There is no question that the recent events in London and a few other cities in England are scary for those nearby and another demonstration of the human heart let loose without restraint. That these things happen shouldn’t be surprising as Marcus Honeysett explains well.

I’m not in London so I can’t comment on what it must be like to see your neighbourhood go up in flames. There’s no doubting the scale of the damage or the seriousness of the crimes but even so perspective must be kept. It’s not Mexico that saw 15000 drug related murders in 2010. It’s not Karachi which last week when it saw riots 300 people were killed. It’s not Afghanistan, Libya or Iraq which continues to see daily violence. It’s not Somalia the world’s most lawless state or the horn of Africa where hundreds of thousands of people risk death from starvation. And we don’t want it to be like Syria where the government uses the armed forces on it’s own people. It’s done less damage than a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or tsunami or mad attack such as the one recently in Oslo.

What’s happening in London is bad, really bad, but it’s not a warzone, it’s not the end of the world (probably) and London remains one of the wealthiest places to live and work and relatively safe.

What happens is for the majority of us these events are frightening, we can’t comprehend the anger, we don’t understand the violence, we can’t connect with the sense of disillusionment or rage or lack of restraint that would cause someone to riot, destroy and pillage. We don’t know the reason why? It could be about power, it could be about budget cuts, a growing trend to anarchy, or simply criminal activity or it could be all of those reasons but the initial response from the middle and ruling class is to speak with fear and out of that fear of what we don’t know and don’t understand we react with anger and retribution.

But Christians who have a different hope, who’s hope in justice lies with a different government, who’s hope for a better world lies not in consumerism or endless growth, who’s hope for this life lies with a different sense of destiny and who seek the welfare of the city don’t need to be afraid. We don’t need to be afraid (if we’ve done no wrong) of the arm of the law and we don’t need to be afraid of the raging mob. So while we call evil for what it is, we can speak with a different voice. As Matt Hosier says we pray for both peace and justice.