The Tribune

By DR IAN BETHELL-BENNETT

THE church has rallied around the “new” demon challenge in wooden number 2 pencils and paper. It has brought the prayers out en mass, into schools and communities in search of those unknowing demon sympathizers on a mission to save them from their sins and from the evil that awaits them in “Charlie Charlie”.

How ironic that the church cannot respond in like fashion to the horrors and demonic presence of gang violence, sexual violence, gender-based violence and sexual exploitation especially in our schools.

The One Order gang has grip and grasp on certain levels of society that is wide-reaching and vice-grip tight. They are in constant and continual low-grade warfare with Fire and Theft, for example. Those women who fall between the two often become victims of serious gender-based violence, and ultimately death.

Where is the church in teaching young people to love and respect themselves?

We are not even talking about loving and respecting others yet. If there is no compassion, love and understanding for self, there can be no love for anyone else.

Perhaps we must say again that often this cannot happen in the church. They must come out of the hallowed halls and from behind the robes to share their love beyond those strict enclosures. They must go into schools and communities. Some churches have outreach arms, but many seem to be silent as the violence in our schools escalates to alarming heights. Government is certainly quiet, notwithstanding their pre-election campaign promise to reduce crime and violence. At sixty-something in May, this promise certainly has failed.

Sadly, there is no accountability.

They are teaching us well. They have taught many of the young people that they can do as they wish and not be held accountable for their actions.

Violence is simply a way of life apparently.

The level of violence in the schools is simply unacceptable, yet we seem to only be interested in managing it. We are not showing any indication that we will engage with these young people to teach them differently, to prevent violent behaviour before it begins, to change patterns of thought from abusive, power exploitation and domination of others to peaceful coexistence.

We are not showing any wish to change the way we view women.

The church body must talk the talk and walk the walk of gender equality. We have to stop seeing women as a proverbial possession to be controlled by men and seeing them as people in their own right. They do not stop being people when they get married either.

There are some churches that do engage young people in foundational spiritual change; they reach out to young people, they work with them and they promote community development. These churches not only teach but also demonstrate that social equality is attainable.

The role of public figures

Public figures hold more sway than normal people. They are a bit like movie stars, but they certainly have their failures.

While social media is buzzing with all the anti-Charlie noise, public figures only demonstrate reactive behaviour to stamp out demonic activity.

Why are they still encouraging men to beat women because women are inferior to men, as demonstrated through their words and actions? This is an area frequently discussed, but seldom taken on board, especially by public officials. Their words weigh more than a thousand other messages. Their behaviour influences far more people, and their misogynistic attitudes are rapidly transferred to those beyond them. They are the role models, so what they say goes. That is why the behaviour demonstrated by so many pastors when it comes to limiting women’s participation in the community and in society is so problematic.

Their lack of serious engagement with youth to counteract gang violence sends the clear message that we will tolerate this violence. Sadly, we are so concerned with being seen as the dominant person that we do not consider how that dominance and power create serious social imbalances and promote violence. There is so much energy put into fighting sins and so little of it goes into creating social harmony and peace. We are more concerned with looking like a ‘Christian” nation than actually behaving in a Christian fashion to all people. As the violence in schools and communities explodes, we need to be far more cognizant of the messages we send to young people.

In fact, we need to stop and examine the messages we are sending.

Apparently what they hear us say is that you can beat people if you don’t agree with them. You can cuss out a policeman and not be prosecuted. You can kill someone who has decided that she/he does not want to go out with you or be married to you anymore, you can rape a woman if she says no, because no does not mean no. These messages along with the materialistic images delivered by many of those in power only serve to worsen the social chaos we are currently living.

A focus on youth empowerment

Youth being led astray is a serious problem, but the focus and energy we lend to combating “evil” influences really does determine the outcome in far greater ways than we think.

By focusing so enthusiastically on the negative aspect of cultural influence that we see the Charlie phenomenon as being, we actually fan its flames and breathe more life into it.

We need to focus on some of the more serious social ills like gang violence and gender-based violence, instead of exorcising paper and pencil demons. The level of youth exploitation in the country says that there is a serious problem with disempowerment and restricted access to a decent education; that education could mitigate against some of the social ills we are witnessing.

By being able to think critically, youth are more able to challenge the ideas of violence and materialism as being celebratory aspects of the culture and begin to understand that they can make their own choices and choose not to be violent.

Surely, violence and exploitation are not Christian values. When a young woman is killed as the result of gang activity and her role in being cutter or otherwise, we need to have serious talks with the youth about these realities. They actually know far more than we think they do about what is going on. Their engagement with social media exposes them to every good and every bad aspect of the global community.

Are we going to send the pastors into the schools to discuss the evils of the internet, too? Why not discuss the real evils in our society? Why not discuss moving beyond our fascination with and addiction to violence that is used to control through power inequality, especially when one person feels threatened by the other person’s existence. This imbalance leads to far more violent behaviour. Some youth see any slight as being a sign of disrespect, and being disrespected apparently justifies me killing you. You step on my shoe, I kill you! My woman takes up with a different man, I kill her.

This is insanity!

By learning lessons of self-love and respect, we learn to live better lives in our communities. Can we make this a part of the message that is shared rather than simply of what is bad in the world? The church’s lack of response to serious violence in the schools and on streets simply says that it does not matter. What is our response?