Breakdown Britain

The Sunday Telegraph yesterday interviewed Iain Duncan Smith in anticipation of the launch of his interim report "Breakdown Britain", commissioned by the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron. In this report, Duncan Smith examines what is at the root of social breakdown in the UK today:

It identifies the "collapse of the family" as a key driver of social breakdown, claiming that children from broken homes are far more likely to fail at school, turn to drink and drugs or fall foul of the law. It concludes that without a "radical reappraisal" of policy towards marriage "social tensions will grow, fuelling the wave of violent crime that is already scarring society and eroding the informal bonds that keep communities together".

The interviewer goes on to state:

The Chingford MP is clear that the trend for rearing children in loose, transient relationships is damaging.

"The facts show that there is a difference between a cohabiting couple with children and a married couple with children. The reality is the children themselves do suffer enormously. The life chances of those children degrade immediately on the breakdown."

It will be interesting to hear more about this report when it is published later today. The conclusions may be a revelation to the 21st century political elite, but this should not be so for the Christian. God designed the family to be bedrock of all human relationships and the ideal situation for the nurture, instruction and discipline of children. If this design is rejected, the result will be the breakdown of society as a whole.

However, important as strong marriages are to the functioning of society, there is a deeper reason for "Breakdown Britain." Underlying the rejection of marriage is a rejection of God himself, his rule and his grace. And what we see around us at the end of 2006 is not unknown territory. Today, I read Isaiah 3 and was struck by the familiar ring of the situation depicted there. Isaiah is proclaiming God's judgement on Judah, who have rejected his law and spurned his grace. Verse 5 says,

And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbour; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honourable.

God gives Judah up to their sin and the result is the breakdown of society; the young give no respect to their elders, everyone is looking out for "number one".

This is a gloomy picture and we cannot look to politicians for a remedy. A few chapters further on in Isaiah, God presents his solution:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shined...For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:2&6)

Praise God for the incarnation of his Son and pray that this Christmas, God will open people's eyes to their need for a Saviour.

Bring Back the Lions!

Yesterday, Glasgow's Sunday Herald ran a feature story, "On a Hymn and a Prayer" looking at "who are the 21st Century faithful and where do they worship?" The article, written by "lapsed Christian Vicky Allan" looked at five churches in Edinburgh on a quest to "find out more about those who have resisted the trend towards secularity." Featured predominantly, was our own church, Charlotte Chapel. Our pastor, Peter Grainger was quoted extensively regarding the nature and role of the church in today's society. Peter commented:

"We are living in a post-Christian society now, where I think the church thrives best. Christendom is a very mixed blessing, where you impose religion on people. So all this stuff about attacking Christians in the media and Christian Unions, I think that's good. We'll all have to stand up and be counted rather than waffling along. Bring back the lions."

Overall, the article was surprisingly positive stating that: "none of the services I attended gives any indication that this is a religion in decline. There is a vibrancy, a sense of solidarity against the rest of the world. Indeed, sometimes it seems that these modern-day church-goers revel in their outsiderness."

Perhaps, in the words of Ms Allan "it is the strident singing, the way the Pastor, Peter Grainger, stands in his pulpit swaying as a four voice choir acts as a backing group, that makes Charlotte Chapel the most successful church in Edinburgh. It's the welcome you get as you sit in a pew and the student nurse next to you turns and introduces her friends. Or perhaps it is the sermons: long, challenging affairs lasting almost an hour."

However, this near perfect report did have one blemish. Allan admits to finding somethings difficult, in particular those three out of the five churches who "have not embraced the idea of women as church leaders or preachers, relegating them, instead, to other roles...This in itself feels significantly out of touch with the times." And yet, should we view this in such negativity? I'm inclined not to think so. Perhaps to add to Ms Allan's list, the reason why those three out of five churches are "bucking the contemporary trend" is because they are taking seriously God's Word to live conspicuously in our world and to embrace what it truly means to be men and women, made in God's image who live and work as He intended.

Neverthless, this should make us reflect on two things. (1) The issue of biblical manhood and womanhood is not only a church issue, but an evangelistic one. In other words, the complementarian position is for many secular women what apologists call a "defeater" - that is, any belief that hinders someone from considering the central beliefs of Christianity. Thus, we must be well versed on why we believe what we believe on this matter.

(2) Nonetheless, it is vital that we don't simply abandon the biblical teaching of womanhood for the sake of gaining a perfect 10/10 or to "seemingly" make our evangelism easier. The history of many liberal churches shows that when we start to pick and choose between passages that are acceptable to modern ears, very soon our confidence in the Word of God is diminished and the Gospel is lost.

Purity, Humility & Certainty

It was only a matter of time. Now, finally, some local controversy in Edinburgh and Exeter has hit the national press. The Times Newspaper and Scottish Television News headlined with the same controversy: increasing restrictions on Christian Unions in the UK.

This follows the virtual closing down of Exeter Christian Union, because it restricts membership to Christians, and the banning of the "Pure" course at the Universty of Edinburgh - a course teaching a biblical view on marriage - because some claim it 'homophobic.' For more extensive details, read here one of the main Times articles: Faith, Fundamentalism and the Fight for Students Souls. A supplementary article also claims that student Unions may take legal action over the matter.

Whatever else we might say, once more it seems evident that our tolerant society is in fact tolerent of everything except the views of evangelical Christians. The head of UCCF communications makes a telling comment when he says:“The politically correct agenda is being used to shut people up under the guise of tolerance when, in fact, you tolerate anything other than the thing you disagree with."

The temptation, nevertheless, is go soft on truth whenever society finds it uncomfortable. I'm reminded of something John Piper has said, stressing that we must not confuse humility with uncertainty in our times:

"Beware of a modern mistake here. Humble does not mean wishy-washy when it comes to truth. Forbearing does not mean saying: truth doesn't matter. It is a great mistake to confuse humility with uncertainty. But many today do confuse them. They think that the only humble demeanor is the uncertain, vague, iffy demeanor. The only way to preserve the unity of the Spirit is to be vague, uncertain in your grasp of truth? He didn't seem to be that way. I think G.K. Chesterton put his finger on our problem fifty years ago in a little book called Orthodoxy:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert--himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt--the Divine Reason." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.55)

John Piper, sermon: "One Lord, One Spirit, One Body For All Time and All Peoples"