from Religion Media Centre
The Bishop of Blackburn, Philip North, has said that “fear-driven silence” had led him not to speak out about grooming gangs in his area, and he is now doing some soul-searching concluding that his excuse for inaction was “unconvincing”.
In an article in the Church of England Newspaper, he said he had two reasons, the fear of damaging relations with the south Asian community in Lancashire and the fear that raising an issue impacting one ethnic group did not sit well with the church’s commitment to racial justice. He said Dame Louise Casey’s fearlessness in calling for a public inquiry had caused him to ask an uncomfortable question: “Why did I so readily believe the voices that claimed that calling for an inquiry was a collusion with the far right?”.
He reflected that the church’s inaction on the issue stemmed from its growing distance from working class communities, where girls are vulnerable to organised grooming gangs. He said: “All too often, we are either silent or actively at odds with the issues that most trouble working class neighbourhoods: not just grooming gangs but the impact of immigration on community life, benefits dependency, the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, energy costs and so on. Being attentive to the needs of our working class communities does not mean that we have to agree with them all. It does, however, mean ensuring that voices that are often silenced are given proper attention in public dialogue and debate”.
The article is here.