October 07 +Graham In search of respect

A number, perhaps many, of those who read this article will, in recent months, have wondered if something is deeply wrong with our society.

Secondary school teachers I have talked to confirm that school is, at times, as much a battle to keep discipline as an opportunity to teach. In consequence, some leave the profession. Respect for teachers is not as it should be. Some parents even collude with their difficult children rather than support the school’s Head and teachers. The government has highlighted Respect as a key issue which our society faces in the hope that this will bring about change. But respect will not come just by talking about it.

I was in discussion recently about these issues with someone who declared herself to be an atheist. Her answer to the problem was education. Proper education, she insisted, will direct people in right paths. When I said to her that she was ignoring the Christian history from which our values have come, I could see that her anger was beginning to rise. Many people think, like her, that better education will solve the problems. But this ignores the fundamental Christian truth that we are by nature sinful and we need to be changed - on the inside. To ignore the Christian Faith is to ignore the way to inner change. People do not like to hear that so much of what we cherish in our society has come with our Christian history and that by ignoring Christian Faith we are undermining the very values we want to keep.

All of us will be appalled by the recent rise of gun crime leading to tragedies like the death of Rhys Jones. His parents rightly saw a failure of parenting in relation to the youth who killed their son. Parenting is an issue right across the country; better parenting is needed. The problem of respect is just as applicable in families as in schools.

What no one dares to say is that the root of the problem is the loss of respect for God. We can try this and that policy to deal with criminal behaviour. The government can create yet more laws. But none of this touches the heart of the problem. Respect will never be generated without the fundamental respect – respect for God. If we respect God, we will respect our parents. If we respect our parents we will respect teachers. We will respect other people and we will respect law and order. Respect is an attitude of mind which cuts across everything. Stability of life begins by putting God in his rightful place. Then everything else begins to come right. This is put very simply in the Bible: ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.

+Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle