Tail wags the dog as pupils take to the streets in protest.

We’ll never solve knife crime if we don’t understand it.

The news is full of reports on knife crime and politicians are busy searching for something to blame: Government cuts, not enough police, too many school exclusions – the list is endless.

But when will we face up to the real sickness in our nation: the way we have allowed the foundational building-block of our society – the family - to be undermined and broken down by our secular humanist, postmodernist, politically correct culture? And now we are proposing to brainwash a whole generation of schoolchildren with the same values.

I know that sounds like an emotional outburst – which it is! But I can give some pretty solid statistically-based facts to back it up. Let’s take a hard look at knife crime, which has overtaken Brexit as the number one talking point in the news this past week.

Violent Crime and Gang Warfare

The data shows that in the 12 months to December 2018, 1.7 million violent crimes were committed in England and Wales.¹ This was an increase from 1.2 million in 2016. Knife crime among young people has soared, with particular connections to drugs, gangs and territorial disputes.

Of course, knife crime is not new. Back in the early 1970s my wife and I and our three young children moved into the East End of London. On our first night, an 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death on the pavement outside our house. We trembled before God wondering if we had done right in bringing our children into this environment. Although I was no stranger to street violence after ten years in Tottenham, you never get used to the tragedy of young lives cut short and the sense of impotence and despair that surrounds it.

‘How we can stop the gangs in their tracks’ was the headline in The Times earlier this month² for a long article about knife crime, including quotes from the Home Secretary and senior police officers, and calls for more ‘Stop and Search’ and more work in schools warning children of the dangers. Only right at the end of the article was there a mention of ‘dysfunctional parenting’ and the suggestion that police officers should call upon these families to talk about the children.

Knife crime among young people is not new – but it has soared in recent years.

Underlying Causes

The Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group are preparing for a major conference on juvenile crime and family environment. A wide range of research studies show a complex variety of factors encourage young people into crime, such as low socio-economic status, harsh parenting, exclusion from school, availability of weapons, family disorganisation and abusive, violent home environments.

In regard to knife crime, research shows that girls are more likely to murder a family member, while boys are more likely to murder a stranger. Boys are more likely to use a firearm and girls to use knives or blunt weapons. Boys and girls equally use violence in conflict resolution, but girls are more likely to be involved in home-based family conflict, whereas boys are more likely to be involved in gang-related crimes.

Most media reports about knife crime focus on the socio-economic factor. In our equality-obsessed culture, it is often assumed that poverty and deprivation are the driving forces behind today’s soaring crime rate. However, this assertion is tempered when we compare serious crime figures today with those of a hundred years ago.

In the year 1910, the total prison population for England and Wales was 20,904 (today it is 82,543) and there were just over 3,000 prosecutions for serious crime.³ These statistics do not include figures for petty offences such as drunk and disorderly behaviour. Of course, the total population at 35,756,615 was only just over half of today’s population, but poverty levels were vastly higher than today,⁴ which really blows away the claim that socio-economic factors are the main cause of juvenile crime.

A century ago, crime rates were lower even though poverty levels were higher – blowing away the claim that socio-economic factors are the main driver of crime.

My own observations from living and working in inner-city areas of London for most of my working life are that the vast majority of children involved in crime come from disruptive families. This observation is backed by statistical studies, which show that the parents of juvenile murderers tend to have provided them with a model of violence. Both male and female young offenders are highly likely to have experienced severe abuse in their families and in up to a third of cases this includes sexual abuse.⁵

In other words, both boys and girls who grow up in violent families and who are themselves subjected to physical abuse are at risk of repeating that behaviour upon others - including other children, with girls more likely than boys to murder children younger than themselves.

Our Trouble is Self-inflicted

This brings me back to my emotional outburst at the beginning of this editorial. The simple truth is that we have brought all this trouble upon ourselves, by abandoning our Judeo-Christian heritage!

We have a whole generation of children and young people who have little or no knowledge of biblical truths about gender, sex and family life. Sadly, that also is true of many of our Members of Parliament, who are currently considering an ‘Education Bill’ designed to give ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ (RSE) to children as young as four in primary schools. The Bill not only forces all schools to teach LGBTQ+ values that undermine and destroy the marriage-based family, but also restricts the freedom of parents to withdraw their children.

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than state-sponsored social engineering! We fought the Second World War against the Nazi regime’s social engineering of public morality in Germany to promote their nationalist and racist ideology. But now we have a Parliament in Westminster debating a Government Bill to enforce acceptance of another form of social engineering: the promotion of homosexual lifestyles, transgenderism and the false notion that all forms of ‘family’ are equally good for children.

It is incredible that a Conservative Government whose philosophy is to preserve traditional values should be proposing a measure that will do such immense harm, undermining stable family life and putting children at risk.

Both boys and girls who grow up in violent families and who are themselves subjected to physical abuse are at risk of repeating that behaviour upon others.

It surely should be obvious that by weakening the traditional marriage-based family we have brought upon the nation all this knife crime, drugs, gang warfare, disruptive classroom behaviour, school exclusions, family breakdown, homelessness, mental health problems, depression, suicide and other social problems.

If we destroy the family, which is the linchpin of society, every part of national life is affected, because the family is the major agent in transmitting values and behavioural patterns to the next generation.

Faith AND Action!

In our recent editorials we have discerned glimpses of light and given a message of hope. Of course, there is always hope, but realistically the only way forward for the nation is repentance! And repentance does not simply mean saying sorry: it means a change of direction: turning away from false teaching and embracing truth, which changes our mindset and actions.

The only realistic hope lies with the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians who are still interceding before God for mercy upon Britain and the European Union. But prayer needs to be backed up and reinforced by firm action to declare the truth in all our conversations and at every opportunity – in our families and neighbourhoods, and with all our contacts.

In the words of Paul to the Christians in Thessaloniki, the nation needs to see “your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 1:3).

References

1 Violent crime is surging four times as fast outside London. The Times, 2 March 2019.

2 Sylvester, R. 2 March 2019.

3 First statistic from Ministry of Justice, quoted in ‘Prison and Courts Statistics, England and Wales’, House of Commons Briefing Paper Number CBP7892, 7 March 2017, p21. Second statistic from World Prison Brief. Third statistic from internal research for the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group.

4 Though, of course, poverty is a relative concept and its measure over the years has changed.

5 See studies quoted on pp4-5 of ‘Trauma and Young Offenders: A Review of the Research and Practice Literature: Research Summary'. Beyond Youth Custody, 2016.

The streetfighter’s lethal weapon and the surgeon’s abortion instruments.

As London-based newspapers noted with horror that the new year had been marred by yet more fatal stabbings, it was another statistic that really shocked me. And it’s one that points to what lies behind the eruption of violence on our capital city’s streets.

While we remain obsessed with focusing on the symptoms, rather than the causes, of our problems, we will get no closer to a solution.

Knife crime has risen to frightening levels which have left London’s streets apparently now more dangerous than those of New York, long notorious for its gang warfare. But this shocking dilemma is met only with cries for more police, and more funding for law enforcement generally.

And yet in the midst of this comes news that abortion remains the biggest cause of death by far in our blood-soaked world. Whereas 8.2 million people died from cancer in 2018, almost 42 million abortions were recorded. In other words, for every 33 live births, ten infants were aborted.¹

Violence Breeds Violence

The connection is obvious: violence breeds violence. We slaughter babies in the womb by the million – legally in most cases – and wonder why violence on an unprecedented scale has erupted on our streets. And I am aware that there are other, often related, factors such as broken homes causing lost and unloved young men to seek ‘family’ elsewhere.

At a time when there is a major focus on research into killer diseases – and there has undoubtedly been much success with discovering new cures for cancer – anti-abortion fundraisers would more likely be harangued or beaten up than receive open public support.

And yet the Bible says: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it?” (Prov 24:11-12).

We slaughter babies in the womb by the million and wonder why violence on an unprecedented scale has erupted on our streets.

While every victim of senseless knife crime is a tragic statistic, the mass slaughter of innocents that goes by the euphemistic name of ‘choice’ for women whose lifestyle is unsuited to raising children, is a blot on Western civilisation in general, and British society in particular.

Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide last year.After all, there was a time when we led the way with missionary zeal in proclaiming the efficacy of a Judeo-Christian culture based on the Ten Commandments, one of which states with the utmost clarity: “You shall not murder.” (Ex 20:13).

But as soon as we jettisoned our commitment to those values, many of the nations we have influenced followed suit.

Our only hope as a nation is in returning to the God-given laws Moses was given on Mt Sinai – laws that Christ subsequently enabled us to follow through his Spirit in our hearts.

Attempt to Thwart God’s Plans

The slaughter of innocents is essentially a mark of rebellion against God – and the devil himself is behind it.

In anticipation of the birth of Moses, the Egyptian Pharaoh tried to prevent God’s will from being fulfilled by murdering every male Jewish infant (Ex 1:22). Moses was a ‘type’ of the Messiah to come, in that he led God’s people out of slavery towards new life in the Promised Land. Jesus went further by redeeming all who trust him from slavery to sin.

But when Christ arrived on the scene some 1,500 years after Moses, King Herod ordered the slaughter in Bethlehem of every child under the age of two (Matt 2:16).

In both cases, God was about to usher in a wonderful new era – and Satan tried to stop it.

The slaughter of innocents is a mark of rebellion against God – and the devil himself is behind it.

In more recent times, when six million Jews were mercilessly slaughtered in the concentration camps of Germany and Poland, one-and-a-half million children were among them.

Once again, God was about to introduce a glorious new epoch for Israel, with Jews back in their ancient land and many recognising Jesus as Messiah. satan tried to stop it in an unspeakably monstrous way. Yet, even so, he failed in his ultimate objective, but at a terrible cost of precious lives because so few who were in a position to do so lifted a finger to help.

Devil Doomed to Defeat

It’s interesting that the legalisation of abortion in Britain in 1967 happened to coincide with a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the old established churches. Whenever God wants to do something special in revealing his presence and power to sinful humanity, satan seeks to spoil his plan.

Ultimately, however, the devil is doomed to defeat and will take all his allies with him into the pit of everlasting fire known as hell (see Rev 20:7-10).

St Paul writes: “The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet” (Rom 16:20).

My new year message to abortionists, and all who support them, is: Stop this satanic slaughter!

References

1 Jerusalem News Network, 4 January 2019, quoting Life News. The estimate of 42 million abortions is conservative; the real number is likely to be higher - perhaps 56 million or more, according to WHO data gathered by Snopes.

We review two recent publications concerned with building up young believers.

Maureen Trowbridge reviews ‘Raising Faith’ by Katharine Hill and Andy Frost (2018, Care for the Family/Essential Christian, Foreword by Rob Parsons).

This book is full of heart-warming, moving stories about bringing up children and brims full of brilliant ideas for encouraging them to grow in their personal faith. It will certainly strike a chord with parents who are needing help and guidance in teaching their children to know Jesus for themselves – but will also be relevant to grandparents and indeed anyone involved in raising children to follow the Lord.

Katharine Hill is UK Director of Care for the Family, while Andy Frost is Director of Share Jesus International. Both are parents who know what they are doing – but far from being another brow-beating parenting manual, this is an uplifting, accessible read which will encourage and inspire, often in an entertaining way.

Written conversationally and in a series of short chunks, the book is ideal for dipping in and out of as well as reading all the way through.

In the Foreword, Rob Parsons says: “Raising Faith is incredible because of its simplicity and its determination to help parents of the under-tens plant seeds of faith in their children’s lives. Full of practical ideas, it is all about giving children the opportunity to know about God and have a relationship with Jesus.”

I strongly recommend ‘Raising Faith’ for its down-to-earth wisdom and helpful ideas – it will inspire, bless and challenge you.

‘Raising Faith: Helping our children find a faith that lasts’ (103pp, paperback) is available from the publisher for £4.99.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Millennial Leaders: Research Findings’ (2018, Forge Leadership Consultancy).

This short booklet presents findings from recent research (undertaken between 2017 and 2018) into the opinions of Christian millennials - people born between 1984 and 2000 - in leadership positions across all sectors of UK society.

The project takes a very positive approach towards the millennial generation, seeking to give them a voice and to help organisations and churches understand and appreciate them more. The research took the form of 50 interviews and 442 online surveys covering areas including identity, culture, leadership development, opportunities and challenges, and spirituality. The results are revealing and will be most useful to older leaders seeking to bridge the ‘culture gap’ between the generations.

The results show, for instance, that millennial leaders are most negatively impacted by a fear of failure, and often struggle to strike a healthy work-life balance. They tend to view technology as both a challenge and an opportunity, and prefer ‘on the job’ mentoring to conferences, books and courses. They place a premium on integrity and humility in leadership, and prize strong relationships highly.

As well as statistics and analysis, the booklet also includes personal stories and concludes with recommendations for both young leaders seeking to develop their skills and organisations and churches desiring to support millennials better.

Overall, this is a well-produced piece of research and although the conclusions may not be unexpected, there will be something to be learnt here for everyone.

Click here and scroll down to download the report or to order a paper copy (£5). Find out more at millennial-leader.com.

‘There is no occupation', Arab pastor tells shocked young tourists

An international group of millennials have seen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a new light after engaging with both sides – and being shocked by what they discovered.

A party of 11 young people from seven nations were brought together for the chance to understand issues from the point of view of those living there.

They were deliberately not primed to view things from any particular perspective in order to allow them to form their own conclusions through interviews and talks with representatives of both Israelis and Palestinians.

Their three-week trip was recorded on film for a feature-length documentary called Quest 4 Truth, now available on YouTube.

It was produced by Generation 2 Generation, a UK-based organisation founded by Andrew, Daniella and Daphne Kirk committed to inspiring the next generation with an uncompromising passion for Jesus and the Gospel.

Impact of Social Media

The group – from Germany, the USA, the UK, Norway, Japan, Brazil and South Africa – were introduced to community leaders in the Palestinian territories as well as in Israel itself.

Not surprisingly, most of them are strongly influenced by social media which generally portrays a narrative of Israel as big bullies of an oppressed people. Media bias had shaped their perception of the conflict, and they were profoundly shocked to discover that the truth was very different.

“I’ve been lied to,” said one. “You realise how false these stories are,” said another.

The Deputy Mayor of Bethlehem, Essam Juha, was forced to explain why a swastika was inscribed into the fabric of the hotel where they met him. He said it was because Israel had humiliated nations in the same way they had been treated.

“It was so hard for me to keep a straight face”, said Marlea, from New Orleans. “How dare they make that comparison [with the Holocaust]?”

Media bias had shaped the millennials’ perception of the conflict, and they were profoundly shocked to discover that the truth was very different.

After hearing how Palestinians see the Israelis as occupiers of their land, they were taken aback by the response of Arab pastor Naim Khoury, who asked: “What occupation?” And as he turned towards the windows, he added: “Where is the occupation? We are completely under the Palestinian Authority.”

The point was further brought home by a member of the group, who observed: “I have not seen one IDF [Israeli Defence Force] soldier, or Israeli flag.”

They also learnt that the throwing of rocks – and even Molotov cocktails – at Israeli soldiers is seen by Fatah, the PA’s ruling party, as non-violent activity.

Visiting ‘the Wall’

A further learning curve involved meeting Col Danny Tirza, architect of Israel’s notorious security barrier built to keep out terrorists, who said he wanted to be the first to begin taking it down when peace finally came. But in the meantime the murder rate from terrorism had been cut by 90%.

He said that those whose land had been split by the wall – only five per cent of which is concrete, the rest being a much more discreet wire fence – are offered compensation, but refuse to accept it for fear of being labelled collaborators.

Graffiti on the wall betrays the true ambition of Palestinian agitators, with a map showing all of geographical Israel as theirs. They have no wish to share the land, or establish a state beside Israel. They want all of it.

As historian Dr Michael Brown put it: “If the Palestinians put down their weapons there’d be no more war; if Israel put down their weapons, there’d be no more Israel.”

An ex-IDF soldier said: “They use our moral standards against us.” As an example, he explained how a terrorist suspect fled to a crowded residential area, knowing they wouldn’t open fire if civilians were at risk. And when the military had the place surrounded, the fugitive duly appeared on the roof in a bid to escape, at which point they shot him in the leg. But while supporting medics were bandaging him up, the soldiers were pelted with huge rocks. Israelis risk death because of the great value they place on life.

Israelis risk death because of the great value they place on life.

The youngsters hear from Israeli-supporting Stand with Us representative Shevy Kass on a visit to Sderot.Evidence of Apartheid?

Further observations on the Palestinians included – “They are victims of their own hatred” and “They are suffering a lot because of radical people in their community.”

In the southern city of Sderot, meanwhile, a rocket-proof playground has had to be built for children so that when sirens warn of regular incoming missiles from Hamas in nearby Gaza, the kids have an immediate bolt-hole.

The group also visited Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum where a tearful young British woman, Megan, was visibly shocked by the way her country – in charge of the region then known as Palestine – closed the doors to Jews trying to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. And on the question of Israel practising apartheid – a charge widely disseminated by the liberal left – she added: “I haven’t seen any evidence of it.”

Dr Brown emphasised the need for Israel’s self-defence by saying that anti-Semitism levels are as high now as they were immediately before the Holocaust. A Brazilian member added: “I believe the biggest reason for anti-Semitism is lack of knowledge.” And a German youth said: “The greatest enemy of anti-Semitism is the truth.”

Watch the full documentary by clicking here (Christian version) or here (non-Christian version).