London Burning– My reaction as a wife,mother, christian and being black
As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities. We must have workers for these institutions, and if they are located in the city, that means that families of our people must settle near them. But it is not God’s will that His people shall settle in the cities, where there is constant turmoil and confusion. Their children should be spared this; for the whole system is demoralized by the hurry and rush and noise. The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where
their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities is my message.
The truth must be spoken, whether men will hear, or whether men will forbear. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination.
The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, “Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God’s people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth.”
—Selected Messages, book 2, pp. 357, 358. (1902
I will be probably updating this page as more news unfolds.To follow the guardian blog roll click on the following link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-police-duggan-live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0ipX79Ktd0&feature=share
Monday 8th August 2011
If you haven’t seen the headlines this past weekend about the rioting in the deprived areas of cities in London,( as of Thursday Liverpool,Manchester, Birmingham and even Bristol.) Where have you been? Here is a brief synopsis.
Metropoliton Police under Operation Trident (which is an Operation to get rid of Drug related Gun Crime) went to arrest accused (BLACK MAN) Drug Dealer Mark Duggan in Tottenham , North London. During the arrest (depending on what news article you read) there was an exchange of Gun Fire between Duggan and the C019 (Mets Armed Responce Unit), during this firefight Duggan was shot dead, and a Police Officer nearly was, they found a bullet lodged in his radio.
A couple of days later, there was a peaceful protest of roughly 200 people marched to Tottenham Police Station. Sometime later it turned violent. As youth’s descended burning cars buses smashing shop windows with rocks,baseball bats etc. and looting. The unrest in the streets went on to erupt in various other( deprived mostly ethnic populated areas) of inner city London like Hackney, Croydon,Peckham ,Lewisham are just a few. I am simply amazed at how history repeats itself and still lessons have not been learnt click on the following link to read about what happened nearly 30 years ago
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-history-rioting?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
What I will say is I don’t want to discount the underlying reasons behind these youth’s anger and frustration but as a christian we are told to obey the rules of the land expect if the rules have a direct conflict with God’s Immutable Laws. Namely the following.
Exodus 20 :13-17
13 Thou shalt not kill.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s
And Finally a message from JESUS,himself
They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them,
Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s;
and unto God the things that are God’s.
Matthew 22 : 21
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place:
for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Matthew 26 : 52
Tuesday 9th August 2011
Black Berry Facebook,Twitter and other social Media Sites in The Frame for Riots?
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice:
but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Proverbs 29 : 2
It has been said in the news today that riots were organised through Blackberry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook, which is why riots sprung out so quickly. I would n’t be surprised if after all this is over if parliament won’t bring in more Laws to monitor activities on these social networking sites.Truly big brother style.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-blackberry-messenger-looting
This evening I’ve seen politicians asking parents to phone up their young persons to come home. I find it ironic when the government has insisted on laws that invade the rights of parents to discipline their children. It also emerged today that Mark Duggan had NOT fired at police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc
I am praying for all my family and friends that they are safe and well tonight.
Wednesday 10th August 2011
The madness still draws on! As the week has gone on the madness has erupted in other cities across the nation. Birmingham,Manchester,Salford Liverpool and even Bristol see the bbc link below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14460554
This has absolutely nothing to do with race relations and police brutality. As you can see from the footage in the above link the youths are mosty white.
People are angry. Could it be because of large scale unemployment? The Government putting up the taxes recently or the announcement of cutting police numbers and other vital services. Petrol prices rising. How about the new tax banding penalising families earning 30k charging them 40% tax. Maybe the Us and EuroZone teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Is it uncertainty of a future for the youth? University is no longer free to the underprivileged and so the gap widens between the haves and the havenots..Is it greed? All the music videos glorifying crime and easy living, jewelry, cars,money clothes. I wonder, mmmmmn……
I wonder who will fit the bill for all this carnage and chaos? Only time will tell……
The following link was a breath of fresh air though, Communities comming out to clean up their streets and taking ownership. I wonder what heaven is feeling looking down at this mess today
My prayer for this nation tonight is that if nothing else from the ashes arise a new foundation . That people cry out to God and we witness revival in the whole of the Uk as in John Wesley’s Day. That the family will be knitted back together with the cords of Love. That we will can all these manmade philosphies of how to make mankind better ie Evolution and Darwin, Freud, Rd Laing, Richard Dawkins, Magaret Meade ,Carl Jung.I ‘ll leave you with this verse from the bible
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just;
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord
Luke 1 : 17
Thursday 11th August 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&feature=source_video
Have You seen this latest video of Darcus Howe? Howe was interviewed by BBC News on 9 August 2011 during the 2011
London riots, by Fiona Armstrong. During the interview, Armstrong said
“You are not a stranger to riots yourself, I understand, are you? You have taken part in them yourself”.
Howe denied this saying “I have never taken part in a single riot.
I’ve been part of demonstrations that ended up in a conflict.
Stop accusing me of being a rioter and have some respect for
an old West Indian negro, because you wanted for me to get abusive.
You just sound idiotic – have some respect.”
The BBC subsequently apologised, for ‘any offence that this interview caused’
Today I found this quote on a sports forum website that pretty much sums up what alot of people feel who just don’t understand the facts and the media is biased and fuels these sentiments.
“This could almost go in the Touchy Subjects Thread because frankly what
do these people have to riot about? Living in an affluent society? check
Have access to free medical care? check
Have clean running water 24/7/365? check
Have electricity 24/7/365? check
Have gas 24/7/365? check
Have fuel available 24/7/365? check
Not living under a tryant or despot? check
Not living in a country racked by civil war? check
I can go on and on as to why this is just a b****s**** response“
I have been to parts of North ,South and East London and quite frankly these places can be likened to so called 3rd World countries. Entire Suburbs filled with high rise block flats. People deprived ,high unemployment, drugs,crime and they are without hope. People send missionaries to 3rd world countries and aid relief. I say some of these folks could do with a hand to improve their circumstances.
The following link which I found on the guardian website was great. It proves the point I’ve known would happen since the beginning of the week. The people arrested from the riots are white ,black,asian and ages 11-60. They are engineers, electricians,freelance journalist, accountants, postman. I’ve been told an arrest was made of a MILLIONAIRE’s daughter caught looting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list?intcmp=239
I also wonder if anyone has noticed or bothered to shine a light on the scandals that rocked this country last few years. MP ‘s robbing and looting tax payers money. I think it was called something nicer. The bible calls it stealing though. The News of the World phone hacking scandal. Then there is the hanky panky of David Blunket and Kimberly Quinn ,John Major and Edwina Curry to name a few.
Honestly I don’t want to excuse the behaviour of these rioters I am just worried who are our moral guardians? The lawmakers? The media? who? because it’s difficult to see how those so deceitful can be leading the moral charge!
On that note I am off to bed and I hope you are all keeping well. I’ll probably make a final post Friday or Saturday and do a poem or video next week Tuesday.
May God bless you as you make your homes a place where angels can dwell
Friday 12th August 2011
A Ray of hope , Lord help us to love one another