Friday Night Theology
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Three days ago, on a road I frequently go past, just 200 meters from my Church, another young person was fatally stabbed. And this wasn’t the first stabbing of the week. Last Sunday East Enders star Brooke Kinsella’s brother Ben was stabbed in north London. This prompted a march of hundreds of teenagers through the streets of the capital, calling for an end to the endemic violence.

I asked some of the youth in my Church why they think knife and gun culture is so prevalent and why kids aren’t more afraid of it. Their reply? That most of these young people don’t care if they die, they don’t care if they end up in prison. As far as they’re concerned, they haven’t got anything to lose anyway. Life is that dispensable and worthless. Harsher punishments are not the answer because these kids have written themselves off anyway.

Our culture is very quick to dismiss people, especially the young. I worry the Church is not exempt from this. Let’s be honest: if your church service gets disrupted by the youth messing around at the back, how do you react? If you walk past young people drunk on a Saturday afternoon, what do you think? And these probably aren’t the kids involved in gun and knife crime. Society even writes off young people who have made mistakes and are trying to turn their lives around.

Just this week, Majid Ahmed, a straight A student from a deprived part of Bradford was denied a place at medical school, because he had committed a burglary when he was 16. He now thoroughly regrets this and says he is “deeply ashamed” of it. He’s since turned his attentions to studying diligently and taking part in regular voluntary work. But our culture doesn’t seem to want to give him a second chance.

Yet the reality is we’re all in need of a second chance. We’ve all fallen short of God’s standard. Thankfully God acts very differently to the way the world does. He gives us not just one chance but many opportunities to change. More than that he gives us hope – hope that says that life is good and is worth living. That is the message these kids need to hear.

Jesus calls us to offer hope and forgiveness to those who’ve made mistakes, however big or small. Consider these verses: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 7:21-22). Think also of Jesus’ words in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” Now that quite frankly is the opposite of the message the world offers. Are we the Church going to be the first to say that all people (young or old) deserve a second chance and a message of hope? Are we going to give it to them? Ultimately that’s exactly what Jesus has given us and it’s up to us now to offer it to them.

 

Susannah Clark, Public Theology Researcher

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Latest comments :
(The views below are the authors', and not necessarily those of the Evangelical Alliance.)

Written by David Young on 10 July 2008 at 14.42
Justice sometimes doesn't fit in anywhere. When a life has been taken that's the classic example. This is where it helps to remove the idea of divine absolutes, because it allows you to say 'This is not an ideal solution to the problem, but it's the best available.' It also allows you to say 'We thought this was an ideal solution, but evidence now shows us we were wrong' when such evidence comes along.
Written by Jethro on 09 July 2008 at 19.51
Susannahm thanks for responding.

Could it mean banging a paedophile up for life because no other arrangements would keep children safe? If so, what does the 'second chance' amount to?

Also, where does 'justice' fit in? Victims often say they didn't get it, like the mother of the lassie killed by the cyclist was saying on the telly this evening. She's likely to say, 'My daughter didn't get a second chance!'

I'm not trying to trip you up. Just trying to see how well the answer stands up
Written by Susannah Clark on 08 July 2008 at 15.13
Jethro, giving someone a second chance doesn't necessarily mean you would put them back in exactly the same position in which they fell in the first place.

It wouldn't for instance mean that you put the medical student who committed the burglary back with the same crowd that encouraged him to do it the first time round, or that you would put the paedophile back in a situation where they have access to children. Often too, a sign of true repentance is when a person understands that it may be best for them to avoid certain situations.

In practice, what you would do depends on each individual circumstance. But it does mean that you don't write them off completely, that you don't prevent them from having any opportunities to take their life in a different direction.

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