If you are not familiar with Melanie Phillips’ social, political, cultural, et cetera, et cetera, commentary from a British-Jewish conservative perspective, then you are without excuse!
In other words, I encourage you to read her thoughtful coverage HERE AND HERE.
I am Jonny King has found her voice on many issues to be sound and reasonable, as she outworks her voice from a seemingly still-intact coherent objective moral framework, calling a spade the proverbial.
One of her recent blog posts and a recent article in the Mail Newspaper seems to have caused much consternation that has caught my attention, and is worth this bloggers expenditure and worth your reading reflection.
This is also particularly relevant in a NZ Christian blogging context, where MandM have been dealing with the bullying of their son, Christian, in a schooling context, over a period of time [HERE is the first post, I believe... if you want to read the rest, use the search MandM section, with the word "bullying"].
While the Flanagans have taken steps to remove their son from the context of these happenings, the context for Phillips’ reflection that was encouraged with her attendance at a recent Police Superintendents conference, were not so fortunate, as their circumstances spiraled out of control, with no one standing in their gap.
As you read about this, one must affirm how truly tragic these circumstances are!
One may say it exemplifies a bitter fruit of bullying when it is allowed to go unchallenged and unresolved!
Here is Ms Phillips reflections…
I thought about this discussion when I read of the appalling case of Fiona Pilkington, who was driven to set fire to herself and her 18 year-old daughter Francecca in her car as a result of a decade of harassment they had suffered at the hands of local yobs.
The details of this awful case make you weep. For more than ten years, the Pilkingtons lived under siege in Barwell, Leicestershire, from a gang of thugs who pelted the house with stones, set fences on fire, pushed fireworks through the front door, taunted Francecca, who had a mental age of four, and threatened and assaulted Mrs Pilkington’s son, Anthony, now 19.
The inquest has yet to reach its verdict. But the coroner has said the tragedy could have been prevented if the police and council authorities had taken the family’s complaints seriously.
And the evidence produced at the inquest was sufficiently horrifying for the Home Secretary to be reportedly planning to highlight the case in his speech to this week’s Labour conference.
For although Mrs Pilkington called the police no fewer than 33 times, none of the criminals who were making her life so unbearable was ever charged with a criminal offence.
When asked to explain this failure, the police response was astounding. Superintendent Steve Harrod told the inquest that ‘low-level anti-social behaviour is mainly the responsibility of the council’.
Come again, Superintendent? So what are the police for? Whatever happened to the first duty of the police to ‘preserve public tranquillity’? No wonder the Home Secretary is spitting tacks [emphasis mine].
One can only imagine the extended period of torment that encouraged this lady to see no other way out.
How can such a situation take place?
Here are Philips’ thoughts…
Why are bullies being let off and innocent people being bullied in this way? It is surely the outcome of a culture distorted by the warped values of our intelligentsia and political class.
Obsessed by the impossible aim of eradicating all forms of prejudice or discrimination, it is also gripped by the belief that all punishment or retribution is a form of vengeance and must be avoided at all costs.
The combination of these two beliefs has meant that yobs who terrorise people to death must never be jailed, while those who cause offence to groups that tick the right boxes must be prosecuted.
It is also a means for the incompetent to avoid being held accountable for the failings on their watch. Right and wrong, victim and bully are being turned upside-down — and the police, who hold the line for a society’s values, are now in the very front of the charge
You can read the whole article HERE!
There is some further commentary by a former Police Officer who contacted Ms Phillips about the “Bobby” force that can be found HERE!
While much could be said about the lack of action from those who are given the God-given responsibility in society [Romans 13:1-7]. Ms Phillips has made this lacking clear.
I am Jonny King would affirm that such examples are a sad commentary on the lack of empathy in a societal context that those who are very oftened deemed “different” seem to be more likely to be on the end of a communal sentence that at best, views such individuals as being worthy of mockery and the butt [ugly] end of our joking… and at worst, to be the source for humanity’s venting and brutality.
At a time when many preach an incoherent definition of tolerance in our society, such are vivid examples that those who are different are very often exiled and viewed as unacceptable, with any decisive action, sacrificed on the altar to… you guessed it, an absurd and illogical appeal to tolerance, very often proclaimed by the elite, who more often than not, do not have to put up with such realities, with those who do, finding such a reality to be very intolerant!
For those who delight to follow Jesus, such a response is antithetical to the One who ate with sinners and tax collectors, who interacted with social rejects and those who remained outside the societal limits both geographically and relationally, with such a call redeeming out to all those who can not remain silent, even at such a time as this.
May all those who follow Jesus be found as guilty as He!
May we plagiarize to the very best of His ability!
Until Next Time
I am Jonny King
Postscript: There has also been a recent tragedy in Chicago that has highlighted bullying in its extreme representation, where a sixteen year old honors student was brutally and publicly murdered, which has been the catalyst for many in the US to take a look at what is happening, seeking to bring about change.
In the last schooling year, more than thirty students have been killed.
You can read more HERE and find much more on the internet, as this has been quite high profile.
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