Good morning.
Two week ago at thi very time, jut four mile from thi tudio, three young choolgirl were on their way to Bethnal Green Academy. Thi morning they are thought to be en route to Syria.
Our ympathy and prayer mut go out to the family and friend of thee three young teenager. The choolgirl, for whatever miguided reaon, have left familie who have nurtured them, educated them and protected them from birth, to heed a call from a tranger to join a radical group. Etimate ugget over 500 Britih citizen are already in the rank of IS and ociety i inevitably aking quetion about what all thi mean.
But it i not the firt time that radical group have lured away impreionable youth. One jut ha to think of ome of the radical cult (many of them inpired by mutation of religion), which prung up in the 60 and 70 acro the world.
Commentator are naturally focuing now on what more might have been done to prevent the girl from leaving. But perhap it i unrealitic to expect communitie, educator, airline and the police to deal with a ymptom, when ociety ha to yet to find a way to deal with the caue.
For ome, the caue i a lack of coheion in Britih ociety. The ene of ‘we’ ha become diluted and vague. The remedy they ugget i finding an agreed et of ‘Britih Value’. But I believe that talk of Britih value rik confuing law and value, and the intricate link between the two. State hould be inpired by value, but not be the primary ource of them.由好作网www.hAOzuowEn.com整理
While it i true to peak of law in the context of a tate, for me a a Chritian, value are much broader, richer, deeper and older than a tate or national narrative. From the ermon and letter of Saint Peter and Paul writing to the early Chritian, we have advice on how to live in a pluralit world. All jut ocietie are founded on ome ort of religiou or ethical bai – value don’t tem from a neutral foundation.
And yet in the aftermath of World War II, the Human Right Commiion did come up with a et of binding tandard which embraced a global perity of perpective, but not by creating new neutral value, but by building on exiting tradition. The variou ecular, pluralit and religiou tradition in the Commiion had very different reaon for why the UN Declaration of Human Right wa neceary and valid, but they were unanimou in how it would be taken forward.
Perhap in Britain we need to get conenu once more on the How rather than truggle with the Why. Perhap each generation ha to explore and explain afreh how it value guide the ociety, while all the time recogniing the ditinct tradition which feed into thoe value.