Moral Compass

Mick and Mairead Philpott have made history in Britain and may be in the world. They will be remembered as the couple convicted of manslaughter over the Derby house fire, which killed their own children: Jayden, five, Jade, ten, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and 13-year-old Duwayne.

These innocent children died because their father wanted to take revenge on the woman who had dared to leave him. In fact at one point, it was said that  Philpott, 56 who is a father of 17 children, was living under the same roof with two women, his wife, Mairead and  Lisa Willis. When Willis left him with their children, Philpott and his wife on 11 May 2012, the eve of a child custody hearing, plotted the fire in order to incriminate her for the arson attack on the family home. The plot went completely wrong. The adults escaped the house but the six children died as they slept.

Mrs Justice Thirlwall said the plot to set fire to the house and rescue the children was “a wicked and dangerous plan”. She added  that it was “outside the comprehension of any right-thinking person”. She said that Philpott, should serve a minimum of 15 years. Philpott’s wife, Mairead, and friend Paul Mosley were both sentenced to 17 years for helping with the plot.

In the wake of the verdict, many newspapers and some politicians have tried to draw a link between the welfare state and the death of the six children.  It is not a surprise. Politicians are politicians. They will try to take advantage of any situation.

But since law was “my first love”, I am always interested in what motivates the judge’s decision. Mrs Justice Thirlwall said Philpott was angered by Lisa Willis’s decision to leave him and to take her children with her. She went on to describe him as a violent man. Someone who abuses and controls women. A selfish man, a man with “no moral compass”.

I was  impressed by the statement “no moral compass” used by the judge. If her remark is right and I believe that it is, then politicians and journalist may have got it wrong. It is not the welfare state that made Philpott who he is. His problem, the problem of our society is a lack of “moral compass”. And we are reaping what we have sown. For God has been driven out of our schools, God has been driven out of public life and now God is being driven out of our churches by legislating on marriages.  “We have sown the wind and we are now reaping the whirlwind.” Hosea 8:7. Galatians 6:7 says: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Friends, Indeed  we are living in a sick society. There are visible signs of this sick society or to speak like Prime Minister David Cameroon, our broken society, everywhere. A society where  rudeness, drunkenness, swearing and littering are now so commonplace. You don’t have to go far. Even in our own church, in the house of God, you will be surprised by the amount of litter people leave behind after services

Criminality, violence, promiscuity, separation and divorce have reached “epidemic” levels in our country. Unfortunately the church is not spared. No earthy government can mend our broken society.

Apart from the Bible, there is no clear moral compass. The death of these six innocent children far from being a political gain for people who are trying to reform the welfare state, is a wake up call for us to allow the Biblical principles  to be central in our lives.

Mick and Mairead Philpott’s problem is a moral problem. We have a moral problem because we have a sin problem; we have a sin problem because we have a God problem. We have a God problem because either we do not believe God exists or if we do, we live as if He did not.

It is high time we went back to God’s moral compass. The future of our society is at stake!

Weekly yours,

Sam Ouadjo