On 29th July 2024, a group of children and adults were attacked by a knife-wielding individual in the English coastal town of Southport. Three young girls were killed and ten people were wounded. False rumours spread that the attacker was a Muslim, an asylum seeker or both. In fact, the man arrested at the scene is a British citizen, born in Cardiff to parents who immigrated to the UK from Rwanda and has no apparent links to Islam. His motive behind the attack is not yet clear.
Nonetheless, on 30th July a crowd gathered to protest outside a mosque in Southport, and some protestors proceeded to attack police officers and vandalise police vehicles and the mosque. Over subsequent days, riots and unrest erupted in many English cities and in Northern Ireland. Courts in England have been swift to try and sentence some of those caught on CCTV or arrested at the scene, with an apparent chill effect, although riots continued for longer in Northern Ireland. The situation remains tense.
In the title of this article, I refer to the ‘Southport Riots’ because readers are likely to know what I am referring to. I must clarify, however, that the riots are not confined to Southport and have little, if any, direct connection to the tragedy that took place there on 29th July or the people affected by them. Christians should continue to pray for and offer loving support to those who were impacted by the horrendous attacks in Southport. This article is not about those events, but it is an attempt to help Christians think about and respond to the unrest that followed.
Four words may help us to formulate a thoughtful Christian response to these disturbing events: love, justice, truth and hope. These are all Christian virtues and I think it is important that Christians pay attention to each and consider them in all their dimensions.
1. Love
Christians are called to love their neighbours.[i] It also teaches that our neighbour is not merely the person who is like us, from our own in-group, whether ethnic or religious.[ii] We are all part of one human race, all descendants of Adam, and God loves people of every kind without favouritism.[iii] The grand vision of the Bible is of people of every nation, language and tribe united as one in Christ Jesus.[iv] There is no room in Christian rethinking or feeling for hatred or distrust of people simply because of their skin colour, cultural background or religion. We must love all of our neighbours.
It is right, therefore, that Christians should show compassion to those who have been affected by the unrest and feel threatened by it. We should continue to do what many individual Christians and churches have been doing – reaching out with words and acts of kindness to those among us who are intimidated and under attack. This is our God-given duty to all, whatever their ethnicity or religion.
But, the concept of neighbour extends also to those who are involved in riots and even those who are inciting them. This is more challenging, of course, because we may instinctively feel dislike for such people, but Jesus commands his followers to love even their enemies.[v] Christians should not fall into the tendency of media commentary to demonise wrongdoers, speaking about them as if we exclude them from humanity. They too are people loved by God and we must pray for them and do what we can to show compassion towards them. Nothing can justify the violence and hatred they have demonstrated, but even such sinful attitudes and actions do not diminish the dignity of a person. Christians should think about how they can speak and show kindness to those who have rioted and, where possible without being reckless, to those who may riot.
2. Justice
Justice is also a basic biblical value. Christians should welcome the firm and clear approach of the criminal justice system to the acts of intimidation and violence. We recognise that God has given authority to the State to punish those who do wrong and reward those who do right.[vi] We should be concerned to see justice done in the arrest, trial, conviction and sentencing of those who have done such evil things. We should not, however, think that that is enough.
Christians believe in justice in all its dimensions because we worship a God of justice, but the biblical vision of justice is much greater than simply holding wrongdoers to account. We might think of three dimensions of justice:
retributive – just punishment for wrongdoing;
restorative – bringing those who do wrong back into a healthy relationship with society and with those they have wronged; and
redistributive – creating a fair society in which people of all bakcgrounds have equal opportunities.
Each of these dimensions is evident in the law God gave to the nation of Israel: the principle of 'an eye for an eye' described retributive justice; the sacrifical system was about restoration; and the year of Jubilee was the epitome of redistributive justice. They can also been seen in the gospel and the New Testament's expectations for the churches: God will punish sin and has appointed authorities in the world to punish wrongdoers (retributive justice); Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust, to reconcile repentant sinners to God (restorative justice); and the church is a community in which people of all backgrounds are united in love, using their diverse gifts in God's service and sharing with one another as they have need (redistributive justice).
All three of these aspects of justice are important in a balanced response to civil unrest. Let me suggest just three consequences of this broader understanding of justice for our response to civil unrest.
Firstly, custodial sentences for those guilty of rioting come at a time when there is severe pressure on the prison system. Britain’s prisons have been described as “brutal and overcrowded”,[vii] and, just weeks before the riots, government ministers put into action a plan to delay court cases to reduce numbers in prison.[viii] Which of three forms of justice is prison intended to embody and does it really do so? Should prison be a punishment and does it feel like it? Do people who go to prison get restored as good citizens? Does prison reinforce or overcome social divisions and injustice? There are no simple answers to these questions, but Christians should think carefully about them and not assume simplistic answers.
Secondly, for the asylum seekers and refugees who were targets of some of the unrest, justice means much more than simply holding those who threatened them to account. Are we treating these people fairly in this country? What would that mean? Christians may look to the Old Testament, with God’s clear commands to Israelites to welcome foreigners among them and thrilling stories of times when this happened (the book of Ruth is the most extended example). Foreigners who came to live within the nation of Israel were to be allowed to participate in its economic life and were welcome to join its religious practices too.[ix] We do not live in the theocratic nation of Israel, but the principles behind these commands should surely cause Christians to want to see foreigners nearby blessed. We do not do so because we are generously welcoming them to ‘our country’, but because we are also foreigners here – citizens of heaven [x] and exiles in this world [xi]– so we (should) know how they feel! This does not mean that Christians must favour uncontrolled immigration – Christians are likely to have the same range of opinions about how to handle immigration as others – but that we must be committed to the wellbeing of those who live among us. We should seek to do what we can to ensure that people who are in our country are able to live safely and with the dignity God has created them with.
Thirdly, we must ask what the unrest tells us about the sense of justice in wider society. It seems clear that many people in the UK feel that they are not being fairly. People who feel they are economic underdogs and that others are receiving better treatment from the State than they are, perhaps even at their expense, are much more likely to be prone to racist and anti-immigration rhetoric. Such feelings do not justify violence and intimidation, but we must engage seriously with them. Justice must work in all directions. In particular, we must ask whether the redistributive dimension of justice is as important to us as the retributive aspect. Some of us in our middle-class comfort, who have no reason to feel threatened, could easily pass judgement on others whose experience is very different. We need to understand how people in underprivileged communities feel and why they feel that way. We need to offer them something better. In doing so, we are not justifying their actions, but treating them with the dignity they also have.
3. Truth
These riots were incited and fuelled by half-truths and downright lies. We should be concerned about how easy it is for such messages to spread on social media. Like no generation before us, we have instant access to vast amounts of information combined with the ability to generate ideas and spread them without approval from any authority. Our time has been called ‘post-truth’, meaning that many people are moved more by emotional appeals than by reasoned arguments based on evidence. The recent unrest is certainly a symptom of that. Christians must be discerning, able to recognise fake news and conspiracy theories.
Truth really does matter. These events should make us realise that. Christians believe in truth that is greater than ourselves and our opinions. We know that there are such things as right and wrong, good and evil. It seems that our society knows that too when confronted with outrageous evils. Yet in many other respects we pretend it is not so. Concepts like being male and female are no longer treated in such absolute categories. There is an intrinsic contradiction here. We are certain that racism is wrong, but we are equally certain that claims that any form of consensual sex might be wrong is false. In a world of moral relativism, we should not be surprised that conflict arises between groups who reach different conclusions from their different perspectives about right and wrong. Christians, by contrast, take our bearings on right and wrong from a source beyond ourselves. We know hatred of others is wrong because God says it is wrong, but we also accept his authority when he points out other wrongs in our desires and attitudes.
Our culture is naïve about the nature of evil because it is confused about the nature of truth. Evil does not only reside in a few people on the fringes. It is a reality in all of us. We are similarly naïve about religions. It is too common for people to speak as if all religions are equally good (or equally bad). This is especially so when some people are targeted because of their religion. But, I suggest, the evidence does not support that claim. We need to be more thoughtful and careful. To hate, abuse or target a person because of his or her religious beliefs is reprehensible. But that does not mean that all religious beliefs are equally good or equally true.
As Christians respond to the recent unrest, we should commend all who stand against violence and all who show compassion to those who are threatened. But we must still be clear about what it is that different people believe and whether it is true. We should not speak about the way people of all faiths and none are responding with compassion, as if that means that all beliefs are equally good or true. We cannot assume that everyone shares the same vision for our nation or the same values. We must find out what each religion really teaches and what its followers really believe. Truth matters. We can reject hatred whilst still pursuing truth.
4. Hope
Events like these can make us feel hopeless. Those who want to believe that the UK is a progressive country in which hatred cannot exist have had a rude awakening. Where are we to find hope? As a Christian, I have only one answer. The hope for the UK is in Jesus Christ. He is the hope for people who have fled war-torn countries to find refuge here and now find themselves afraid that they may be turned upon. He is also the hope for people who believe that white people have a right to own and control this country and its resources. He is the hope for racists and for progressives. He is the hope for Muslims and those who are prejudiced against Muslims. He is the hope for rich and poor.
If we believe this, then our response must be to share the news. As we come alongside people to show them compassion in acts and words of kindness, we should seize every opportunity to tell them why we are doing so – not because we are good people, but because we have a great Lord. In our preaching and public comment, we must be clear that our hope for our nation is not that we can lock up all the extremists, or educate all the ignorant, or level up all the deprived. Our hope is in the radical transformation of people of all backgrounds from hatred to love, from falsehood to truth, from death to life. A transformation that only God can bring about.
We have a Saviour who is the embodiment of love and justice, truth and hope. Without him we would not know what these words mean or how they can exist together. In love, he died an unjust death for unjust people so we can be delivered from the just judgement of God against us. God raised him to endless life, and he now reigns in justice and love, so that we gladly proclaim him as Lord and learn what it means to obey him in the strength the Holy Spirit gives. In this is our hope because this is the truth. In Jesus Christ is our hope because Jesus Christ is the truth.
REFERENCES
[i] Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8
[ii] This is the point of Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37
[iii] Acts 10:34
[iv] Revelation 7:9
[v] Matthew 5:43-48
[vi] Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-14
[vii] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/06/uk-prison-crisis-damages-justice-society-and-prisoners
[ix] See, for example, Exodus 23:9 and Leviticus 19:34
[x] Philippians 3:20
[xi] 1 Peter 1:1,17; 2:11
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