that they have the time to develop closer relationships among themselves that will benefit them in their work.

Cost-cutting has meant shared facilities have been reduced and officers no longer feel cared for.

This is just one small way in which they feel less respected and valued – but there are others, J went on. Those above them, local and national politicians, make decisions which make their jobs more demanding, but perhaps even worse is the attitude of large portions of society which routinely see officers as racists, bigots and/or as corrupt. Compounding all this is the media which frequently judges them, highlighting complaints and running stories which show them in a bad light.

‘PC’ PCs

Moving to the topic of political correctness, J illuminated how this radical social force no longer allows for traditional policing approaches, which worked extremely well in the past but which would now be frowned upon. Contentious methods such as ‘stop and search’ have to be handled with extreme care to show fairness and balance. Even when the main suspects are clearly known, the police dare not be seen to show bias against the criminal. As a result, time is wasted in searching others in order to avoid charges of targeting certain groups.

In the past, J continued, older officers would mentor younger ones and train them in ways which they knew worked. This doesn’t happen any longer and creates a disconnection between age groups, which is frustrating for senior officers as they cannot pass on best practice. Instead, new recruits come from police colleges already ‘fully trained’, which really means being taught how to behave as ‘PC’ PCs.

J reflected that being the custodians of the nation’s laws is a difficult enough job in and of itself; but nowadays society seems to have its own ‘rules’, separate and distinct from the laws of the land. One obvious example is that of drug-taking. The law may say one thing, but if large numbers of people are gathering despite this to smoke cannabis (for instance), what should the response be? In one case, J opined, thousands occupied Hyde Park for this purpose. Although the event was policed, all the officers could do was watch on.

Restricting Freedoms

One main concern is how to police the new laws on hate speech. In some cases, the required response might be clear, but in general this area is fraught with difficulty, especially if preaching the Gospel is involved. How should a Christian policeman react to being told to arrest someone preaching on the street, or giving out a tract? J summed up the overall dilemma caused by the hate laws succinctly: “Freedoms are being restricted in the name of freedom”.

According to J, the hate laws can be summarised as freedoms being restricted in the name of freedom.

It was pleasing to hear that at present, J finds no problems in representing the Christian faith within the Met itself. Good relations prevail with the top commanding officers who are always glad of his input and have an open door for him. Opportunities for J to speak and pray are regular, including at training days where it might be thought more problematic. Although individual officers may be less than enthusiastic, in general there is little opposition and many are glad of the listening ear and support that a Christian chaplain can bring.

Bettering Society

The goal of every police officer is to make society a better place. But today it is difficult to answer precisely how this ought to be done, especially in a way that all officers could agree with.
Speaking with J inspired and reminded me that as Christians, we should remain grateful for and supportive of our police officers, praying for them and encouraging any that we know personally, pointing them in the direction of the only true Way in which British society can genuinely be transformed for the better.

Find out more about how to encourage and support Christians in the police by connecting with the Christian Police Association.

In the face of so much instability in our nation, here’s a lesson in what brings peace.

South Africa was saved at the cross of Jesus – where enemies are reconciled to one another¹ – when threatened by civil war at the time of the transfer of power to majority rule in the early 1990s.

This is the claim of a former South African Navy officer who was chaplain to Nelson Mandela and his fellow prisoners on the infamous Robben Island.

He said that if civil war had broken out in his adopted country in the immediate aftermath of apartheid, it would have been “every bit as bloody” as the current strife in Syria.

“FW de Klerk [South Africa’s last white president] became a committed Christian. And he and Mandela found each other as Christians,^”2 Rev Colin Chambers told a Doncaster audience, attending an event now known nationally as Life Stories at Lunch.

He went on to explain how the Christian education Mandela had received from Methodist missionaries had taught him the value of forgiveness, which became more precious during his time serving a life sentence for plotting acts of violence against the state. The young Mandela was head-boy of his school, where he led a Bible class and prayed daily during assemblies.

Former chaplain to Nelson Mandela has claimed that South Africa was saved from civil war in 1994 by the cross of Jesus.

Opportunity to Bring Hope

A pastor for an Assemblies of God church at the time, Chambers, now 73, befriended Mandela and his fellow ANC (African National Congress) inmates during regular visits to the island, just a few miles from Cape Town.

On one occasion he found himself speaking about the Jewish patriarch Joseph; how he was imprisoned in Egypt and then released to serve as Prime Minister under Pharaoh, saving two nations in the process (through relief from famine).

He then realised he might have overstepped the mark and apologised to Nelson, begging his forgiveness for insensitivity. But the ANC leader insisted: “Not at all; you give me hope!”

When the job offer was first put to him, Chambers didn’t think – as a white officer of the South African Defence Force – that he had much chance of being accepted by the prisoners, who had been fighting against the apartheid regime. But he was amazed when first introduced to their iconic leader, who said: “The name’s Mandela. You’re very welcome. How was the sea? [It can be a rough passage] And how’s your father?”

Puzzled, he thought he might have known his dad, who was the same age, but later discovered that in the Xhosa culture in which Mandela had been nurtured it was an expression that meant you were accepted.

Learning About Forgiveness

“The general narrative among my acquaintances was that he was a terrorist getting what he deserved. He was, after all, arrested with bomb-making equipment and given a ‘free and fair trial’ by the standards of Amnesty International. “But when I told my congregation at Muizenberg (near Cape Town) that ‘Mr Mandela sends his greetings’, they were initially offended. Some people called me a traitor; even a ‘Pinkie’ [meaning Communist]. But I used to say: ‘If he’s ever released, you’ll see who he is.’”

Chambers once found himself speaking about Joseph imprisoned in Egypt and then released to serve as Prime Minister under Pharaoh, which Mandela received as a message of hope.

“We chatted about forgiveness (around 1980/1) and how Joseph, when he met his brothers who had thrown him down a well and then sold him into slavery, had said: “You meant it for evil, but God intended it for good…” (Gen 50:20).

See Photo Credits.Mandela is on record as saying that refusing to forgive is like “drinking poison and hoping it poisons your enemies”. He also said: “I knew that if I didn’t leave all my resentment behind, and forgive, that I would be walking out of one prison and entering another.”

Reconciliation Made Possible

South Africa is once more at the crossroads, with allegations of corruption at government level dividing the country, but Colin is encouraged by the response to a call for prayer that saw nearly two million people³ meet on a farmer’s field on 22 April this year to intercede for the nation before God.

It had happened before, in 1994 – at the cross, where Jesus’ death brought reconciliation between the nation’s black and white leaders – and it could happen again, he said.

Asked what he believed was Mandela’s legacy to the world, he replied in just three words: “Forgiveness brings reconciliation.” He added: “Forgiveness and reconciliation is the only way real peace can come.”

Chambers is “absolutely convinced he (Mandela) made a commitment (to Christ)”, adding that Jesus’ own test, “by their fruit you will know them”, certainly applied in his case. “We all have the right to change. I saw a change, and I would challenge anybody to say that Nelson remained a terrorist.”

Mandela is on record as saying that refusing to forgive is like “drinking poison and hoping it poisons your enemies”.

God’s Word Does Not Return Empty

One of Mandela’s great friends, apart from former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was Assemblies of God leader Nicholas Bhengu, once dubbed the ‘black Billy Graham’.

During his time as chaplain on Robben Island, Mr Chambers got some of his ‘flock’ – Nelson and other ANC leaders including future provincial premiers – to write their names in his Bible. And he showed me the evidence.

The British-born pastor, who grew up in East London, South Africa, and now lives in Portsmouth (Britain’s naval base), said it was after he became a born-again Christian that he felt it right to stay in the Navy. “I wanted to pilot the ship, fire the guns and preach the gospel, but the Lord in his wisdom allowed me to be a prison chaplain.”

His first assignment was at Polsmoor, where Mandela was to spend the final years of his sentence, and it was due to a security breach at Robben Island that he was offered a post there.

With Mandela’s Christian education in mind, Chambers encouraged his audience to trust the assurance of Isaiah that God’s word will always achieve the purpose for which it was sent (Isa 55:11).

Notes

1 Ephesians 2:14-16 explains how men are reconciled to each other, and to God, through the crucifixion of Jesus.

2 They both won the Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts towards reconciliation.

3 Actual estimate 1.7 million.