Rape gangs, family breakdown and the ‘god of consent’
COMMENT
The pace of the 24-hour news cycle means nothing stays the focus for long. So, inevitably, the appalling revelations of Britain’s child rape gangs have dropped out of the headlines.
Young girls were first groomed and then abused, trafficked, manipulated and threatened. When some were brave enough to say what was going on they were ignored and even blamed for what had happened to them.
The story, rightly, sickened the nation. People, rightly, want to know how such grotesque crimes could continue for so long, sometimes in plain sight. This is why there have been such powerful calls for a no-stone-unturned inquiry.
However, it seems doubtful that any inquiry would be bold enough or broad enough to address some of the biggest problems endemic in modern society.
Amid the horror of the accounts, it was striking how many of the victims were part of the care system. There has been much talk about integration and multiculturalism, but much less about the breakdown of marriage and the biological family unit. It is family breakdown that often leads to children ending up in care, as so many of these girls did, and where they fell prey to such horrific exploitation. And so little challenge to the school sex education narrative that teaches kids that sex at any time, in any way, with whoever you want is fine as long as there is so-called ‘consent’.
Could it be that sidelining the divinely ordained institution of marriage, relativising the family, and deifying ‘consent’ are relevant in considering, not only the inexcusable and heinous crimes of the rape gangs, but the direction of travel for UK society over the last 60 years?
Divorce and sex ed
During that time, marriage has been undermined by making it ever easier to obtain a divorce. Nearly half of British children now experience parental separation,1 often sadly because one or both parents simply want out. Once that happens, the evidence shows the child’s life chances typically take a turn for the worse.2
For years, many schools have promoted an ‘anything goes’ approach in sex education. Any and all behaviour must be affirmed and celebrated as long as there is consent and precautions are taken. Nothing is off limits. Consent is the only moral criterion for sexual intimacy.
long-held norms and boundaries have been undermined by cavalier attitudes to what is age-appropriate
But the moral vacuum of modern-day sex education is an assault on young people’s defences – particularly girls. Sexual immorality is normalised, chastity ridiculed – making it harder to say ‘No’. And let’s remember, these are schoolgirls, sometimes not even teenagers, they are not the empowered, in-control women that the sex ed lobby would wish to portray.
All this inevitably leads to long-held norms and boundaries being undermined by cavalier attitudes to what is age-appropriate. Even the legal age of consent, 16 in the UK, is treated as a guideline rather than a law. After all, does it really matter as long as those involved ‘consent’?
Tragically, this seems to have been the view of some in the police and social services when they encountered these badly abused girls. The purpose of grooming is to make the victim believe that they are loved, that they’re being cared for – that they consent. And, in some part, because of our culture’s deification of consent, people who should have known better fell for the groomers’ lies just as the girls themselves did. The whole reason for the age of consent law is to protect children from such manipulation. By definition they cannot consent. But that was forgotten.
Christian values
For a long time, it has been fashionable, even a requirement, for the secular elites to mock Christian values on marriage, the family and sexual ethics as quaint and outdated, or worse, repressive. ‘You’re stuck in the past’, ‘you need to move with the times’, ‘you’re on the wrong side of history’ etc. etc. It’s easy to stay quiet, keep our heads down and live our lives.
But Matthew 5 tells us we are salt and light: salt to flavour and preserve society; light that is not to be hidden but is to shine before others. Indeed, this is one of the ways in which we show love to those around us. What God has to say about these issues, as revealed to us in Scripture, is not for Christians alone – this is his good design for all of society. It is our responsibility to make this known; not to shy away from the truth.
Let us pray that justice will be done, and as our hearts go out to these devastated girls and their families, let us also commit to pray for them – that our loving heavenly father would heal their physical and emotional scars and draw them to himself.
By Ciarán Kelly, Director