THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - 23rd August 2007

The Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool

Good morning from Liverpool where the city is waking up to the news of the shooting of a child of 11 by a hooded youth on a bike.

Of course the boy’s family will not have slept as they begin to absorb what they will have to live with for the rest of their lives – that their 11 year old boy was in broad daylight taken from them so suddenly and violently.

I heard the news late last night as I left a Gala Dinner in St George’s Hall to mark the opening of the new and highly acclaimed International Slavery Museum. The Museum Director had spoken passionately about racism and violence being the legacy of the Slave Trade. One of the rooms in the museum has been dedicated to the memory of Anthony Walker who was murdered two years ago. He was found in a local park with an axe in his head. His murderers were young men.

Tuning into the local radio station last night the lines were hot with callers demanding the most draconian measures to curb adolescent lawlessness. Some might have been appalled by the raw emotion that screamed over the air waves and obviously the way we handle the eruption of young violence requires cool heads and sound judgement.

But in the popular reaction there is a seed of hope. There’s a limit to how much you can shape and control society by legislation and force – from above. There has to be a matching pressure from below, from within society where ordinary people live by values and rules that constrain the behaviour of us all.

What seems to be missing in some of our communities is a common way of life where the people themselves in our homes and families, in our streets and neighbourhoods, exercise control over us all including our young people.

The lawlessness that we’re witnessing comes from within. That’s what Jesus told us in no uncertain terms. That lawlessness is not just the violence of young men and women. It’s the lawlessness of families and communities that fail to keep our common life within the law.

The Assistant Chief Constable has called for people to come forward. I echo that appeal with all my heart – here in Liverpool and in our other cities where people know the guilty and keep silent.

The tide of lawlessness can turn only when people come forward and with courage – yes it will take a lot of courage – to build up our common life. Meanwhile, we pray today for the boy’s family and his friends that bereft of the love and friendship of their boy they will feel the solidarity of the whole city as it turns away from violence and champions a better way of life – from within.