FbRN response to riots and a question for the reader
To condemn or confess – where do you stand in your reaction to the recent riots?
We don’t have to look far to get a raft of comments and reports about the recent riots across our communities.
We’ve witnessed scenes that have caused profound distress for people of every background, age, gender, ethnicity and faith. The utter disregard of human values, the violence, theft and destruction visited on the property and livelihoods of fellow citizens are shocking.
Responses by many have been weighted towards condemnation, blame and judgement of those who took part and caused such damage and fear. Of course behaviour like this is wrong. Some of the responses are justified: if our community has been vandalised, our family members or friends hurt, our wellbeing destroyed we are rightly and naturally angry.
But there are other responses too which need to be heard. Understanding is growing, particularly among faith communities, that condemnation is not the answer; we must address the deeper question: why has this happened? What is the root cause of the anger, frustration and deep dis-ease – which some would say have been growing for a long time – that generated such an angry outburst?
Answers to this question will emerge in the coming weeks and months from research and reflection. But perhaps we can suggest some ideas at two levels: the social and the spiritual.
There can surely be no doubt that a lack of the basic requirements for social well being, such as secure jobs, safe health care, affordable housing, good education, access to services, can lead to disaffection. When one of these requirements is threatened in a community the whole community is made vulnerable; when more than one is threatened, and the lack of provision extends through months and years vulnerability increases and community structures weaken.
Faith communities must press home this point if we are to be able to work for communities that are safe and secure in the long term.
We also need to ask ourselves why it is that conditions are allowed to persist that lead to material and moral poverty. What we are seeing on the streets is the outcome of a society that has, in essence, rejected its spiritual reality. Religion is often not seen as the potent force for good that it should be; instead it has been supplanted by a dominant consumerism which defines people by what they possess and which turns greed into a virtue.
Acknowledging our own responsibility for bringing about change is not achieved through fine words alone. Faith-based social action is rooted in every local community; it may be obvious, it may be very small; either way it will be making a positive contribution to individual, family and community well-being. Faith-based communities were among the first to pick up brooms and start clearing up. Faith-based groups offer security because they are well established and trusted. Faith-based communities remain when others leave, Faith-based social action understands about getting stuck in for the long term, committed to bringing about transformation so dis-ease is healed and communities restored to places of peace. Condemnation does not achieve this.
If you have a moment to tell us how your faith community or faith-based organisation has responded to the riots, then please drop us an email. We will collect the stories and pass them to policy makers to ensure that the work of all faith communities is recognised in rebuilding civil society.