It Can Be Done: The Real Heroes of the Inner City

An analysis of the social and economic malaise of western society and the role of the Churches in countering it. High unemployment in many areas, the rise of drug-related crime, extensive vandalism and anti-social behaviour, street crime, and the problems of the police in dealing with race and juvenile crime, have produced a bleak picture of the breakdown of modern society. The underlying social problems are the breakdown of the traditional family and the support mechanisms that it provided, coupled with the attempt to erode the moral principles that underlay traditional social thinking. Governments have sought to improve the obvious social problems, but have failed to examine the underlying causes of the malaise. Governments anxious in a pluralist society not to offer any special position to the church, traditionally the main supplier of support, have also ignored the voices of the Jews, Muslims and Hindus. This book argues that the only answer is to reinstate the traditional partnership between church and state, both nationally and at the local level, because the church has the locally-based organization that the state lacks, and a moral framework that offers the order that society needs. Through a series of case studies from different regions, the book demonstrates the effectiveness of the grass-roots organization of the church and the moral authority that it provides, showing how church and state working together can help to forge a new understanding of the oldest institution of all, the family. The author offers an understanding of and the means to a solution to the problems that afflict modern societies.