Bishop says Stop Blaming Government for Increasing Gang Violence

The Bishop of Derby, the Rt Rev Alastair Redfern, has issued a sharp warning to "stop blaming the Government for gang warfare", according to CEN.

Bishop Redfern made the comments following a visit to a charity shop. He bought a Christian book, but after being given his till receipt noticed that the book had been classified as 'esoteric'.

This labelling meant that religion is now no longer a mainline, public phenomenon. "Now it is esoteric - 'only for the initiated, private'," he said.

According to CEN he said: "To be religious is a personal choice - one of many ways of trying to look after yourself in the mystery and challenge of this world.

"In one sense, we should not be surprised. From healthcare to Blair/Brownism, the mantra is to take charge of your life, and the government will provide structures to hold us all together, and to facilitate this human right to personal freedom and choice."

Bishop Redfern, writing in the October issue of his diocesan newsletter, added: "Most of us need more resources and support than we can find from our own means. So we form gangs, tribes, cliques, to give us security and strength...I bought my Christian book in a charity shop - charity in the sense of loving others.

"Strangely, this Christian love is not esoteric, it is exoteric, intelligible to outsiders. Need in others touches every human heart.

"Our task is to help people look into their hearts and own this excellent gift of charity: love for others at our core, love for that otherness we know as God shown to us in Jesus Christ.

He continued: "It is no use blaming Governments for the destructiveness of gang warfare, whether between groups of young people or between competing commercial concerns.

"The issue, and the remedy, is deeper, in the difference between the esoteric - living to look after yourself - and in the exoteric - offering love which touches the heart of everyone. Live that difference, for Christ's sake."