Celebrating the Harlow Evangelicals – Vomit, Violence and God.
God's Army – Harlow church division sets off on patrol?
A small press release from the Conservative MP Robert Halfron caught my eye. He wished me to know that he had attended a special church blessing for the ‘Harlow Street Pastors’. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? Perhaps it is just my eclectic mind; I like to find out about things I have never heard of before. I stepped forward to be informed – and promptly disappeared down a rabbit hole of purple flip flops, government subsidised Christian pretendy policemen, and bucket loads of vomit. It has been an education.
Did you know we had religious ‘police’ patrolling our streets – I certainly didn’t? Nor that this was a government backed and ‘approved by the police’ scheme. It has been a long time since I was out lat at night in an English town – they must be so crowded these days with uniformed enforcers; patrolling litter wardens, PSCOs, policemen, street pastors, it is a wonder anyone ever manages to commit a crime.
The Harlow Street Pastors are part of an inner-city pilgrimage to do God’s work, ‘armed not with Bibles, but with sick bags, flip flops and first aid’. The organisation was set up in London in 2003 by the Rev Les Isaacs as an outreach project. It receives funding from a number of sources.
I do not question their motives in wanting to ‘help’ – but why not a multi-faith approach, or better still, a faith free approach – just ‘Street Walkers’ or similar? Maybe not.
Street Pastors dressed for a winter night?
It is the notion that these are particularly ‘Christian’ volunteers coming to your aid that is so dangerous, not only blurring the line between State and Church via their funding, but inviting the setting up of other ‘faith group’ volunteers equally patrolling with their very own uniform. Though given the choice between opposing groups of volunteers offering to see you home after the pub has closed I fancy the drunken revellers might vote for the volunteer claiming the ability to turn water into wine rather than condemn the demon drink.
The group is clearly professional. They train for 60 hours at a cost of £300 (this, and their uniform, is where the funding comes in) and undergo CRB checks and qualify for the requirement to ‘be known over a period of time’ by citing 12 months membership of a church.
“Elly Mulvany, Street Pastors area co-ordinator, said: ‘We trained another 18 volunteers this year with £8,000 funding from the Safer Portsmouth Partnership.
Along with £15,000 funding from Portsmouth NHS, we have been able to sustain our work on the streets with bigger teams. We have been made very welcome by pub managers and door staff as well as the public who value our role of listening, caring and helping.’
The Devon and Cornwall Police website is very supportive of the scheme and offer a hotline number to assist in fundraising. They are quite specific on the requirements to volunteer to ‘help out’ on the late night streets.
To be a Street Pastor you need to be over 18 (no upper age limit), a church member and able to commit to a training programme.
In Scunthorpe, funding came from ‘A grant of £1,900 has come from North Lincolnshire Homes (NLH) and £1,500 from the Police Tribune– £500 was also donated by the family of Louis Wainwright, who died aged 18 in March this year after a night out where it was thought he took then legal drug Mephedrone. The cash will also be used to buy essentials like flip flops and vomit bags which the pastors give out to those they help every weekend.’
Ah yes, the flip flops – purple, charismatic, memorable, Bishopric, Episcopal purple, flip flops are handed out to those whose shoes have become too tight, or worse, gone missing, after a nights revelry. When you wake in the morning and bizarrely find yourself wearing purple flip flops, you will remember you were Godded home by the good volunteers.
A grateful Mum speaks: “My 20 year old daughter is in her 3rd year at Chester Uni training to be a Children’s Nurse. Last night she went out into Wrexham with 3 of her friends to celebrate passing all her exams and assignments and to look forward to her last and final year of training. On leaving the nightclub in the ‘early hours’, the 4 girls were all ‘shoe-less’ from dancing and celebrating all night, and all a little ‘worse for wear’! This morning she presented me with a pair of purple flip flops, she told me that when the girls left the club they were greeted by some Christians, who gave them the flip flops to walk to the taxi rank, fastened their shoes around their necks and were ‘very kind’.
It is said by the organisers that the purpose of this group is not to preach the word of God to drunken students, but to show concern for ‘young people who feel marginalised and excluded from society’. All fine and dandy, but (disclaimer – this is an internet forum ‘comment’ from HERE and I know better than to claim anything I find on the Internet can be assumed to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!) Listen to Kate’s tale:
After being a Street Pastor for two and half years I was thrown out for being gay. Sadly, they wouldn’t back down on their decision that I can’t be a gay person *and* a Christian, as one of them pointed out to me “That’s like saying you’re a Satanist and a Christian – the two things just don’t go together” Not that I wished to get into a theological debate with anyone, but I did expect my fellow Christians to treat me equally (A little naive in hindsight). I have also been on patrol with them when they told gay people they have met that they can’t find Jesus until they rid themselves of the sin of homosexuality. This behaviour seems to run contrary to the Street Pastor’s official objectives; I don’t believe the people at the top tier level of this well intended organization are in touch with how the Street Pastors conduct themselves at ground level. At its core, judgement and the obligatory Christian ego of superiority is as rife with the Street Pastors as it is inside of a Church. In my home town we are already sensing a backlash towards them; hopefully this will eventually lead to a stop in public money being used to fund these people.
Why do I find all this strangely troubling and disturbing? Any thoughts?
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September 11, 2010 at 15:23 -
“…inviting the setting up of other ‘faith group’ volunteers equally patrolling with their very own uniform.”
Blimey! Those streets are going to get more and more crowded!
And imagine the turf wars! It’ll make rhe Bloods & the Crips look like amateurs…
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September 11, 2010 at 15:29 -
“After being a Street Pastor for two and half years I was thrown out for being gay.”
If true (and the proselytising to gay revellers, of course), does this not put their government funding in doubt?
Surely, in order to receive government funds, you MUST comply with government equality law? The Catholic gay adoption furore comes to mind…
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September 11, 2010 at 15:47 -
Glad to see we are back on the same hymn sheet Julia!
I gather a ‘humanist group’ did flag up their ‘equality’ concenrs, but didn’t include that because I couldn’t find out what the outcome was.
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September 11, 2010 at 16:26 -
“God’s Army – Harlow church division sets off on patrol?”
To B & Q for a tube of ‘No More Nails’
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September 11, 2010 at 17:07 -
Dare I ask if Mr. Anthony Bennett is a member of this Group? It sounds as though it might be right up his Main Street.
Presuming that he has the time when not wasting Public Money sending irrelevant diatribes asking spurious questions, to which he is never going to get an answer beyond the Go Forth and Multiply option which he has already received.
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September 11, 2010 at 19:06 -
As someone who is a member of the Libertarian Party and a Christian – (and who has a good friend who is a Street Pastor) may I be permitted a couple of comments.
1) Street Pastors are not “pretendy policemen”, nor are they “religious ‘police’ patrolling our streets”. They have no role, to the best of my knowledge, in law enforcement. They are basically there to help people who need a helping hand.
2) They are an explicitly Christian organisation, whose beliefs are traditional Christian beliefs. To argue that they should be secular, or multi-faith is to argue against freedom of association. If someone wants to set up a secular or Muslim equivalent, good luck to them.
3) I suspect that the point of the tale related by Kate is that Street Pastors takes the view that someone who practices or advocates sex outside of marriage is not an appropriate person to be working with an organisation that holds traditional Christian views on sexual morality. Again it comes down to freedom of association. (I’m also conscious that while I’ve read Kate’s side of story, there may be more to it than that.)
4) No, I don’t believe that public money should be given to this group. But then public money is given to a huge number of groups and spent in a lot of ways that I, as a libertarian, believe to be inappropriate. Street Pastors is small beer compared to the propaganda and brainwashing that constitutes state education in the UK.
So, to be honest, from what I know about Street Pastors, I don’t find it troubling or disturbing – but it is a little irregular.
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September 11, 2010 at 19:57 -
With respect, Young Mr Brown – from the government web site detailing ‘street pastors’:
MPS Wandsworth acknowledge their duty to provide the Street Pastors with
packaging suitable for drugs and offensive weapons and to provide a ballistic bag
for the use of the Street Pastors in the eventuality of them recovering a firearm
as required.
MPS Wandsworth acknowledge their responsibility to provide training in the safe
handling of drugs, offensive weapons and firearms to senior Street Pastors.Handling evidence, recovering banned substances? That’s ‘pretendy police’ in my book.
The Duty Inspector will facilitate the attendance of the Senior Street Pastor at
the commencement of the shift briefing and will make available to the Senior
Street Pastor any non-sensitive information about criminal activity or disorder in
the area where the Street Pastors intend to deploy.
Deploy?The MPS corporate policy sets out in detail the circumstances in which the MPS
undertakes not to initiate action against the Street Pastors in possession of illegal
items specifically drugs, weapons and firearms where the Street Pastor is on duty
and has received the items in the course of their duty.
Immunity from prosecution when handling banned items?I think that’s a bit more than just giving old ladies a hand across the street. .
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September 12, 2010 at 07:21 -
“Handling evidence, recovering banned substances? That’s ‘pretendy police’ in my book.”
Indeed! Now we know why the training is so expensive! It’s to cover all those evidentiary rules.
They do get trained in that, I hope?
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September 12, 2010 at 13:04 -
Ballistic bag? Isn’t that for very sick revellers – paper sick bags aren’t carrot-proof.
Alternatively, a ballistic bag is the very angry mother, wife, girlfiend who is handed the job of cleaning up the drunk sicker-upper and getting them home. That would work.-
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September 12, 2010 at 13:45
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September 11, 2010 at 21:06 -
The Harlow Street Irregulars!
I wholeheartedly agree with point 4.
The Safer Portsmouth Partnership sounds like fun.
Champion for Anti-social Behaviour. Champion for Drugs and Alcohol. Champion for Violent and Volume Crime. I think they need to rethink some of their job titles.
The ‘structure’ of SPS is, is… convoluted. (pdf) Who is accountable out of that lot? Does the existence of SPS distract all those people from their proper jobs? Are resources that could be spent on dealing with their duties being spent instead on monitoring, integrating, networking, cogitating? You could replace that mire with local services answering to councilors. Not the council ‘executive’. Councilors.
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September 11, 2010 at 21:11
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September 11, 2010 at 20:44 -
I didn’t say that what they were doing amounted to no more that giving old ladies a hand across the street, though I admit that my use of the phrase “to help people who need a helping hand” may have given that impression.
The people who are getting a helping hand will on occasion, be people who have illegal substances or even, potentially, illegal weapons on them. The police, who clearly appreciate what the Street Pastors are doing, want to make sure that Street Pastors are protected from danger and from silly prosecutions.
To be honest, I think that you are reading far more into those words from the document than is justified. Social workers, maybe. Pretendy police, no.
I think that you have got the wrong end of the stick. But by all means investigate further. It may turn out that I am wrong.
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September 12, 2010 at 07:24 -
“The police, who clearly appreciate what the Street Pastors are doing, want to make sure that Street Pastors are protected from danger and from silly prosecutions.”
Especially when it comes to handling discovered firearms, no doubt…
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September 12, 2010 at 00:45 -
If giving out purple flip-flops and walking vulnerable women home is a crime I guess they’re guilty.
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September 12, 2010 at 10:02 -
Anna, we have them in Perth and have had for well over a year. I’ve never come across one but then I don’t go out on the town at weekends. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_pastors
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September 12, 2010 at 12:14 -
That this organisation is receiving public funding is a problem of public funding, not a problem with the organisation. Nor is the fact that the police appear to be actually helping them, rather than hindering them, as one would normally expect, evidence that they are some sort of “religious police” though it is a bit unusual.
Would you still be talking about “religious police” if these people were part of that well-known para-military organisation, the “Salvation Army”?-
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September 12, 2010 at 12:40
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September 12, 2010 at 13:17 -
I find it heartwarming that one may be a bigot and a Christian – how inclusive of a marginalised section of society. I’m thinking of becoming a religious building mentor, going into services and offering common sense advice to people drunk on grouphysteria like not putting money in the collection plate, not performing cosmetic surgery on children or explaining the scientific evidence for evolution. Any taxpayers money available for that?
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September 12, 2010 at 15:06 -
Considering the libertarian inclinations of those who subscribe to and comment on these blogs, I’m somewhat bemused by the cynicism directed towards the street pastors and the work they’re doing; I would have expected a different reaction from those who uphold the right of individuals to believe (and practise) whatever they want.
I can state categorically that although those who undertake this (voluntary) work do so with the blessing of the churches they represent – they have no hidden agenda or ulterior motive. They don’t see drunken or dope-addled airheads as prospective converts to target for conversion – they simply see this service as a positive and practical way of making their faith known: helping people who though their own stupidity are so helplessly stoned/drunk that they can’t sort themselves out. Let’s remember that these volunteers are sacrificing time with their families and friends doing this. I think they deserve better – even from the anti-Christian elements who pass their derisory comments..-
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September 12, 2010 at 17:52 -
“I’m somewhat bemused by the cynicism directed towards the street pastors and the work they’re doing; I would have expected a different reaction from those who uphold the right of individuals to believe (and practise) whatever they want.”
Funny. I’ve looked and looked and re-read all the comments and I can’t see anyone saying that they don’t have such a right.
Just that they shouldn’t be trained with our taxes and given quasi-official roles to do this sort of thing. Especially if they are – it would seem – not upholding the wretched ‘inclusivity’ codes the damned civil service bleats on abnout constantly.
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September 12, 2010 at 15:33 -
Anna,
Why not include a banner at the head of your blog with the words ‘Dedicated to ridiculing Christ and his followers’, or something similar?
You could add a crescent moon or two, too.
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September 12, 2010 at 23:50 -
Can’t think of a better name for a football team!
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September 13, 2010 at 22:29 -
You do not display the same contempt for Mohammed as you do for Christ.
Fearful of losing your head?
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