DO you feel strongly enough about an issue to get up on your soapbox and tell the whole of East Lancashire about it?

Soapbox is a new column in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph giving people the chance to do just that.

If you want to highlight an issue close to your heart then write an article of no more than 800 words and send it to: Soapbox, c/o newsdesk, Lancashire Evening Telegraph, High Street, Blackburn BB1 1HT.

In this Soapbox, the Rev John Faraday, vicar of St James' Church Over Darwen talks about society's move away from attending church - and the effect he believes it has had on behaviour.

I RAN, faster than I had run for the last 20 years. I was running faster than the thug, who was probably in his late teens but he had a 20-yard and 30-year advantage, and kept running longer than I could.

For the fourth time in a couple of months there had been a ring on the doorbell late at night. Each time my car tyres had been let down to prevent me from chasing by car.

When we opened the door there was nobody there, and a bottle full of (recycled?) alcohol flew through the air. As far as I was concerned it had happened once too often so I ran, almost tripping over a booby trap that had been left by the gate and pursued the mindless idiots. Perhaps I should be glad that I had failed to catch him. Headlines such as 'Vicar breaks the neck of poor teenager' may sell newspapers but do no good for the Church!

People in every generation tend to pour scorn on younger people and say 'It's not like it was in my day.' I half agree with that statement, but I think that the real problem has been caused by my generation and ones that preceded it:

In the early 1900s many people went to Church. Even those who were not faithful Christians were prepared to listen to the preaching and consider how their life should be lived. The laws of this and many other countries were based on the Ten Commandments and even more importantly, people generally had a real concern for each other. The teaching of Jesus, based on love, not law was highly regarded. By the 1950s, two world wars later, church had become a minority interest. There was still a great appreciation of the church and the moral side of it's teaching, but people thought that they needn't bother to consider God's claim on their lives if they were being nice to each other. More recently people have thought that if they do not have to consider God, and the authorities are fair game, why on Earth should they consider anybody else's feelings?

The results of this are very obvious in some places, such as this area of Darwen, although it must be said that there are also many very genuine people here. It may seem less obvious in other areas, but I believe that Christian morality has largely disappeared from this nation - and we are all losers as a result!

The most obvious result is in the family. Far too many children live with just one parent - the result of inappropriate consideration between parents. When it was accepted that sex was meant for marriage, and that marriage was meant for life people thought a lot more carefully before entering that lifetime commitment.

Some political leaders in the Western world have recently shown their utter disregard for sexual morality, and their constituents let them get away with it!

The drug scene, which produces so much fear and disruption to peoples' lives is very strong, and even many senior police officers want to legalise more drugs!

They argue that legalising 'soft' drugs would stop the shadowy trade and people would get 'purer' drugs. Even if that action was acceptable, do they really think that it would stop there? No, the people who make big money from 'soft' drugs would lose their source of income and start to push heroin and other 'hard' drugs which do immeasurably more damage.

In every layer of society, from the richest to the poorest, peoples' actions are almost completely selfish.

The number of fraud trials we hear about shows the tip of a huge iceberg of deceit - and (before everyone else points it out) even this vicar had less-than-worthy thoughts about the people who were throwing bottles at his house!

Although there are many worthy acts done by many people, I am convinced that if we do not get a radical change in people, this society will either tear itself to pieces or descent into the heartless shambles of extreme communist or nationalist rule. So what is the alternative?

The only real alternative is for this nation to begin to turn again to a true worship of God through Jesus Christ! Humanistic philosophies have failed, Nazism failed. Thatcherism failed, morally if not economically because it encouraged selfishness. Communism came and went.

Most honest politicians would privately admit that they do not have answers to most of the problems their people face. What really matters is not the -ism of the government, but the hearts of the people, and when we consider the work of Jesus we begin to see the way through the minefield of possibilities.

He knew all about the sin of the people He met, although he never joined in with that sin. He declared that "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." When I write about the sins of this generation , I include myself among the sinners - but God and I want people to know that there is a better way forward! Jesus, the perfect person and son of God, was prepared to teach what was right even though He knew that the result would be that barbaric Roman punishment of crucifixion.

Jesus wasn't just a great philosopher, but so much more. Through what He did, it is possible for our sins to be forgiven and we can then begin to put things right.

Modern psychologists would say that guilt-feelings are what damage peoples' lives the most. I would contend that it is not guilt feelings, but built itself! We can only radically deal with guilt by confession to the Lord, the ultimate judge.

Everyone can enjoy that new life if we ask God and are prepared to let Him change us for the better.

The Holy Spirit of God was given to the Church so that ordinary people could come closer to God and have their lives made better.

While we live on Earth we still suffer from sin and it's effects, but God wants us tocope with what is wrong and rejoice that even the worst sin can be forgiven! When we are forgiven we can find it much easier to forgive others, and break free from the vendetta mentality that binds so many people.

The Christian faith has been ignored for too long by people in this country. Isn't it time to do something about it?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.