The Financial Times added its voice with the statement, "Armed crime is soaring in Britain—a sign that government policies depriving people of the right to protect themselves have gone badly wrong" (June 22, 2002). Especially in urban areas, people are having to cope with an increasingly lawless environment. This Financial Times feature article continued: "From 1991 to 1995, crimes against people in inner cities increased 91 percent. And from 1997 to 2001 the rate of violent crime more than doubled. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York." Hard to believe!

As one lady exclaimed: "I have lived in the rape capital of the world, Johannesburg, but I feel more terror in the West End [of London] than I ever did in South Africa" (Daily Mail, June 23, 2002). The comparisons are truly astonishing. "England's rates of assault, robbery and burglary are far higher than America's and 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in America where burglars admit to fearing armed home owners more than the police" (Financial Times).

The media blames the British government, and some responsibility for this state of affairs surely lies with those governing the nation; but the real underlying causes are spiritual in nature. The establishment churches no longer emphasize the Ten Commandments, and parents in today's secular England have sorely neglected both religious teaching and wise discipline.