Goodness matters
 

Why has there been a sudden and alarming rise in theft? At its heart, the challenge is a moral one, writes Peter Shepherd - without an underlying code of morality, and a commitment to uphold it, no country can prosper  

Retailers have recently reported a sudden and alarming rise in theft. Sometimes, they say, it looks more like looting than shoplifting. Groups or individuals are grabbing merchandise from the shelves, mostly to be sold later, sometimes just down the street, seemingly unconcerned about getting caught and prosecuted. Staff are advised not to intervene because of the threat to their own personal safety and the police are slow to respond, so the risk to the thieves is small. For some businesses, the losses are substantial enough to threaten their survival.

Perhaps, sometimes, the driver for such criminal behaviour is poverty, but I doubt if this is the main one. Most of the thieves just see an opportunity to make easy money, selfishly careless of the damage caused by what they do.

There are other examples of unscrupulous individuals profiting from criminal activity, but shops are a central and public part of all our lives, and this trend highlights with particular openness a problem we are facing. It is not as if the thieves can hide behind the web, or the mysterious machinations of big finance. Although the issue may not be as big as others we face, there is something especially blatant and shameless about it.

At its heart, the challenge is a moral one. Offenses like this are a reminder that without a generally accepted sense of right and wrong, society cannot effectively function. The criminal justice system is obviously important, expressing in legal terms what our nation believes to be unacceptable behaviour, but to be effective, it relies on most people believing that behaving well matters. At the end of the day, respect and honesty depend more on internal motivation than on the threat of punishment.

Fortunately, most people do have a sense of what is right and wrong and do seek to live by it. But the growing spate of shoplifting is a sign that morality as a guide to life is under threat. Things are not as they should be, and perhaps they are getting worse. Other signs include various kinds of criminal activity and anti-social behaviour which are on the increase: fraud and abusive language for example. But also the fear and suspicion that is becoming so widespread. Many people seem to have lost a sense that honesty and kindness are necessary foundations for their own lives; even more seem to have lost confidence in the honesty and kindness of others.

No doubt today is not the only time this has been the case. But there is a particular challenge now for us in the UK. Two factors are worth thinking about.

One is the decline of religious observance in the UK. Historically, religious belief and practice have shaped attitudes and behaviour almost everywhere, even when Governments have officially been secular. This has often been for good, occasionally for bad. One thing this provides is the acceptance of an authority beyond and above any that humanity, acting in its own self-interest, can provide. Even in an increasingly non-religious country like the UK, Christianity has until quite recently provided a framework for good behaviour. But this is less and less the case today, not because of the presence of other belief systems, but because of the assumption by many that God is an irrelevance.

A second factor is the moral vacuum in leadership that has been a feature of recent political life, both in the UK and the USA. There have always been political scoundrels, and no political figure is beyond reproach, but when leaders demonstrate an apparently total disregard for what is true, it is no surprise that this has a corrosive effect on attitudes more widely. The message is clear: the end justifies the means; getting what you want is more important than how you go about it. Maybe the reason why such leaders are elected reflects a general lack of interest in both morality and politics.

Whatever the underlying trends and causes may be, it is vital to recognise that goodness matters. Without an underlying code of morality, and a commitment to uphold it, no country can prosper. 

 

Peter Shepherd is a Baptist minister and member of Cemetery Road Baptist Church, Sheffield. The reflection originally appeared on his blog Eucharisto and is published with permission

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